Revolutionary Feminists: The Women’s Liberation Movement in Seattle

Winslow (Shirley Chisholm), a professor emerita of women’s and gender studies at Brooklyn College, delivers a granular history of the radical women’s liberation movement in Seattle from 1965 to 1975. Forcefully pushing back against criticism that the organizations behind the movement, including her own Radical Women, advanced a white, middle-class agenda and ignored the needs of women of color, Winslow highlights their anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist perspectives and focus on issues of childcare, and notes the involvement of Black feminist luminaries including Nina Harding. Though many feminist victories are recounted, particularly the 1970 public referendum that liberalized the state’s abortion laws, Winslow also details how the movement was impeded by differences of opinion about strategy and the influence of male-led socialist and progressive organizations. Ultimately, the radical women’s groups in Seattle were subsumed by regional branches of more mainstream national feminist organizations. Winslow crams an impressive amount of play-by-play detail into her account, but the book’s takeaways are partially obscured by its tone of defensiveness. The result is a worthwhile but somewhat tedious snapshot of radical feminism. (Aug.)