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Conservative Women and American Politics
Oxford University Press
June 2008
On Sale: June 16, 2008
192 pages
ISBN: 0195331818
EAN: 9780195331813
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Political
When we think of women's activism in America, figures such
as Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan invariably come to mind-
-those liberal doyennes who have fought for years to chip
away at patriarchy and achieve gender equality. But women's
interests are not synonymous with organizations like NOW
anymore. As Ronnee Schreiber shows, the conservative
ascendancy that began in the Reagan era has been
accompanied by the emergence of a broad-based conservative
women's movement. And while firebrands like Ann Coulter and
Phyllis Schlafly may be the public face of rightwing
women's activism, a handful of large and established
women's organizations have proven to be the most effective
promoters of the conservative agenda.
Righting Feminism shows that one of the key--albeit
overlooked--developments in political activism since the
1980s has been the emergence of conservative women's
organizations. It focuses on the most prominent of these
groups, Concerned Women for America and the Independent
Women's Forum, to reveal how they are using feminist
rhetoric for conservative ends: outlawing abortion,
restricting pornography, and bolstering the traditional
family. But ironically, these organizations face a paradox:
to combat the legacy of feminism--particularly its appeal
to the majority of American women--they must use the
rhetoric of women's empowerment. Indeed, Schreiber amply
illustrates how conservative activists are often the
beneficiaries of the very feminist politics they oppose.
Yet just as importantly, she demolishes two widely believed
truisms: that conservatism holds no appeal to women and
that modern conservatism is hostile to the very notion of
women's activism.
Based on numerous interviews with colorful conservative
activists and extensive analyses of organizational
documents, Righting Feminism offers a new way of
understanding the unlikely intersection of women's activism
and conservative politics in America today.
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