Exploring Feminist Perspectives: Women’s History Month Reads From Our Gender and American Culture Series

Our Gender and American Culture series is full of books perfect to read during Women’s History Month or beyond. Guided by feminist perspectives, the series examines the social construction and influence of gender and sexuality within the full range of American cultures. Books in the series explore the intersection of gender with such markers of difference as race, class, and region. The series presents outstanding scholarship from all areas of American studies–including history, literature, religion, folklore, ethnography, and the visual arts–that investigates in a thoroughly contextualized and lively fashion the ways in which gender works with and against these markers.

In this blog post we’re highlighting some must-reads books from the series to add your Women’s History Month reading list.

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Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision, Second Edition by Barbara Ransby. With a new preface by the author and a new foreword by Robin D. G. Kelley

“A magisterial rendering of one of the greatest radical democrats in the twentieth century.”—Cornel West

“Among the most vivid [civil rights] movement biographies of recent years.”—Washington Post

“Ransby’s passionate and demanding book offers a striking, thorough exposition of Baker’s expansive, radical, humanist vision.”—Chicago Tribune

Feminism for the Americas: The Making of an International Human Rights Movement by Katherine M. Marino

Ida Blom-Karen Offen Prize, International Federation for Research in Women’s History
2020 Luciano Tomassini Book Award, Latin American Studies Association
2020 Barbara “Penny” Kanner Award, Western Association of Women Historians

“Would make a welcome addition to courses on feminist theory and women’s roles in the Americas, and it should encourage scholars to dig deeper into the lives and works of feminists who were on the frontlines without necessarily publishing books or articles about feminism.”—Library Journal

“In this valuable contribution to the historiography of social movements in the Americas, Marino chronicles the impact of the women’s movement of leaders from six countries—Uruguay, Brazil, Panama, Cuba, the US, and Chile—in the interwar years. . . . Marino successfully demonstrates that this was a vital period in Pan-American relations.”—Choice

Beyond Norma Rae: How Puerto Rican and Southern White Women Fought for a Place in the American Working Class by Aimee Loiselle

2024 Peter C. Rollins Book Prize, Northeast Popular & American Culture Association

“A deft analysis of the ways in which race, gender, and immigration status determine how media has portrayed the labor movement. Recommended for readers interested in labor history and popular media.”—Library Journal

“A compelling history of the intersection of colonialism, sexism, and capitalism. . . . [A] great addition to the scholarship on not only labor, but also gender, media, and film studies.”—Society for US Intellectual History

The Famous Lady Lovers: Black Women and Queer Desire before Stonewall by Cookie Woolner

Honorable Mention, 2024 Letitia Woods Brown Book Award, Association of Black Women Historians
Finalist, Judy Grahn Award, Publishing Triangle

“Extraordinary in its scope and inventiveness to focus on their intimate lives . . . . Woolner’s beautiful prose and writing style makes this book a delight to read. Academics and general readers alike will be drawn to it.”—Starred review, Library Journal

“Impeccably researched and compellingly written examination of Black women who loved women during the 1920s and 1930s.”—Karla J. Strand, Ms. Magazine

“Illuminating . . . . Woolner’s emphasis on pleasure feels both urgent and hopeful at a time when LGBTQIA+ history and Black studies are increasingly targeted.”—Los Angeles Review of Books

Fit Citizens: A History of Black Women’s Exercise from Post-Reconstruction to Postwar America by Ava Purkiss

2024 Frances Richardson Keller-Sierra Prize, Western Association of Women Historians
Finalist, 2024 Association for the Study of African American Life and History Book Prize

“The proliferation, in recent years, of excellent scholarly material that places Black women’s exercise and sport histories at the center of analysis is enough to make one giddy with joy and excitement. Fit Citizens joins that growing roster of monographs and, in doing so, greatly advances a body of knowledge about Black women’s history in sport and exercise spaces.”—Journal of Sport History

“An innovative study . . . steeped in questions of citizenship and national belonging as it discusses how Black women think about, talk about, and move their bodies. Purkiss offers a critical new reading of Black women’s bodies and their citizenship.”—Journal of American History