Feminism in the Heartland
Judith Ezekiel
Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 2002.
$65.00, 300 pages, ISBN 0-8142-0903-3 (hardback).
$24.95, 300 pages, ISBN 0-8142-5098-X (paperback).

Valerie Palmer-Mehta
Oakland University

Feminism in the Heartland provides a detailed account of the evolution and eventual dissolution of the second wave of the U.S. women's movement in Dayton, Ohio from 1969 to 1980. In the preface, Judith Ezekiel provides a justification for her case study that will likely resonate particularly with feminist researchers who are familiar with this pivotal period. Ezekiel contends that current research on the second wave of the U.S. women's movement tends to make broad generalizations regarding the movement's philosophies and objectives, as well as women's experiences in the movement, based only on a particular region's involvement or the perspectives of a few well known feminists. She states that "the amalgam of the experiences, writings and organizations of a few visible leaders and those of feminists across the nation" makes it appear as if "feminist ideas take on the same meaning in different times and places. This negates the experiences of millions of women" (ix). The problem is exacerbated when researchers draw on the same few pieces of original research to construct their own inquiries into the movement, creating "an illusion of historiographic consensus" (ix). Feminism in the Heartland begins to fill the lacuna that has been generated as a result of such practices by examining the unique situation that emerged in Dayton.

Drawing almost entirely on original primary resources, Ezekiel illuminates the experiences of movement women in Dayton, comparing and contrasting these findings with existing research on the national movement. What emerges is a new contribution to U.S. and feminist history:

Interestingly, in the middle of the Heartland, the ideas emanating from the radical faction of the women's movement are the ones that resonated with Dayton's women. Liberal feminism did not appear until the end of the 1970s and even then it "did not have the same […] impact on women's lives" (242). This may bewilder those who recognize that the Heartland of America is not well known for tolerating, let alone generating, radical political ideas.

Ezekiel has worked painstakingly to provide a thorough historical record of the pivotal events as well as the everyday affairs of the movement in Dayton. The book includes information gathered from interviews with 59 people involved with the movement during this period. The book also draws upon more than ten thousand pages of original documentation provided by movement members, including full collections of newsletters produced by all the groups mentioned in the book, minutes from meetings, notes from speeches, leaflets, articles, position papers, legal documents, and fundraising documents. Ezekiel supplements these resources with information from Dayton's two major daily newspapers to provide a sense of how the local community was responding to the aforementioned groups and feminism in general during this period. Finally, Ezekiel brings her own personal experiences to the work, as she lived in Dayton during her youth and had the opportunity to see a portion of the women's movement in action.

The book is organized chronologically, as it traces the growth, change and influence of four organizations that were pivotal in the women's movement between 1969 and 1980. In Chapter one and Chapter two, the creation and expansion of the organization called Dayton Women's Liberation (DWL) are discussed. Chapter one focuses predominantly on the key founders of the DWL, the events that brought them together and the importance of consciousness-raising and a radical utopian vision to the formation and expansion of the movement.

Chapter two traces a broad expanse of issues that contributed to the proliferation as well as the eventual weakening of the DWL. The chapter begins with a discussion of the importance of abortion rights to DWL members and then moves to issues of motherhood, marriage, family and divorce. The role of lesbians in the national and the Dayton movement are explored, as is the absence of women of color. The DWL's relationship with the media and the DWL's own more radical public relations publications are discussed. The chapter ends with a discussion of problems that were arising within and between the consciousness-raising groups, creating internal rifts and hindering the integration of newcomers into the movement.

In Chapter three, Ezekiel explains how an instrument of the DWL's own making, the Dayton Women's Center (DWC), begins to eclipse the DWL in both size and influence. The DWC was put into motion by the DWL, who perceived it as "a passionate experiment in creating a utopian institution to carve out free space for women" (80). The aim of the center was to provide women's programs and services, including self-help, therapy and educational workshops. Just as the center was forming, socialist feminists were gaining strength and they brought with them an alternative vision for the local movement (which had consisted of the DWL up until this point) and the DWC. Drawing on critiques made by nationally known feminists and regional feminist groups, the socialist feminists challenged the foundation of the DWL. Specifically, they criticized the utopian vision advocated by the DWL, arguing that it had resulted in immobilization and should be "replaced with winnable goals" (93). They also were critical of the organizational structure (or structurelessness) of the DWL and argued for "explicit structure and means of decision making" (93). These key areas of division and others resulted in a formal split between the DWC and the DWL, leaving the DWC predominantly in the control of the socialist feminists and causing the first major rift in the women's movement in Dayton.

Chapter four considers three projects that were outgrowths of the movement; an abortion consultation service, an abortion clinic and a rape crisis center. Most of the members of these organizations did not consider themselves feminists or part of the movement, at least not at first, but they all demonstrate how the ideology of the movement was permeating the social and political landscape in Dayton. Perhaps what is most compelling in this chapter is the previously under-examined influence religious entities had on making reproductive rights services available to women. Typically, religious groups have been perceived as antagonistic to reproductive rights and feminist issues, but Ezekiel's research illuminates how this was not the case at the beginning of the movement in Dayton. This research finding raises new questions regarding the range of involvement played by religious entities in other regions during this period.

Chapter five returns to the topic of the DWC, which had become the nucleus of the movement under the socialist feminists. Like most successful organizations in the movement, the DWC again became a battleground for competing interests. This time the struggle was between the DWC collective, made up of volunteers who met in the evening to make decisions regarding the functioning of the center, and the paid staff of the DWC, who were supposed to implement these decisions in the day to day operations of the center. Chapter five explains how conflicts over philosophical and pragmatic issues as well as material concerns, such as the time and money required to maintain the center, led to the eventual decision to close the center, which had been the only "physical landmark" of the women's movement in Dayton.

Chapters six and seven discuss the contributions of the Dayton Women Working (DWW) and Freedom of Choice (FOC) groups, respectively. The DWW originated as the employment task force of the local National Organization of Women chapter initiated by the DWC to fill the political vacuum created by the DWL's departure from the center. The DWW itself had left the DWC in 1977, as a result of the tensions and conflicts brewing there. More than any other group in Dayton, the DWW mirrored classic depictions of the national movement. The chapter discusses the ways in which the group worked to improve the status of clerical workers, and raised consciousness regarding working women's problems in general.

The appearance of the New Right and the creation of the FOC are discussed in Chapter seven. The rise of the antifeminist New Right recharged activism in Dayton. In a desperate attempt to ensure abortion rights, activists from Dayton's women's movement and liberal men and women joined together to create the new coalition. Ezekiel argues that the emergence of the FOC "marked the entry of liberal women into the movement, far later than the literature suggests in other cities" (216). The goals of this group were neither radical, nor expansive like those of previous groups. The FOC functioned to ensure abortion rights remained intact, despite attacks from the New Right. However, this was all the group aimed to do.

Ezekiel's examination of all those groups shows how the focus of each successive organization in Dayton became increasingly narrow, pragmatic and conservative in scope. Essentially, with the creation of each new organization, the movement was losing some of its revolutionary fervor. Ultimately, the loss of a radical, utopian vision and the diminishment of the "personal in the redefinition of politics" slowly devoured Dayton's movement (250). Ezekiel contends that:

Rather than serving as a source of immobilization, idealism had drawn women into the movement and had served as a source of inspiration and galvanization. As each successive organization moved farther away from such a vision, the movement lost some of its efficacy. The lack of a long-term vision allowed the movement to sputter and eventually decline. Ezekiel contends, "the women's movement is constantly faced with opposition and when it retreats and restricts itself in scope or depth, the opposition expands to fill the abandoned space" (250). This was precisely how the New Right gained momentum in Dayton. As the feminists' goals become increasingly narrow and limited in scope, the New Right began to dominate the domains previously occupied by the feminists. This configuration continues today.

In Feminism in the Heartland, Judith Ezekiel has provided a thorough examination of the second wave of the U.S. women's movement in Dayton based upon original research, while commenting on the implications her findings have for contemporary social thought regarding the national movement. While some readers may find the details occasionally cumbersome and uninviting, few can deny that Ezekiel's analysis provides fresh insight and provokes new questions, making her book an important contribution to the current scholarship in feminist and U.S. history. Perhaps Ezekiel's work will inspire more researchers to trace the evolution of the women's movement in other regions based upon primary resources, while they are still available, so that future generations will have a more complex, nuanced and accurate depiction of women's experiences during this time. Indeed, only through a thorough assessment of the past's successes and failures will we generate a more effective vision for the future.



Judith Ezekiel is associate professor of American Studies at the University of Toulouse-le-Mirail.

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