Notes taken early in the process:

Nancy Cott, working in the period between 1910 and 1930, pushes back on the idea that feminist movement collapsed with the 19th Amendment in 1920. Instead, she traces the genesis of the word "feminism" and how the "woman movement" was supplanted by the use of the term feminism, which had decidedly transcended suffragism. Cott's work makes an important contribution to the scholarship and popular understanding of the term by grounding it in three pieces: sex equality (defined in opposition to sex hierarchy), the sexual construction of gender, and gender group identity based in biological and social groupings. Cott's beautifully constructed definition of feminism rooted in paradox (women and men can be equal and unequal in the same breath) finds its expression in this 20-year period. In the "woman" movement, she argues, the more rights won, the more unity was conceded. One example is how women entered typically male-held jobs but had to sacrifice their group identity as a result (she uses career bureaucrats as an example). As women in different political and class realms fought over implementation--equal rights or protected rights, elite-focused groups fractured from more politically diverse groups.

- Feminism = opposition to gender hierarchy, socially constructed gender roles, + group gender identity

- gender solidarity breaks apart more strongly forcing women's dependence on men & marriage. Too many groups with political agendas that divide them

- Key issues is elitist NWP - seem atomized groups working aligning together vs. advocates for organic links between women along religion, tradition, etc. /

- Devaluing of female friendships

- Labor - give up group identity for jobs in male-dominated fields (bureaucrats, for example). *Interestingly, this would be like Helen MacMurchy & others who centered their bureacratic power within their womanhood, no?

- Time 20s-30s

- Keywords: National Women's Party, Equal Rights Amendment, Feminism (term rises in 1910), Women's Joint Congressional Committee

- Mothers and Infants Protection Act

- Nat. Social Welfare Law

- Child Labor Amendment

- Women only vs. equal protection is a dividing issue

- Entering labor force is another (here is a place where one could simply say--women have always been in the labor force and there are only periods where they are disappeared from it - like a Chauncey sort of argument)

- Efforts for world peace

- 19th Amendment is a strong point in existing "river of resistance" type argument

- Feminism grounded in paradox - ex: women equal & different to men / unique pairings with racism, etc. (it's the neutral language everyone loves) / individualism vs. gender identity / personal opportunity vs. group advancement

- Critiques the declension narrative (post-1920 losses)

- Critique of it - heavy focus on elite women

Chapters:

THE BIRTH OF FEMINISM

THE WOMAN'S PARTY

VOLUNTARIST POLITICS

EQUAL RIGHTS AND ECONOMIC ROLES

MODERN TIMES 6 THE ENEMY OF SOCIETY

PROFESSIONALISM AND FEMINISM

IN VOLUNTARY CONFLICT

Conclusion 269

Stuff to look up:

- Antinomian