Why read Feminism's Forgotten Fight?

Book cover of Feminism's Forgotten Fight: The Unfinished Struggle for Work and Family

Book description

A spirited defense of feminism, arguing that the lack of support for working mothers is less a failure of second-wave feminism than a rejection by reactionaries of the sweeping changes they campaigned for.

When people discuss feminism, they often lament its failure to deliver on the promise that women can…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Feminism's Forgotten Fight as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Alison Lefkovitz

Author

Kirsten Swinth’s fantastic new book argues that our understanding of feminism as asking women to have it all is deeply misunderstood. The second wave did want women to be able to balance their lives as homemakers and workers, but not by having a double shift. Instead, they wanted women’s household burden to be shared—by their husbands, by employers, by the government, and by society as a whole. Swinth shows how feminists tried to deploy the philosophy that “the personal is political” against the problem of laundry and other household tasks. Wives’ strategies ranged from household labor strikes (Don’t Iron While…

From Alison's list on the politics of doing the laundry.