
Creating a Progressive Commonwealth
Women Activists, Feminism, and the Politics of Social Change in Virginia, 1970s-2000s
Megan Taylor Shockley(Author)
Louisiana State University Press
Will be published approx. on 30. December 2018
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-0-8071-6936-0 (ISBN)
Description
Building upon the work of late twentieth-century scholars in the field of feminist studies, Megan Taylor Shockley provides an in-depth look at feminism in the modern U.S. South. Shockley challenges the monolithic view of the region as a conservative bastion and argues that feminist advocates have provided crucial social progressive force, particularly in Virginia, between 1970 and 2010. An innovative study, Creating a Progressive Commonwealth illustrates how feminists in the state challenged the traditional patriarchal system and engaged directly with the legislature through grassroots educational efforts on three major initiatives: passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, protection of abortion rights, and pursuit of legal and social rights for survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
Shockley suggests that advocates for gender equality fundamentally changed Virginia, improving the state's support for women both personally and professionally as well as fostering an environment more conducive to additional progressive reform. In sharing the stories of these activists, the author discusses their initial choices to participate in the movement, the challenges they faced in promoting a progressive agenda, as well as their successes and failures. Throughout, Shockley emphasises the need for scholars to look beyond the history of state legislatures in order to fully understand the nature of southern progressivism and feminism.
Using both archival sources and oral histories, Creating a Progressive Commonwealth examines the individual women and their motivations as they battled recalcitrant legislators and conservative citizens to achieve social reforms.
Shockley suggests that advocates for gender equality fundamentally changed Virginia, improving the state's support for women both personally and professionally as well as fostering an environment more conducive to additional progressive reform. In sharing the stories of these activists, the author discusses their initial choices to participate in the movement, the challenges they faced in promoting a progressive agenda, as well as their successes and failures. Throughout, Shockley emphasises the need for scholars to look beyond the history of state legislatures in order to fully understand the nature of southern progressivism and feminism.
Using both archival sources and oral histories, Creating a Progressive Commonwealth examines the individual women and their motivations as they battled recalcitrant legislators and conservative citizens to achieve social reforms.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Baton Rouge
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 158 mm
Thickness: 32 mm
Weight
572 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8071-6936-0 (9780807169360)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Megan Taylor Shockley
Creating a Progressive Commonwealth
Women Activists, Feminism, and the Politics of Social Change in Virginia, 1970s-2000s
E-Book
12/2018
Hoopoe
€19.49
Available for download
Person
Megan Taylor Shockley, research professor of history at Clemson University, is the coauthor of Changing History: Virginia Women Through Four Centuries and the author of ""We, Too, Are Americans"": African American Women in Detroit and Richmond, 1940-1954 and The Captain's Widow of Sandwich: Self-Invention and the Life of Hannah Rebecca Burgess, 1836-1917.