PREFACE

Feminism Unfinished provides the first history of the American women’s movement over the

approximately one hundred years since the women’s suffrage amendment passed in 1920. Equally
important, it challenges many popular understandings of the women’s movement. Much of what is in this
book will come as a surprise to many readers. But it is time to set the record straight.
This book is divided into three chapters and moves chronologically across a near-century of
American women’s activism. Since the intention of Feminism Unfinished is to be concise, none of the
three chapters is comprehensive. To keep this book brief and as useful as possible, in each chapter we
have chosen to focus on a few illustrative individuals, projects, and episodes in order to demonstrate the
richness of the ferment and to illuminate major themes. Were the individuals we discuss all placed in a
room together, they might well disagree, possibly sharply, but that is part of why feminism has flourished.
We frequently use the plural word “feminisms” to emphasize that there have always been a variety of
approaches to advancing women’s well-being. This is true whether we are discussing the women’s
movements within a particular era or comparing feminisms across time.
All three chapters situate feminist movements in the larger politics, economics, and culture of the
time: the Great Depression of the 1930s, Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal presidency, World War II, 1960s
prosperity, the Vietnam War, the rise of the Religious Right in the late 1970s, the introduction of the
Internet, the 2008 economic crash—all influenced the women’s movement. All three chapters discuss
continuities with earlier periods, but also the unfortunate ways that new generations have been ignorant,
even disdainful, of earlier activism. Furthermore, much as we admire what feminist activists have done
and are still doing, we are by no means uncritical of these movements. We believe we do feminist
movements of the past greater honor by looking squarely at their limitations. We also believe that by
thinking critically about the past, we can strengthen future feminisms.