Moving Mountains

Illuminates a transformational event in the development of Asian American and Pacific Islander feminismsIn November 1977, over twenty thousand participants, mostly women, gathered in Houston for the first and only US National Womens Conference, funded by the federal government with the goal of creating a national womens agenda. In Moving Mountains, Judy Tzu-Chun Wu and Adrienne Winans center the more than eighty Asian American and Pacific Islander delegates who politically mobilized around womens rights and other issues to transform their communities and their status in the nation-state.Foregrounding figures like Congresswoman Patsy Takemoto Mink and poet Mitsuye Yamada, Wu and Winans position AA and PI women as central actors in the eras feminist politics, engaging with, and at times resisting, state institutions to forge paths toward racial and gender justice. From Guam to New York, the women articulated intersecting demandsfor inclusion, sovereignty, labor rights, and education reformat a moment when conservative backlash and racial realignment were reframing feminist movements. More than a recovery of voices, this book offers a layered analysis of coalition and tension between Asian American and Pacific Islander feminisms, complicating assumptions of unity and illustrating how feminist praxis evolved through disagreement, difference, and shared commitment. This book is vital reading for anyone interested in feminist history, Asian American and Pacific Islander activism, and the unfinished work of collective liberation.