Mom and Apple Pie: Women Activists in the Rise of the New Right

Please join us at the October 4, 2018 Fettuccine Forum when Rebecca Scofield, Assistant Professor of American History at the University of Idaho, explores women’s activism in the 1970s-1980s with a focus on politically conservative leaders.   

Women’s issues played a central role in the political realignment of the 1970s and 1980s. Driven by debates about gender equality, abortion, gay rights, welfare rights, and systemic racism, women activists acted as foot-soldiers of political agitation on both the left and the right. This lecture profiles several women, including Phyllis Schlafly and Sandra Day O’Connor, who contributed specific ideological perspectives that capitalized on, yet also rejected, the gains made by second-wave feminism. As spokeswomen for a larger movement that welded together economic libertarianism and moral interventionism, these women were both shaped by and influenced new definitions of conservatism in the late twentieth century.

Dr. Scofield is an assistant professor of twentieth century American history. Her research focuses on the history of gender and sexuality, the American West, and popular culture. Her current book project, titled Outriders: Rodeo at the Fringes of the American West, analyzes the ways in which participating in rodeo has served as an inclusive force for marginalized communities over the twentieth century.

The Fettuccine Forum is produced by the Boise City Department of Arts & History. Support from the Office of the Mayor, Boise State Public Radio and the Department of History at Boise State University all make the Forum possible. Lively and informal, the series invites the public to interact with politicians, artists, historians, activists, advocates and professionals in an effort to promote good citizenship and responsible growth through education.

Doors open at 5:30 PM
Presentation begins at 6:00 PM

Image: Bettmann/Corbis Photograph Archive