Tales from the Trenches: Politics and Practice in Feminist Service Organizations
by Diane Kravetz
Category: Social Science

Tales from the Trenches: Politics and Practice in Feminist Service Organizations examines the political visions and experiences of women who created five feminist service organizations in the 1970s. The organizations include a shelter for battered women, a rape crisis center, a rape-prevention ride service, a residential facility for female offenders, and a statewide organization for chemically dependent women. Based primarily on interviews with 57 founders, staff, volunteers, and /or board members, the book traces into the mid-1980s how women translated their understandings of radical feminist ideology into goals, social change strategies, services, and organizational structures. Tales from the Trenches explores how members dealt with the problems created by antifeminist resistance as well as the dilemmas that characterized many feminist efforts in the early years of the women's movement. The extensive use of direct quotations in the book along with women's detailed accounts provide valuable examples of feminist practice based on thoughtful applications of feminist principles to specific circumstances rather than remaining within the confines of conventional assumptions or prescriptive politics.