Voices of Resistance: The United States, Social Movements, and the Role of Women

Women have been instrumental in social and political change in the United States since the first European settlers arrived on the shores in North America. From the Founding period forward, women have had important and often under-examined roles in advocating for and moving towards political change of all kinds. Abigail Adams famously admonished her husband, John Adams, not to forget the women in this new nation and the new form of government.

Over the past two centuries, women have led different kinds of resistance movements, with differing political ends, from advocating for the abolition of slavery, to advocating for the right to vote; from advocating for prohibition, to advocating for collective bargaining and safe working conditions; from advocating for the ERA to advocating against the ERA, and many, many other areas within our political, social, and cultural lives.

Join Lilly Goren for an important exploration of women’s voices, their engagement, and their advocacy which has had significant impacts on the lives we all lead today. As we are starting to mark the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment in the United States, exploring the role of women and “resistance” is particularly timely.

Lilly J. Goren is professor of political science and global studies at Carroll University in Waukesha, Wisconsin. She teaches American government, the presidency, politics and culture, gender studies, politics and literature, and political theory. Her research often integrates popular culture and literature as means to understanding politics.

Her published books include Mad Men and Politics: Nostalgia and the Remaking of Modern America (Bloomsbury Publishers, March, 2015, co-edited with Linda Beail); Women and the White House: Gender, Popular Culture, and Presidential Politics (University Press of Kentucky, 2012, co-edited with Justin Vaughn)—winner of both the 2014 Susan Koppelman Book Award and the 2014 Peter C. Rollins Book Award; You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby: Women, Politics, and Popular Culture (University Press of Kentucky, 2009); and Not in My District: The Politics of Military Base Closures (Peter Lang, 2003), as well as articles in Politic & Gender, Society, Political Research Quarterly, White House Studies, and The Forum: A Journal of Applied Research in Contemporary Politics, and she served as guest editor, with Justin Vaughn, for a special issue of White House Studies on the presidency and popular culture in 2010.

Offered in connection with Pictures of Resistance: The Wartime Photographs of Jewish Partisan Faye Schulman, an exhibit on display at the Jewish Museum Milwaukee, March 29 – May 26, 2019.