This lively collection highlights the remarkable diversity of U. S. women's struggles from the early 1800s to the present. Bringing together articles originally published in the journal Feminist Studies, which from its inception has sought to link scholarship to activism, the volume reflects on the ways women have organized, the conditions that have discouraged or encouraged their organizing, and the significance of race, class, ethnicity, religion, age, and sexual orientation, as well as gender, for their struggles.

Histories of France have erased the feminist presence from nineteenth-century political life and the feminist impact from the changes that affected the lives of the French. Now, French Feminism in the Nineteenth Century completes the history books by restoring this missing--and vital--chapter of French history.

The book recounts the turbulent story of nineteenth-century French feminism, placing it in the context of the general political events that influenced its development. It also examines feminist thought and activities, using the very words of the women themselves--in books,...