Women's Oral History

by Armitage, Susan H.; Hart, Patricia; Weathermon, Karen

• ISBN13: 9780803259447
• ISBN10: 0803259441
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-12-01
• Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr

Summary

Women's Oral History: The Frontiers Reader is an essential introduction to the methodology and theory of writing and researching about women's oral history. In the 1970s when the second wave of the women's movement was underway, scholars wanted to narrow the divide between academics and the community and bring together feminist scholars and activists. As they began their research, these women realized they had little to no knowledge of women's histories and their lives to draw from-and very little idea how to go about collecting, organizing, and interpreting these histories.This collected work features nineteen essays from the noted women's journal Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies that show the evolution and methodology of collecting women's oral histories. They trace the beginnings in the 1970s to the present, guiding readers through the process of collecting women's oral histories. The essays cover a range of topics including the reasons we need to study women's history, ways to encourage the elderly to recall their lives, how to document history through personal accounts, discussing the study of difference, and the importance of personal validation as well as communication. The collection is as much a thought-provoking look into women's histories as it is a call for women to write and record their own histories.Sue Armitage is a professor of history at Washington State University and editor of Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies.

Author Biography

The essays in this volume have been collected by Susan H. Armitage, a professor of history at Washington State University and the editor of Frontiers, in collaboration with managing editors Patricia Hart and Karen Weathermon.

Table of Contents

Introduction	ix
Part 1: Basic Approaches	1	(112)
What's So Special about Women? Women's Oral History	3	(24)
Women's Oral History Resource Section	27	(16)
Sherna Berger Gluck
Doing Oral History as an Outsider	43	(8)
Margaret Strobel
Digging beneath the Surface: Oral History Techniques	51	(10)
Sherry Thomas
The Next Step	61	(14)
Susan H. Armitage
Reflections on Women's Oral History: An Exchange	75	(12)
Susan H. Armitage
Sherna Berger Gluck
Giving Voice to Chinese American Women	87	(26)
Judy Yung
Part 2: Oral History Applications	113	(98)
Oral History as a Biographical Tool	115	(10)
Sally Roesch Wagner
``I Give the Best Part of My Life to the Mill'': An Oral History of Icy Norman	125	(20)
Mary Murphy
Looking Inward, Looking Backward: Reminiscence and the Life Review	145	(13)
Harriet Wrye
Jacqueline Churilla
Good Work, Sister! The Making of an Oral History Production	158	(15)
Amy Kesselman
Tina Tau
Karen Wicker
Filming Nana: Some Dilemmas of Oral History on Film	173	(10)
Connie Broughton
Treading the Traces of Discarded History: Oral History Installations	183	(13)
Alison Marchant
Patching the Past: Students and Oral History	196	(15)
Anne M. Butler
Gerri W. Sorenson
Part 3: Oral History Discoveries and Insights	211	(160)
Using Oral History to Chart the Course of Illegal Abortions in Montana	213	(14)
Diane Sands
Grassroots Leadership Reconceptualized: Chicana Oral Histories and the 1968 East Los Angeles School Blowouts	227	(31)
Dolores Delgado Bernal
The Southern Paiute Woman in a Changing Society	258	(14)
Lucille Jake
Evelyn James
Pamela Bunte
From the Yazoo Mississippi Delta to the Urban Communities of the Midwest: Conversations with Rural African American Women	272	(21)
Valerie Grim
Domestic Violence and Poverty: The Narratives of Homeless Women	293	(24)
Jean Calterone Williams
Gender, Sexuality, and Class in National Narrations: Palestinian Camp Women Tell Their Lives	317	(21)
Rosemary Sayigh
Women of the British Coalfields on Strike in 1926 and 1984: Documenting Lives Using Oral History and Photography	338	(33)
Jaclyn J. Gier-Viskovatoff
Abigail Porter
List of Contributors	371	(8)
Index	379