Shapers of the Great Debate on Women's Rights

A Biographical Dictionary

Joyce D. Duncan

• Publisher: Greenwood
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN: 9780313338694
• eBook ISBN: 9780313082443
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Gender Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

The three waves of feminism are explored through the lives of the women who made history in bringing women's issues to the forefront of American society. Many early feminists supported not only women's rights, but also rights of slaves and contributed to the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment, granting emancipation to slaves. They continued to work towards women's suffrage and were hopeful the Fourteenth Amendment would provide universal suffrage. However, women were not granted suffrage until the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment, nearly fifty years later. It was women's fundamental need for independence and an identity of their own, separate from that of men, which thrust the women's movement forward and continues to propel it today. Many notable women, such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Billie Jean King, Betty Friedan, Helen Gurley Brown, Jane Fonda, and Sandra Day O'Connor, are included in this history of the women's movement in America. The biographical entries cite works for further reading, and the volume closes with a bibliography. The Shapers of the Great Debate series takes a biographical approach to history, following the premise that people make history in the circumstances in which they find themselves. Each volume in this series examines the lives and experiences of the individuals involved in a particular debate through both major and minor biographies.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Timeline of Women’s Rights in the United States
• Author’s Note
• Series Foreword
• Preface
• First Wave: The Woman Question to Suffrage
• Second- and Third-Wave Feminism: Civil Rights to the Internet
• Appendix: Short Biographies
• Selected Bibliography
• Index