The years between 1970 and 1980 represented a formative period in the development of Chicana feminist thought in the United States. During this period, Chicana feminists addressed the specific issues affecting Chicanas as women of color in the United States. As a result of their collective efforts in struggling against racial, class, and gender oppression, Chicana feminists developed an ideological discourse that addressed three major issues. These were the relationship between Chicana feminism and the ideology of cultural nationalism, feminist baiting (...) within the Chicano movement, and the relationship between the Chicana feminist movement and the white feminist movement. This article describes the development of Chicana feminism and compares it with Asian American and Black feminism, which faced similar problems. (shrink)

"Chicana Feminist Thought" recovers the historical contributions of a generation of Chicana feminists whose activism forged a collective struggle to overcome the gender contradictions, tensions, and conflicts within the Chicano Movement. Organized thematically and chronologically, these writings explore such topics as sexual politics within the Chicano cultural nationalist movement, the multiple sources of Chicana oppression, and the relationships between Chicana feminists and white feminists.