This dissertation delivers a timely scholarly conversation on differently imagined grassroots feminist politics in a non-Western neoliberal authoritarian context. The project pivots on a central inquiry: how do Chinese rural migrant women, whose lifetimes are cast under the shadows of “Made in China” global production and punctuated by multiple concurrent neoliberal crises, collectively give birth to community power for radical livability? Drawing from extensive ethnographic fieldnotes, six oral history interviews, and archival studies, the dissertation employs community-based participatory action research to document and advance community organizing efforts by Green Rose (hence GR), a migrant women-led grassroots collective in Shenzhen. Set against the historical backdrop of China’s post-socialist reform when South China emerged as the world’s factory for manufacturing globalization, my study traces the trajectories in which a group of migrant women, upon gaining exposure to transnational labor NGO activism in the early 2000s, asserted collective power at the frontline for intersectional gender and class struggles. In the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, when economic downturns and welfare austerity measures entangled with the resurgence of state authoritarianism targeting civic actions, GR women temporarily transitioned to guerrilla activism to bring emancipatory cultural organizing and mutual aid into the social arena of a precarious migrant neighborhood. To survive welfare segregation and economic-political contingencies, GR women tactically established a social work service NGO to translate their depoliticized service labor into radical actions. They animate a sisterhood kinship system to liberate individual care capacity from the privatized household; they reorganize people, spaces, and resources to build a care safety net for all. By foregrounding migrant women as political protagonists in China’s precarious and fragmented civic landscape, my study problematizes both male-dominant labor politics embraced by orthodox Marxist scholars and the mainstream feminist movement sponsored by urban middle-class feminists, all the while exposing the state censorship that attempts and yet fails to erase the history of the marginalized gendered collective.

The dissertation focused on mothering practices among cisgender Black and Latina women during the COVID-19 global pandemic. This research sought to understand their engagement with public (employment) and private (domestic) labor and the ways that COVID-19 amplified existing gender, race, and class disparities in American mothering practices within these communities. This exploration considered the unique positions that Black and Latina mothers shared through community mothering, resulting in shared survival tactics. Mothering practice formed a web of knowledge production that was shared through generational child rearing as a form of communal protection. The survival strategies and techniques, employed by Black and Latina mothers, relied heavily on community and “othermothering” practices. The research questions sought to reveal the ways that capitalism, patriarchy, and socio-cultural expectations created racialized and gendered conditions that manifested in the lives of Black and Latina mothers already experiencing a syndemic due to interrelated complex issues of social crises that disproportionately affected women of color. The research in this dissertation project found that all mothers in the study, no matter their race, class, or gender, experienced an increase of stress, productive, and reproductive labor. Additionally, the study uncovered that no matter their race, class or gender, mothers sought creative and innovative ways to educate their children, create structured environments, and engage in othermothering strategies in order to continue their paid employment and care for their children. The research found that socio-economic status played a small factor in the ways that mothers perceived their privilege; yet, mothers of working-class status also reported feeling “lucky,” “fortunate,” or “privileged” due to various factors such as positive outlooks, aspirational class, and support networks. This research underscored the ways that Black and Latina mothers successfully navigated a global pandemic, continued their paid labor and reproductive labor through acts of resistance, resilience, and thrivance.

Nine Black birth workers serving in the state of Arizona participated in this autoethnographic project. Birth workers are laborers who work with pregnant, birthing, and postpartum people. This includes doulas, midwives, lactation consultants, nurses, obstetricians and more. Participants in this study primarily identified as doulas, midwives, or lactation consultants. I conducted semi-structured interviews with the participants, followed by one or two post visits to verify the data and ask additional questions. Participants reported various reasons for entering birth work that coalesced around a desire to support pregnant, birthing, and postpartum people across their reproductive timeline. Additionally, participating birth workers recounted their preparation to enter the profession and disclosed their thoughts about the perinatal bodymind. Moreover, participants demonstrated the prolific nature of obstetric violence in hospital-based birthing practices along with the ways they resist this violence. Demonstrating their enactment of birth work as activism, participating Black birth workers recalled instances where they have served as a safe and supportive presence for a range of pregnancy outcomes. As participants attested, birth work can be costly for them. They shared the demands of the work as well as the compensation they receive. Furthermore, participants build birth work formations to support their work affectively and materially.

An intersectional analysis of sex education in the U.S. reveals a need for a more nuanced and community-based approach to sexuality education. A Reproductive Justice framed sexuality education program attends to the needs and desires expressed by a community, while interrogating and resisting the interlocking systems of power that work to uphold white patriarchy and white supremacy. Reproductive Justice sexuality education is socially transformational when it centers student creation and community participation. Instead of risk prevention and rights-based sex education programs that often perpetuate oppressive structures and erase students' lived experiences, student-centered sexuality education with a Reproductive Justice framework allows for participants to feel safe and valued. This re/imagining of sex education also allows for pleasure instead of shame to be a product of sexuality exploration. Key words: Reproductive Justice, Sexuality Education, K-12 Sex Education, Community Created Curriculum, Comprehensive Sexuality Education, Intersectionality

Birthing is an intimate experience and all mothers—regardless of their race or class—deserve to have a variety of birthworker options. Birthwork covers an array of professions related to meeting the physical and emotional needs of expectant mothers and mothers in post-partum. For the purposes of my research, however, I define birthworkers as those working as a doula, midwife, or OBGYN. Without the knowledge of the multiplicity of options available to them, pregnant women of color’s autonomy suffers.<br/><br/>This project explores how birthworkers in Arizona are differentially perceived and hierarchized by expectant mothers. While doulas are assumed to be mystical, OBGYNs professional and midwives a blend of both levels of professionality, this project explores the hierarchy of validity and importance of acknowledging each birthworking discipline as beneficial to expectant and post-partum mothers.<br/><br/>Through the presentation of this work, I aim to educate readers on the benefits of each birthworking discipline, thereby raising awareness about the need for equal respect and access to all types of care providers during the pregnancy journey, as well as a need to place intimacy at the center of birthworking praxis. Throughout this ‘zine you will learn about the importance of integrating terms such as “reproductive justice” and “equity” into general discourse, the racial disparity evident in the quality of care pregnant people receive during delivery of their child, as well as anecdotal information about each birthworking sector—doulaship, midwifery, and obstetrics—from professionals in each field.