Solinger, Rickie

Power and Reproductive Politics

Solinger's work is perhaps best described as a historical examination of what she referred to in 2007 as “reproductive politics,” or power as it relates to matters of reproduction. Guided by concerns over women's reproductive sovereignty, Solinger's work demonstrates how key legislative and judicial decisions (including the Comstock law, the Hyde Amendment, welfare policies, and Roe v. Wade), combined with cultural values and belief systems, have systematically diminished and even denied women's reproductive rights.

Weaving together disparate voices (politicians, medical personnel, social service workers, and mothers) and attending to issues that range from abortion to unwed pregnancy to adoption to welfare, Solinger captures the complexities of motherhood and womanhood in American culture and demonstrates the clear links between reproduction and broader political, economic, and social issues. In doing so, she illustrates that the history of reproductive politics is a crucial component of the social history of the United States. Yet, Solinger is careful not to portray women as passive victims of history. Rather, her close attention to women's daily practices enables her to illustrate the myriad ways in which they have claimed power and enacted strategies that challenge—both directly and indirectly—laws, policies, practices, and cultural ideologies. In The Abortionist: A Woman Against the Law (1996), for example, she details the tactics women used to secure abortion services and make them available to other women, despite legal constraints.

Solinger is equally careful not to portray U.S. reproductive history as a singular history. By attending to gender, race, class, age, marital status, and other social identities, she shows how reproductive experiences have been and continue to be constructed differently for different groups of women. For example, in Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race Before Roe v. Wade (1992), she demonstrates that although unwed mothers were regarded as deviant in the post-World War II years, that deviancy was defined and “treated” in very different ways for black women than it was for white women.

Solinger's work has a decidedly political tone. She is critical of both the reproductive exploitation of women as well as the hollow notion of “choice” that many liberals and feminists have endorsed. Her writing, by examining the past, works to create a more thorough understanding of the present situation regarding women's reproductive rights.

As director of WAKEUP/Arts in New York, Solinger has created a number of exhibits based on themes of motherhood, power, and labor (both domestic and reproductive). Traveling to museums and universities throughout the country, these exhibits include Interrupted Life: Incarcerated Mothers in the United States, Beggars and Choosers: Motherhood Is Not a Class Privilege in America, Wake Up Little Susie: Pregnancy and Power Before Roe v. Wade, and, most recently, Reimagining the Distaff Toolkit. As with her scholarly work, Solinger's exhibits have a decidedly political tone, drawing attention to the ways in which women have been marginalized as well as the ways in which they have exercised power. Solinger is a founding member of United Women for Justice, Family, and Community, a grassroots organization in Boulder, Colorado, that seeks solutions to the issues facing low-income women and their families.

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