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Social Justice Feminists and Their Counter-Hegemonic Actions in the Post-World War II United States, 1945–1964

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 October 2018

John Thomas McGuire
John Thomas McGuire*
Affiliation:
Siena College
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Abstract

Building upon the theoretical framework of Italian activist and scholar Antonio Gramsci, and using historical and public administrative sources, this article argues that while social justice feminism as a social movement in the United States declined by 1940, former participants continued their counter-hegemonic actions after World War II. Facing a new political and cultural hegemony increasingly dominated by fears of atomic annihilation, Soviet domination, and domestic Communist infiltration, women progressives, such as Frieda Miller and Esther Peterson, developed new approaches to continuing their counter-hegemonic aims, particularly through reviving an alternative view of public administration. Miller and Peterson thus helped prepare the way for women's activism in the United States to shift from economic security to equal rights by the mid-1960s, thus establishing an increasingly effective counter-hegemonic effort against the continuing patriarchal hegemony.

Keywords

social justice feminismAntonio Gramscihegemony and counter-hegemonysocial movements in post-World War II United Statesfeminist agency
Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , December 2019 , pp. 971 - 990
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2018

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