Beyond Burning Bras

Feminist Activism for Everyone

Laura L. Finley, Emily Reynolds Stringer

• Publisher: Praeger
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780313365805
• eBook ISBN: 9780313365812
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Gender Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

This book offers a practical guide to the everyday actions and decisions that anyone can take to promote gender equality and social justice in their own life and the world around them. Beyond Burning Bras: Feminist Activism for Everyone is an antidote to the poison of shock jocks who caricature the women's movement as a radical fringe of man-haters and paint activists as spoiled hooligans. Two real-life feminist activists, Laura Finley and Emily Stringer focus on the mainstream of everyday feminism, explaining what feminism is really all about and fanning out a spectrum of simple, imaginative, user-friendly ways in which ordinary readers can promote gender equality and social equity in their own lives and in the world around them. Beyond Burning Bras taps the life stories and first-person accounts of 50 ordinary individuals of every age, sex, sexuality, class, nationality, race, ethnicity, and learning style. All of them tell how they found within themselves the courage to take a stand on the front lines of feminist activism, whether in subtle private ways or in life-changing public ways. After a survey of the history of feminism in the United States, the authors and contributors show in successive chapters how feminism today meshes with other forms of activism relating to the workplace, sexual violence, the environment, politics, human bodies, the arts, youth, empowerment, and mothering.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Preface
• Chronology: Milestones of Feminist Activism in American History
• Chapter 1 The First Wave
• Chapter 2 The Second Wave
• Chapter 3 The Third Wave
• Chapter 4 The Personal Is Political: Feminist Activism in Politics
• Chapter 5 Class Matters: Feminist Activism in Economics, the Workplace, and to Eradicate Poverty
• Chapter 6 Feminist Activism and Human Bodies
• Chapter 7 Birthing New Activism: Feminist Mothering and Fathering
• Chapter 8 Until the Violence Stops: Feminist Activism to End Violence against Women
• Chapter 9 Love Your Mother: Feminist Activism for the Environment and Animal Welfare
• Chapter 10 Creating a World We Love: Feminist Arts-Based Activism
• Chapter 11 Feel Good: Feminist Activism for Empowerment
• Chapter 12 Our Future: Feminist Activism by and for Youth
• Conclusion
• Appendix One. Ideas for Feminist Activism
• Appendix Two. Recommended Resources
• Notes
• Index
• About the Authors and Contributors