Creating a Progressive Commonwealth ― Women Activists, Feminism, and the Politics of Social Change in Virginia, 1970s-2000s

In her innovative study of women activists in late twentieth-century Virginia, Megan Taylor Shockley argues that feminists challenged the traditional patriarchal system in the state by engaging directly with the legislature and mobilizing grassroots educational and lobbying efforts on the issues of the Equal Rights Amendment, abortion rights, and violence against women. Shockley suggests that feminists’ work fundamentally changed Virginia, making it a better place for women, and helping to create a more progressive commonwealth. Using both archival sources and oral histories, her study examines who these activists were, what their motivations were in trying to battle recalcitrant legislators and conservative citizens, and what kinds of issues they gained ground on.

Southern feminism has been ignored by most scholars of the late twentieth-century movement mainly because the region has been dismissed for its conservatism. Shockley’s study is one of very few that provides an in-depth look at southern feminist activism on the ground, challenging a monolithic view of the South as a conservative bastion, and in fact argues that feminists were an important social progressive force in the region. It engages with both traditional feminist history by claiming Virginia as a place rife with feminist activists, and it challenges any one-sided view of the region. By examining feminism on the ground, her work shows that one must look beyond state legislatures to really understand regional progressivism.