Janet Allured at Bayou State Book Talk

Join historian Janet Allured for a discussion of her new book "Remapping Second-Wave Feminism: The Long Women's Rights Movement in Louisiana, 1950-1997" at Bayou State Book Talks on Tuesday, March 14, beginning at 6:30 pm at the Downtown branch of the Lafayette Public Library.

About the book:
"Scholars of second-wave feminism often center their research on northern thought and political activity and usually overlook the vibrant pockets of activism that existed elsewhere. In Remapping Second-Wave Feminism, Janet Allured attempts to reshape the national narrative by focusing on the grassroots women’s movement in the South, particularly in Louisiana.

This book delves into unexplored origins of the feminist movement. While acknowledging the ways that the fight for African American civil rights produced the women’s liberation movement in the South—and subsequently in the North—Allured also locates other wellsprings of the movement that were particularly important to southern change-seekers, especially preexisting women’s organizations such as the League of Women Voters, the YWCA, and liberal churches. For many southern feminists, being part of a faith tradition that emphasized social justice reform is what ultimately propelled them into working for gender equality. Allured highlights key figures in Louisiana; divisions based on regional, sexual, and ideological differences; access to abortion; lawsuits that had national implications that emanated from southern women; and the fight against sexual assault and domestic violence. Through detailed archival and oral history research, she has forged a new path, making this a foundational work for the field. Remapping Second-Wave Feminism will amend how we reflexively view feminism as a northern phenomenon, giving proper due to the southern contribution." -University of Georgia Press

About the author:
Janet Allured is Professor of History and Women's Studies at McNeese State University. She received her Ph.D. in History from the University of Arkansas in 1989. She teaches courses in the history of the New South, Louisiana, American women, and twentieth-century United States. She is co-editor of Louisiana Women: Their Lives and Times, Volume 1, and of Louisiana Legacies: Readings in the History of the Pelican State. Her article about Janet Mary Riley, the leader of the effort to overturn the "Head and Master" law in Louisiana, is in Louisiana Women, vol. 2, and an article about Methodist women in Louisiana appeared in the April 2016 issue of Methodist History.

Author will have books available for purchase and signing. For more information please call 337.482.6027 or email clspresnts@louisiana.edu.

Bayou State Book Talks is a monthly discussion series led by authors from Louisiana who have written books that are of interest to Louisianians. The free series is co-sponsored by the Center for Louisiana Studies, UL Lafayette, and the Lafayette Public Library System. Talks are held at the Main Library, 301 W. Congress, Downtown Lafayette.