CCWH Prelinger Award Winner
RICKIE SOLINGER (2000)
An independent scholar, Rickie Solinger has recently completed a book entitled Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Abortion, Adoption, and Welfare in the United States. She will use the Prelinger Award to support research associated with her study of King v. Smith, the first welfare care ever heard by the U. S. Supreme Court. The Court's 1968 decision invalidated the "man-in-the-house" or substitute father rule. The award committee was impressed by Solinger's publications and by what this work indicates about her commitment to reproductive and economic justice for women. Solinger is the author of Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race Before Roe V. Wade (Routledge, 1992) which won the first Lerner-Scott Award given by the Organization of American Historians. She is also the author of The Abortionist: A Woman Against the Law (The Free Press, 1994) and the editor of Abortion Wars: Fifty Years of Struggle, 1950-2000 (University of California Press, 1998). Solinger's scholarly articles include: "Dependency and Choice: The Two Faces of Eve," Social Justice 25 (Spring, 1998); "Poisonous Choice" in Bad Mothers (1998), edited by Molly Ladd-Taylor and Lauri Umansky; "'A Complete Disaster': Abortion and the Politics of Hospital Abortion Boards, 1950-1970," Feminist Studies 19 (Summer, 1993); and "Race and 'Value': Black and White Illegitimate Babies in the U. S., 1945-1965," Gender and History 4 (Autumn, 1992). Ms. Solinger has also produced art installations, working with sculptors, photographers, and other activists. "Wake Up Little Susie: Pregnancy and Power Before Roe v. Wade," a room-sized installation picturing the terrain of reproductive politics at mid-century-and focusing on race-has shown in galleries at nearly fifty colleges and universities since 1992 and is still traveling. "Susie" will be at Wake Forest University in North Carolina in fall, 2000. Solinger has also curated "The Faces of Women in Poverty: Strength, Dignity, Determination," a photography installation that has traveled around the state of Colorado.Rickie Solinger regularly writes book reviews for scholarly and popular publications and reviews manuscripts for university presses. She is a founding member of Women United for Justice, Community, and Family, a Boulder, Colorado-based cross-class coalition of women committed to welfare justice. She has served on the Boulder County Welfare Review Committee and frequently speaks and writes in the community and elsewhere on matters of poverty, welfare, and economic justice.
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The Coordinating Council for Women in History, an organization
for women in the historical profession, is committee to exploring the diverse
experiences and histories of all women. Its primary goals are to educate men
and women on the status of women in the historical profession and to promote
research and interpretation in the areas of women’s history.
Information about the Prelinger Prize and other CCWH awards is available here.