Abstract
Everywhere & Nowhere reports research on feminist thought and action among three organizations located in three different areas of the United States: the Midwest, East Coast, and Northwest. The data come from observations and interactions with the communities and organizations as well as interviews with 40 self-identified feminists on topics such as definitions of feminism; stories of becoming a feminist; similarities and differences in views of contemporary and second-wave-generation feminism; and their goals for their organization, networks, or communities.
After an introduction of theoretical, methodological, and practical questions contextualizing the work, the book is divided into two sections: the continuity of contemporary feminism and doing and talking contemporary feminism. The first section discusses the core idea of the book that feminism is both everywhere and nowhere. Massive changes in gender and gender expectations in the last half of the twentieth century have made gender equity so much a part of our experience that especially young people growing up in the last couple of decades have come to take it for granted. Reger writes that being aware of feminism is like fish thinking about water. And yet, there is much left to do with new problems emerging regularly and no strong visible feminist presence—feminism is nowhere.
In the context of everywhere and nowhere, becoming aware of feminism and one’s feminist identity is no longer like the Ms. “clicks” of noticing explicit overt inequities as moments of instant transitions in our understanding. Rather, Reger describes it is a gradual process of recognition reminding me of Marilyn Frye’s concept of the birdcage from her 1983 paper “Oppression,” in Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory and Joe Feagin’s writing about the white racial frame in The White Racial Frame: Centuries of Racial Framing and Counter-framing (2013).
In her interviews, Reger found that several factors emerged as important in this process of making feminism visible: mothers; educational experience; experiences of sexuality; experiences of violence; and involvement in other social movements. Shaped by the different communities in which they exist, three different portraits of feminism emerge. The character of the factors and their importance varied among the three organizations in fascinating and contradictory ways. For example, in the Midwest group although mothers were perceived as nonfeminist, their feminist daughters viewed and related to their mothers as their most important allies. In the more liberal context of the East Coast group, participants related to their feminist mothers in more critical ways. Similarly, the Midwest and Northwest groups spoke of their experience in Women’s and Gender Studies courses as valuable and positive, while the East Coast group was not as affected by these kinds of courses or found them too academic, too much like therapy sessions and not sufficiently engaged in activism.
The second section of the book focuses on what the organizations are doing. Revealing the continuity of feminist thought and action into the twenty-first century, her participants identify their top three issues as abortion and reproductive rights, violence against women, and pay equity—in that order. But they also see personal freedom and choices, especially regarding their bodies and sexuality, as central goals. Their strategy for addressing all of these is primarily, but not exclusively, marked by a move to conceptualizing questions and planning activities as cultural issues rather than institutional ones. The two activities they describe often and enthusiastically are the Clothesline Project and the Vagina Monologues.
Reger does not claim to be describing THE Feminist movement. Her sample is small and her participants represent a small slice of American society—nearly all young middle-class college-educated white Americans. Despite this lack of diversity, the participants grapple with both oppression and privilege and the intertwining of the two. Her discussion of who is missing and why allows the reader to reflect on these issues and how they might affect both the study and the politics of the organizations as well as the feminist movement in general.
The book is an effective blend of narrative, quotes, and theorizing about social movements, identity, cultural and institutional strategies, feminist history and thought, and activism. It is a valuable resource for scholars writing and researching in these areas. Most significantly, well written and filled with the voices of young feminists, it would be useful for teaching courses in social movements and women’s and gender studies.