Donna Gabaccia

"An impressive achievement by a scholar well-versed in the field." —Virginia Yans-McLaughlin "Sweeping in scope and prodigious in research, Gabaccia is able to make insightful comparisons between these female newcomers in both the past and the present and between the experiences of the foreign-born and other minorities in American society." —John Bodnar This long-needed study of women "from the other side" examines the experience of women immigrants as they came to the United Stated from all corners of the earth. Donna Gabaccia traces continuities that characterize women of both the nineteenth-century European and Asian migrations and the present-day Third World migrations. Foreign-born women, even more than men, experienced sharp tensions between communal, familial traditions and U.S. expectations of individualism and voluntarism. She also discovers strong parallels between the lives of foreign-born women and the women of America's native-born racial minorities.

This book is the first interdisciplinary reader focusing on immigrant women in the United States. Part I includes three chapters by a historian, a sociologist, and an anthropologist summarizing the way research on immigrant women has developed in the three disciplines. Parts II and III, focusing on Immigrant Women of the Past and Immigrant Women Since 1920, provide empirical and interpretive essays on immigrant women from Europe, Latin America, and Asia. The chapters explore such themes as women in the migration process, the role of gender in the creation of American ethnic identities, and the comparability of today's immigrant women with those of the past.Seeking Common Ground is the first interdisciplinary reader focusing on immigrant women in the United States. By providing a basis for comparison between both different ethnic groups and different disciplinary approaches, the volume aims to encourage interdisciplinary communication and research.After the editor's introduction, the volume begins with three chapters (Part I) by a historian, a sociologist, and an anthropologist summarizing the way research on immigrant women has developed in the three disciplines. Parts II and III, focusing on Immigrant Women of the Past and Immigrant Women Since 1920, provide empirical and interpretive essays on immigrant women from Europe, Latin America, and Asia. The chapters explore such themes as women in the migration process, the role of gender in the creation of American ethnic identities, and the comparability of today's immigrant women with those of the past. The work will be of interest to individuals from all disciplines who are concerned with women's studies in general and immigrant women in particular.

This book is the first interdisciplinary reader focusing on immigrant women in the United States. Part I includes three chapters by a historian, a sociologist, and an anthropologist summarizing the way research on immigrant women has developed in the three disciplines. Parts II and III, focusing on Immigrant Women of the Past and Immigrant Women Since 1920, provide empirical and interpretive essays on immigrant women from Europe, Latin America, and Asia. The chapters explore such themes as women in the migration process, the role of gender in the creation of American ethnic identities, and the comparability of today's immigrant women with those of the past.Seeking Common Ground is the first interdisciplinary reader focusing on immigrant women in the United States. By providing a basis for comparison between both different ethnic groups and different disciplinary approaches, the volume aims to encourage interdisciplinary communication and research.After the editor's introduction, the volume begins with three chapters (Part I) by a historian, a sociologist, and an anthropologist summarizing the way research on immigrant women has developed in the three disciplines. Parts II and III, focusing on Immigrant Women of the Past and Immigrant Women Since 1920, provide empirical and interpretive essays on immigrant women from Europe, Latin America, and Asia. The chapters explore such themes as women in the migration process, the role of gender in the creation of American ethnic identities, and the comparability of today's immigrant women with those of the past. The work will be of interest to individuals from all disciplines who are concerned with women's studies in general and immigrant women in particular.

Although general bibliographies on immigration may include entries on women, researchers interested in women immigrants will welcome this work. . . . Gabaccia's study includes more than 2,000 entries for books, journal articles, and PhD dissertations divided into chapters on broad genres or subjects: bibliography, general works, migration, family, work (meaning earning wages), working together (meaning collective community action), body, mind, cultural change, biography, autobiography, and fiction. Access is further enhanced by author, person, group, and subject indexes. . . . This work should be included in both public and academic libraries serving populations interested in women's lives. ChoiceIncreasing awareness of cultural diversity, the growth of women's studies, and the arrival of this country's third wave of immigrants in the 1970s and 1980s have all contributed to strong recent interest in female immigrants. Immigrant Women in the United States is a multidisciplinary bibliography of women--including mothers and their daughters--who voluntarily crossed a national boundary to live or work in the United States. It covers scholarly secondary source materials in English--books, articles, and dissertations. Bibliographies, autobiographies, and fiction are dealt with in separate chapters. In an effort to encourage interdisciplinary research, the publications are arranged by topic, with separate chapters devoted to general works, migration, family life, work, collective action, women's bodies and minds, cultural and generational change, and biography. In addition, it is the only bibliography on the subject of immigrant women that systematically reviews literature on notable women of foreign birth and the sizable autobiographical, biographical, oral, historical, and fictional literature on immigrant women.Immigrant Women in the United States is only the second bibliography on this subject to appear within the past five years. It differs from that earlier work in the scope and depth of its coverage, including recently published works and dissertations appearing before 1989. It will be an important addition to library collections in women's studies and immigration studies and a valuable reference tool for historians and social scientists.