Gendered Citizenship: The Original Conflict over the Equal Rights Amendment, 1920-1963

Gendered Citizenship provides a comprehensive history of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) struggle from 1920 to 1963, exploring how it shaped the boundaries of American citizenship and the changing status of women.

Format: Hardback
Length: 350 pages
Publication date: 01 October 2021
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press

Gendered Citizenship delves into the intricate tapestry of American legal and political history, intertwining with the growing body of knowledge on gender history to shed light on the ideological underpinnings of the historic struggle over the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) from 1920 to 1963. As the first comprehensive and in-depth exploration of this pivotal era, this study delves not only into the battle for women's constitutional status but also into the more than forty-year quest to define the contours of what it means to be an American citizen.

Through a meticulous examination of a diverse range of primary source materials, Gendered Citizenship argues that the original ERA conflict can be best understood as the fertile ground that facilitated the reimagining of citizenship in response to the seismic changes brought about by the Nineteenth Amendment. Moreover, Rebecca DeWolf offers a fresh perspective on the ERA struggle, shifting the focus from the conventional inquiry into why the ERA failed to gain enactment to an exploration of how the debates transcended the traditional liberal versus conservative dichotomy in early to mid-twentieth-century America.

In her insightful analysis, DeWolf reveals that the ERA conflict ultimately emerged as the defining narrative of the era, encapsulating the profound shifts in the nature of American citizenship during this transformative period. This study serves as a valuable contribution to our understanding of the ERA, gender equality, and the ongoing struggle for social justice in the United States.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781496215567