White Women's Rights: The Racial Origins of Feminism in the United States

White Women's Rights. The Racial Origins of Feminism in the United States. By Louise Michele Newman. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. x, 261 pp. Cloth, $52.00, ISBN 0-19-508692-9. Paper, $19.95, ISBN 0-- 19-512466-9.)

Louise Michele Newman's White Women's Rights is a compelling investigation of how racial questions informed the creation of white feminist thought in the United States. The foundation of early white women's rights activism was evolutionism, which allowed white women to cast themselves in the unique role of "civilizers" of "primitive" peoples. Through assimilation, Americanization, and the American imperialist mission, white women sought to domesticate "primitive" women in the image of white womanhood, even as they were rejecting such ideals for themselves. Newman concludes that the positioning of white women as superior civilizers of others who were also engaged in a battle with patriarchy still has an impact on women's rights discourse today.

Newman begins her study with...