“A Woman’s Work” and “The Work of the World”

The Introduction discusses how examining Breckinridge’s life work offers new insight into feminist activism in twentieth-century America. A careful study of Breckinridge’s life and work significantly reshapes our understanding of both the chronology and the contours of U.S. feminism, requiring us to acknowledge the continuity of feminist activism across the Progressive era and the New Deal, rethink the notion of feminist leadership, reevaluate academic endeavors as central to American activism, and recognize the diversity and the interrelatedness of the many issues that women considered “feminist” in modern America. By foregrounding the life and work of this forgotten feminist, my biography of Breckinridge presents a more complete--and more complex--story of women’s activism in modern America. Breckinridge’s lifelong commitment to social activism illuminates American women’s participation in the struggle for social justice both in the United States and beyond its borders.