Premilla Nadasen is an American activist and historian, who specialises in the histories of women of colour in the welfare rights movement.
[1] She had previously held a Visiting Endowed Chair in Women’s Studies at Brooklyn College.
[11] Historian Annelise Orleck described the book as "rich and provocative" whose "greatest achievement ... is to treat the recipient-leaders of this movement [NWRO] seriously as both practical strategists and as the framers of a unique political ideology: a black, feminist vision forged in poverty and fueled by the experiences of motherhood.
"[12] However, while praising the depth of archival research in the work, Andrew Fearnley noted that Nadasen's analysis appeared to preclude white and Puerto Rican women's contributions to the movement.
[13] Nadasen's 2016 work, Household Workers Unite: The Untold Story of African American Women Who Built a Movement, was reviewed by Polly Reed Myers, who described the book as "a welcome addition to the historiography on labor organizing in the postwar period", where "Nadasen reframes the organizational history of domestic labor groups in important ways by placing the voices and stories of African American domestic workers at the center of the narrative".