Turns of the Kaleidoscope: “Race,” Ethnicity, and Analytical Patterns in American Women’s and Gender History

The launch of Journal of Women’s History occurred as Americanist women’s and gender history was undergoing a profound transformation caused by increased analytical attention to “race” and ethnicity. Within a year of the Journal’s emergence, Vicki Ruiz and Ellen Carol DuBois published the first edition of their landmark anthology, Unequal Sisters, in which they encouraged Americanist women’s and gender historians to eschew “biracial approach[es]” and embrace a “kaleidoscopic” angle of vision that would permit “many pasts … [to] be explored simultaneously.” This article reviews Americanist gender scholarship on race and ethnicity that has been produced over the last twenty-five years. Work on race, ethnicity, and gender has revealed sundry social, political, cultural, and economic dynamics within U.S. history. It is arguably the case, however, that Americanist women’s and gender historians could productively analyze multiple racial and ethnic groups together on a more sustained basis.