Feminism

The feminism of the late sixties and seventies reaffirmed the philosophy that men and women should be politically, economically, and socially equal, but it also expanded the theory to

argue that differences between men's and women's roles were culturally based rather than biologically determined. In practical terms, this new definition released women, at least in principle, from the total responsibility for childcare. It also meant that, for the first time, feminism was an internally consistent ideology, no longer rent by the contradictory demands for both equality and special privileges for women as mothers. Although consideration would still be requested for those who took care of children, now these "privileges" would be sought for male parents as well as for female ones, and employers would find that both men and women had demands on them as parents as well as workers.

Before this ideological break took place, women who fought for women struggled fruitlessly to resolve the central dilemma of women's lives: how to be at once an individual concerned with her own destiny and a mother (no word evokes a more laden image) entirely responsible for the welfare of her children. Some called themselves "feminists," and some did not.

Because the definition of feminism has changed, historians today writing about the history of feminism face problems. The term feminism is now as much normative as it is descriptive. We find it difficult to conclude that Eleanor Roosevelt, a great woman in every sense of the term, was not a feminist (a word she never would have applied to herself). So modern works often begin with a set of definitions that permit the writer to apply the label "feminist" as she or he sees fit. But the profusion of definitions is at once confusing and unnecessary. The term feminism as we use it was born in the 1960s. We need not ask if women were "feminists" per se in order to comprehend their behavior and motivation, or to illuminate their character. To do so, in fact, can create a diversion and may, because of the emotional content of the term, distort a viewpoint rather than clarify it.

Instead, we might ask: Which elements of women's lives appeared to a historical figure to be immutable? What aspects of women's lives did she or he question? What beliefs informed a choice of action? Did an activist favor a wider range of influence for women, or more power within a narrow one? How did class

origins color political agendas? What constraints limited the selection of political strategies?