For the Many: American Feminists and the Global Fight for Democratic Equality

584 Pages·2021·5.567 MB·English

by  Dorothy Sue Cobble

for the many
amer i ca in the world
Sven Beckert and Jeremi Suri, Series Editors
Dorothy Sue Cobble, For the Many: American Feminists and the Global Fight for
Demo cratic Equality
Roberto Saba, American Mirror: The United States and Brazil in the Age of
Emancipation
Katy Hull, The Machine Has a Soul: American Sympathy with Italian Fascism
Stefan Link, Amer i ca’s Antagonists: Making Soviet and Nazi Fordism in the
Global Thirties
Sara Lorenzini, Global Development: A Cold War History
Michael Cotey Morgan, The Final Act: The Helsinki Accords and the
Transformation of the Cold War
A. G. Hopkins, American Empire: A Global History
Tore C. Olsson, Agrarian Crossings: Reformers and the Remaking of the US and
Mexican Countryside
Kiran Klaus Patel, The New Deal: A Global History
Adam Ewing, The Age of Garvey: How a Jamaican Activist Created a Mass
Movement and Changed Global Black Politics
Jürgen Osterhammel and Patrick Camiller, The Transformation of the World: A
Global History of the Nineteenth Century
Edited by Jeffrey A. Engel, Mark Atwood Lawrence & Andrew Preston,
Amer i ca in the World: A History in Documents from the War with Spain to the
War on Terror
Donna R. Gabaccia, Foreign Relations: American Immigration in Global
Perspective
For a full list of titles in the series, go to https:// press . princeton . edu / catalogs
/ series / title / america - in - the - world . html
For the Many
american feminists and
the global fight
for demo cratic equality
dorothy sue cobble
prince ton university press
princet on & oxford
Copyright © 2021 by Prince ton University Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Cobble, Dorothy Sue, author.
Title: For the many : American feminists and the global fight for demo cratic
equality / Dorothy Sue Cobble.
Description: Prince ton, New Jersey : Prince ton University Press, 2021. |
Series: Amer i ca in the world | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020047372 (print) | LCCN 2020047373 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780691156873 (hardback) | ISBN 9780691220598 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Women— Political activity— United States—20th  century. |
Women social reformers— United States—20th  century. | Feminism—
United States— History—20th  century. | Feminists— United States— Biography. |
Equality— United States— History—20th  century. | Democracy— United States—
History—20th  century.
Classification: LCC HQ1236.5.U6 C63 2021 (print) | LCC HQ1236.5.U6 (ebook) |
DDC 320.082/0973— dc23
LC rec ord available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2020047372
LC ebook rec ord available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2020047373
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
Editorial: Priya Nelson, Thalia Leaf
Jacket Design: Layla Mac Rory
Production: Danielle Amatucci
Publicity: Alyssa Sanford, Amy Stewart
Copyeditor: Gail Naron Chalew
Jacket image: Faculty and students from the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women
Workers in Industry, Bryn Mawr College Special Collections, Photo Archives,
SSWWI_00079
This book has been composed in Classic Arno
Printed on acid- free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Florika, and her gifts from afar

For there can be neither freedom, peace, true democracy, or real
development without justice.
mary mcleod bethune,
from her speech “closed doors,” 1936
It takes all the brains that humanity can muster to operate a democracy.
mary ritter beard,
letter to ethel wood, august 9, 1950

contents
Prologue: From Equal Rights to Full Rights 1
part i. citizens of the world
1 Sitting at the “Common Table” 15
2 A Higher “Standard of Life” for the World 51
part ii. dreams deferred
3 A “Parliament of Working Women” 77
4 Social Justice under Siege 102
5 Pan- Internationalisms 124
part iii. new deals
6 Social Democracy, American Style 155
7 A Women’s “New Deal for the World” 189
part iv. universal declarations
8 War time Journeys 223
9 Intertwined Freedoms 255
10 Cold War Advances 294
ix
x contents
part v. redreamings
11 The Pivotal Sixties 339
12 Sisters and Resisters 380
Epilogue: Of the Many, By the Many, For the Many 415
Acknowl edgments 427
Abbreviations 435
Notes 445
Index 551