Righteous Sisterhood: The Politics and Power of an All-Women’s Motorcycle Club

A righteous sister identifies herself as a biker. She might wrench, or maintain, her own bike, and she prefers to ride with other righteous sisters. Righteous Sisterhood is Sarah Hoiland’s insightful ethnography about an all-women motorcycle club (MC). She recounts stories of women bikers for whom riding in an MC is ＂an act of rebellion＂ and ＂liberating＂ even as it constrains--a reactionary populist version of the American Dream dipped in ＂girl power.＂

Granted unprecedented access to the MC’s initiation rituals, annual ceremonies, and the extensive socialization process, Hoiland investigates this fascinating subculture, why women choose to join, and why, in some cases, they exit or become exiled.

Righteous Sisterhood also reveals complex and contradictory gender and political dynamics within the club and within the larger subculture. The MC provides a unique, liberatory, womanist space within the larger male-dominated MC social world, but these women remain outsiders, with political voices that are lost in the misogyny of alt-right spaces. As Hoiland emphasizes, the quest for righteous sisterhood is about finding individual excellence and camaraderie while seeking recognition and immortality within the MC.

Sarah L. Hoiland is Associate Professor of Sociology at Hostos Community College, City University of New York.