Divided We Stand
The Battle Over Women's Rights and Family Values That Polarized American Politics
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
The fascinating true story of the characters in Hulu's "Mrs. America" and a broader portrait of the two women's movements that spurred an enduring rift between liberals and conservatives.
"The many admirers of 'Mrs. America' . . . will find great satisfaction in [Divided We Stand] . . . a clear, compelling and deeply insightful volume." -The Washington Post
One of Smithsonian Magazine's Ten Best History Books of the Year
In the early 1970s, an ascendant women's rights movement enjoyed strong support from both political parties and considerable success, but was soon challenged by a conservative women's movement formed in opposition. Tensions between the two would explode in 1977 at the congressionally funded National Women's Conference in Houston, Texas. As Bella Abzug, Gloria Steinem, and other feminists endorsed hot-button issues such as abortion rights, the ERA, and gay rights, Phyllis Schlafly and Lottie Beth Hobbs rallied with conservative women to protest federally funded feminism and launch a pro-family movement.
Divided We Stand reveals how crucial women and women's issues have been in the shaping of today's political culture. After the National Women's Conference, Democrats continued to back women's rights in cooperation with a more diverse feminist movement while the GOP abandoned its previous support for women's rights and defined itself as the party of family values, irrevocably affecting the course of American politics.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this parable of how sensible and practical paths toward broader equality get overwhelmed by threat, fear, and bigotry, historian Spruill (New Women of the New South) suggests that the current political landscape of paralyzing divisiveness, hateful rhetoric, and persistent obstructionism took form in 1977, when the two women's movements of the 1970s, each side purporting to represent the majority or speak for "real" American women, came to a head at the National Women's Conference in Houston. Incensed that political equality would infringe on their privileges, a small group of opponents to the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) organized and mobilized a bloc of religious and socially conservative women with the threat that an overreaching government was out to destroy the American family and traditional, Bible-based morals. Meanwhile, those in favor of the ERA rallied diverse women with a victorious vision of full human rights. Spruill remains evenhanded in her treatment, tracing the tensions within each group and among their supporters. The lasting outcome of the failed ERA, Spruill reveals, was the embrace of social conservatives into the Republican party. They brought an antiabortion, profamily platform that propelled Reagan to the presidency and has since been a GOP mainstay. Spruill's narrative is detailed and precise; her blow-by-blow accounts and alternating chapters of moves and countermoves allows for repetition and lacks meaningful analysis, but her rigorous research and intense accuracy will make this an indispensible handbook on the history of the National Women's Conference and its enduring legacy on American politics.
