Organizing Feminism: Towards Centering the CWLU in Feminist Political Imagination
Abstract
Abstract: This essay argues that contemporary feminist political imagination is constrained by the dominance of the “New York circle” in narratives of late 1960s and early ’70s radical feminism. This focus has marginalized other feminist groups and reinforced a “progress narrative” that dismisses all early radical feminism as irredeemably white, anti-lesbian, and anti-trans. In response, the essay recovers the Chicago Women’s Liberation Union (CWLU) as a model of intersectional, grassroots feminist activism. Through archival analysis, it reconstructs CWLU’s political theory and practices to offer an alternative feminist inheritance—one better suited to organizing beyond the state and surviving today’s political backlash.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Gender
Feminism
and Media
LGBTQ Health
Identity
and Policy
Feminist Theory and Gender Studies
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Theory & Event
- Publisher
- Project MUSE
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 377–413
- Publication date
- 26 March 2026
- Language
- EN