Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Un-American Womanhood studies the Red Scare of the 1920s through the lens of gender. Kim Nielsen describes the methods antifeminists used to subdue feminism and other movements they viewed as radical. By tapping into widespread anxieties about Bolshevism and the expansion of the state, antifeminist women fought against certain social welfare programs such as the Sheppard-Towner Act and the Children's Bureau and resisted efforts to legitimize the female citizen as an autonomous political figure. The book also considers the seeming contradictions of outspoken antifeminists who broke with traditional gender norms to assume forceful and public roles in their efforts to denounce feminism.
Table of Contents
Introduction -- Patriotic heroism and the Red Scare of 1919-1920 -- Bolshevik in the shape of a woman : gender and American antiradicalism -- Women attacking women : gender and subversion among women -- The insidiousness of peace : Red Scare antifeminists and the War Department -- "What is home without a federal agent?": social welfare policy in the postsuffrage decade -- The woman citizen : dupe or subversive? -- Conclusion -- Appendix A: Margaret C. Robinson bibliography -- Appendix B: Speaker blacklist -- List of abbreviations.