"Changing Woman: A History of Racial Ethnic Women in Modern America"
by Karen Anderson

While great strides have been made in documenting the historical experiences and actions of middle-class white women in the United States, scholarship on racial ethnic women has begun to appear only in recent years as women of color and other scholars have broadened the base of inquiry in women’s history. Without a window into the lives of racial ethnic women our understanding of the meanings and dynamics of various forms of social inequality will be woefully inadequate. Now, in this illuminating volume, Karen Anderson offers the first book to examine the lives of women from three important ethnic groups in the United States—Native American, Mexican American, and African American women—revealing the specificities and commonalities of their experiences.

Here is a thought-provoking examination of their histories, one which provides not only insight into their lives, but also a broader perception of the history, politics, and culture of the United States. For instance, Anderson examines the clash between Native American nations and the U.S. government (particularly in the plains and in the West) and shows how the forced acculturation of the American Indian women caused transformations in the traditional cultural values and roles (in many nations, women held positions of which they had to relinquish), subordination to and economic dependence on their husbands or the state, and, at times, the loss of meaningful authority over their children. The book examines Mexican American women, exploring the contradictory pressures they experienced in work, politics, family, reproduction, and sexuality as a result of their location between two cultures. It also analyzes the strategies for empowerment they developed as they negotiated between competing patriarchies. And, finally, Anderson documents the effects of African American women’s transition from the plantation economy of the rural South to the cities of the nation in their lives as workers, family members, and citizens. She cites a wealth of evidence to demonstrate that, in the years since World War II, African American women have experienced dramatic changes in their social positions and political roles, and that the migration to large urban areas simply heightened the conflict between homemaking and breadwinning they had experienced since emancipation.

Changing Woman provides the first comparative history of women from these racial ethnic groups, explaining changes in the sources and nature of the oppressions in their lives and tracing their progress over time.

—

Karen Anderson is Associate Professor of History at the University of Arizona.

Interested in the book? Snag it real quick here!
I call my book collection The Neverending Reading List!
To see why, and the list of books I’ve already shared, click here!
Enjoy what I do? Please consider tipping via the Support button below!
Like what you see and want to know when there's more?
Click here to subscribe for updates and/or hit the Follow button!
This post contains an affiliate link.

For more about MonriaTitans, click here!
Watch MonriaTitans on Twitch and YouTube!