Toward a Multiracial, Feminist Social-Democratic Praxis: Lessons from Grassroots Warriors in the U.S. War on Poverty

Drawing on a study of community workers hired by the Community Action Programs established by the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, I outline elements of multiracial, feminist social-democratic praxis. This analysis builds on Wendy Sarvasy's conceptualization of citizenship drawn from the political praxis of early social-democratic feminists that highlights community-based social service and participatory democracy. Two additional dimensions are considered: (1) how a feminist vision of social citizenship can incorporate the intersection of gender, race, and class and (2) how community workers who articulate a multiracial, feminist vision of social citizenship might resist the dehumanization of “citizen-clients” manifest in the bureaucratization process.