Paper short abstract:

Feminist approaches emerged in folklore studies in the United States in the early 1970s and continue today. This brief account of that history sets the stage for raising questions aimed at consolidating strategies for an internationally robust feminist folklore future.

Paper long abstract:

Feminist approaches emerged in U.S. folklore studies in the early 1970s and continue today. This brief account of that history looks at the successes and set-backs of integrating feminist theory and method into the folklore discipline.

The history chronologically outlines the rise of feminist approaches to folklore in the United States, looking at where we have been as inspiration and instruction for where we might go. The presentation looks at key events and projects such as the founding of the Women's Section of AFS, the years long publication of the newsletter "Folklore Feminist Communication," the 1986 conference "Folklore and Feminist Theory," and the Women's Section-sponsored "Croning Ceremony," first held in 1989. Key early figures and their contributions are briefly discussed along with those of young scholars advancing feminist interpretation today. Chronology sets the stage for attention to feminist theory and method as deployed in women's folklore research over the past fifty years. These include historical and contextual reclamation of women's folk arts such as quilting and ceramics and verbal arts such as tale and joke-telling; gender and genre; essentialism and social construction; the ethics of feminist fieldwork approaches; and recent decolonizing and intersectionality arguments unpacking the relationship between race, gender, queerness, and disability. Patterns of resistance to a feminist folklore are also discussed. The ending proposes questions aimed at consolidating strategies for an internationally robust feminist folklore future.