Hoiland’s Book, “Righteous Sisterhood: The Politics and Power of an All-Women's Motorcycle Club,” Debuts on January 24
Hostos Community College proudly announces the release of “Righteous Sisterhood: The Politics and Power of an All-Women's Motorcycle Club” (Temple University Press, 2025), an insightful ethnography about an all-women motorcycle club (MC) written by Sarah Hoiland, Hostos Associate Professor of Sociology. The riveting work, hitting shelves Friday, January 24, provides a fascinating look into a womanist space within a male-dominated subculture and delves into their complex gender, political and power dynamics. Shared through the unique perspective of a women’s MC, Hoiland’s investigation sheds light onto the women’s quests for sisterhood, community and immortality through the club, and looks at why some ultimately leave or, in some cases, are exiled.
Described as a “thoughtful ethnographic study about women, belonging, and empowerment” by Kirkus Reviews, the book expands on Hoiland’s doctorate dissertation, for which she investigated the roles women played in motorcycle clubs — from wives, girlfriends and adult daughters to bartenders and more. Toward the end of her research, she learned of the all-women’s club, to which she has given the pseudonym Righteous Sisterhood Motorcycle Club (RSMC). After several attempts to connect, the MC’s president granted Hoiland access into their little-known inner world, on which Hoiland shared her observations in her dissertation. “That chapter was the one that I was most interested in,” she shared. “The impetus for writing was that there was nothing about women in this [MC] world at all. And the only people who’d written about women and motorcycle clubs were men and they weren’t talking to women; it was based on what men were saying about women.”
Determined to provide a more holistic picture of women’s MCs, Hoiland reconnected with the club in 2014, and over the course of five years, interviewed members and was granted unprecedented access to their annual ceremonies, initiation rituals, and social processes and gatherings. In her book, Hoiland uses political theory to unpack the complex gender and political dynamics that she observed within the club and larger, male-dominated subculture, and she also highlights how the women of the RSMC have created a space “where they stand out for their own excellence” and “achieve immortality” through their various traditions, as well as their philanthropic endeavors and activism.
Hoiland looks forward to sharing the insights she’s gathered through her fieldwork with the public and is preparing to discuss the book in March at the CUNY Graduate Center and an Author Meets Critics session at the Eastern Sociological Society. She will also hold a special edition of an Author Meets Critics session at the Green Haven Correctional Facility, where she teaches as part of Hudson Link for Higher Education.
You can get a copy of “Righteous Sisterhood: The Politics and Power of an All-Women's Motorcycle Club”
here or wherever books are sold.