Class Race Sex

Class, Race, and Sex:
The Dynamics of Control

A Publication in Women's Studies
Barbara Haber, Series Editor
The Scholar and the Feminist, Volume II
Papers from the Barnard College Women's Center Conference
Hester Eisenstein, General Editor
Edited by
Amy Swerdlow
and Hanna Lessinger
Class, Race, and Sex:
The Dynamics of Control
Janie L. Kritzman, editorial coordinator
Contributors
Lourdes Benena Angela Jorge
Nancy Boyd-Franklin Rosalind Pollack Petchesky
Renate Bridenthal Francine Quaglio
Evelyn Brooks Rayna Rapp
Lisa Desposito Lillian S. Robinson
Bonnie Thornton Dill Jan Rosenberg
Lisa Duggan Ellen Ross
Zillah Eisenstein Gita Sen
Cheryl Townsend Gilkes Nadine Taub
Atina Grossmann Bettylou Valentine
Nancy Hartsock Judith R. Walkowitz
Elizabeth Higginbotham Ellen Willis
f Barnard College Women's Center
| G. K. Hall & Co., Boston, Massachusetts
Except where otherwise indicated, the material in
this volume is 1983 by the Barnard College
Women's Center.
"The Feminist Theology of the Black Baptist
Church, 1880-1900" 1980 by Evelyn Brooks.
All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication
Data
Main entry under title:
Class, race, and sex.
(The Scholar and the feminist conference series;
v. 2)
"A collection of essays based on the seventh and
eighth Scholar and Feminist Conferences held at
Barnard College, New York City, in April of 1980
and 1981"Pref.
Bibliography.
Includes index.
1. Women's studiesUnited States
Congresses.
2. FeminismUnited StatesCongresses.
3. Social conflictUnited StatesCongresses.
4. Social controlCongresses.
I. Lessinger, Hanna. II. Swerdlow, Amy.
III. Series.
HQ1403.C5 1983 305.4 82-21270
ISBN 0-8161-9039-9
This publication is printed on permanent/durable acid-free paper
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
C o n t e n t s
Dat e s in pare n t he s e s re fe r to the ye ar of the co n fe re n ce at
which a pape r was de live re d; the abs e n ce of a dat e in dicat e s
a pape r not de live re d at the co n fe re n ce s .
JANIE L. KRITZMAN
Pre face ix
Ackn o wle dgme n t s xiii
HANNA LESSINGER and AMY SWERDLOW
In t ro duct io n xv
PART I:
Historical Parallels
RENATE BRIDENTHAL
No t e s toward a Fe min is t Diale ct ic (1981) 3
JUDITH R. WALKOWITZ
Male Vice and Fe male Virt ue : Fe min is m and the
Po lit ics of Pro s t it ut io n in Nin e t e e n t h-C e n t ury
Brit ain (1980) 10
EVELYN BROOKS
The Femi ni st Theology of t he Black Ba pt i s t Church,
1880-1900 (1980) 31
ATINA GROSSMANN
C ris is , Re act io n , and Re s is t an ce : Wo me n in Ge rman y
in the 1920s and 1930s (1981) 60
LISA DUGGAN
The So cial En fo rce me n t of He t e ro s e xualit y and
Le s bian Re s is t an ce in the 1920s (1981) 75
Contents
RAYNA RAPP and ELLEN ROSS
The Twe n t ie s ' Backlas h: C o mpuls o ry He t e ro s e xualit y,
the C o n s ume r Family, and the Wan in g of Fe min is m
(1981) 93
PART II:
The New Antifeminism
ZILLAH EISENSTEIN
Antifeminisra and the Ne w Right (1981) 111
JAN ROSENBERG
Fe min is m, the Family, and the Ne w Right (1980) 126
LISA DESPOSITO
The Ne w Right and the Abo rt io n Is s ue 138
PART III:
Gender, Class, and Race
NANC Y HARTSOC K
Diffe re n ce and Do min at io n in the Wo me n 's Mo ve me n t :
The Diale ct ic of The o ry and Pract ice 157
BONNIE THORNTON DILL
"On the He m of Life ": Race , C las s , and the Pro s pe ct s
for Sis t e rho o d (1980) 173
NANC Y BOYD-FRANKLIN
Black. Family Life-Styles: A Lesson in Survival
(1981) 189
ELIZABETH HIGGINBOTHAM
Laid Bare by the Sys t e m: Wo rk and Survival for
Black and His pan ic Wo me n (1981) 200
ANGELA JORGE
Issues of Race and C las s in Wo me n 's St udie s : A
Pue rt o Rican Wo man 's Tho ught s (1981) 216
ROSALIND POLLAC K PETC HESKY
Re pro duct io n and C las s Divis io n s amo n g Wo me n (1980) 221
LOURDES BENERIA and GITA SEN
Wo me n 's Ro le in Eco n o mic De ve lo pme n t : Pract ical
and The o re t ical Implicat io n s of C las s and Ge n de r
In e qualit ie s (1980) 243
Contents
PART IV:
Control through Institution and Ideology
NADINE TAUB
De fin in g and C o mbat in g Se xual Haras s me n t (1981) 263
BETTYLOU VALENTINE
Wo me n on We lfare : Public Po licy and In s t it ut io n al
Racis m (1981) 276
C HERYL TOWNSEND GILKES
Fro m Slave ry to So cial We lfare : Racis m and the
C o n t ro l of Black Wo me n (1981) 288
FRANC INE QUAGLIO
Re ligio n as an In s t rume n t of So cial C o n t ro l (1981) 301
LILLIAN S. ROBINSON
Wo me n , Me dia, and the Diale ct ics of Re s is t an ce
(1981) 308
ELLEN WILLIS
The C halle n ge of Pro family Po lit ics : A Fe min is t
De fe n s e of Se xual Fre e do m (1981) 325
No t e s on C o n t ribut o rs 339
In de x 345
Pre face
C las s , Race , and Se x: The Dyn amics o f C o n t ro l is a co lle c-
tion of e s s ays bas e d on the s e ve n t h and e ight h Scho lar and
Fe min is t C o n fe re n ce s he ld at Barn ard C o lle ge , Ne w Yo rk C it y,
in April of 1980 and 1981. In it iat e d in 1974, t he s e co n fe r-
e n ce s have be e n s po n s o re d by the Barn ard C o lle ge Wo me n 's
C e n t e r and funded by the He le n a Rubin s t e in Fo un dat io n . An
e xamin at io n of the impact of t radit io n al s cho lars hip on fe m-
in is m, they are to some e xt e n t a record of the de ve lo pme n t
of que s t io n s be in g po s e d by wo me n 's s t udie s s cho lars over
the in t e rve n in g e ight ye ars . The Fut ure o f Diffe re n ce , an
an t ho lo gy of pape rs from the 1978 co n fe re n ce , appe are d in
De ce mbe r 1980. Pape rs from the mo rn in g s e s s io n s of t hre e of
the e arlie r me e t in gs (1975, 1976, 1977) have be e n publis he d
in pamphle t fo rm.
An un de rs t an din g of the co n fe re n ce plan n in g pro ce s s illumi-
n at e s the part icular que s t io n s rais e d in this vo lume and the
his t o ry of co n fe re n ce t he me s in ge n e ral. The co n ce pt ualiza-
tion and admin is t rat io n of t he s e co n fe re n ce s is the co lle c-
tive re s po n s ibilit y of Jan e Go uld, dire ct o r of the Barn ard
Wo me n 's C e n t e r, o t he r Wo me n 's C e n t e r s t aff, the acade mic
co o rdin at o r, and the plan n in g co mmit t e e . The plan n in g co m-
mit t e e is co mpo s e d of facult y, s t ude n t s , admin is t rat o rs ,
act ivis t s , wo me n from the large r co mmun it y, and Wo me n 's C e n -
ter s t aff. Un de r the le ade rs hip of the acade mic co o rdin a-
t o r, the plan n in g co mmit t e e me e t s re gularly durin g the fall
s e me s t e r to dis cus s t he me and s e le ct s pe ake rs ; like a small
s t udy gro up, they e n gage in le n gt hy and o ft e n he at e d dis cus -
s io n s on pract ical and t he o re t ical is s ue s . This pro ce s s has
e n s ure d the vit alit y of t he s e co n fe re n ce s by e n co uragin g
argume n t and de bat e as we ll as co n s e n s us on the final form
of the co n fe re n ce s .
The dive rs it y and richn e s s of the pape rs in this vo lume
are in large part a t ribut e to the co mmit me n t and varie d
in t e re s t s of the wo me n who served on the 1980 and 1981 plan -
n in g co mmit t e e s . The de cis io n in those ye ars to e n large the
plan n in g co mmit t e e to in clude mo re act ivis t s and Third-Wo rld
x Pre face
wo me n was a mile s t o n e in the his t o ry of these co n fe re n ce s .
A re s po n s e to the re t re n chme n t in the acade my and the gro w-
ing co n s e rvat is m and an t ife min is m in the s o cie t y, this ac-
tion be s po ke a n e w s t age in fe min is t co n s cio us n e s s in the
un ive rs it y. The plan n e rs re alize d that in o rde r to furt he r
de ve lo p fe min is t t he o ry and re affirm the po we r os s is t e r-
ho o d, the n e w s cho lars hip on wo me n wo uld have to addre s s cur-
rent po lit ical, e co n o mic, and s o cial cris e s dire ct ly. An
un de rs t an din g of diffe re n ce s bas e d on race , clas s , and s e xu-
al pre fe re n ce was e n han ce d by bro ade r re pre s e n t at io n o n
these plan n in g co mmit t e e s .
The e vo lut io n of co n fe re n ce themes highlight s some of the
ways in which the n e w s cho lars hip on wo me n co n t in ue s to be
in fo rme d by fe min is t co n s cio us n e s s . The purpo s e of the
first co n fe re n ce , he ld in 1974 and co o rdin at e d by Sus an R.
Sacks , was to art iculat e the que s t io n s that wo uld o rgan ize
o ur in quiry; s cho lars from s e ve ral dis ciplin e s used t he ir
pe rs o n al/in t e lle ct ual bio graphie s as a s t art in g po in t for a
co n s ide rat io n of ho w one co uld in t e grat e fe min is m and s cho l-
ars hip. The 1975 co n fe re n ce , "To wards a Ne w C rit e ria of Re l-
e van ce " (Nancy K. Mille r), e xamin e d the ways in which fe min -
ism might alt e r t radit io n al acade mic de fin it io n s and t he re by
t ran s fo rm me t ho do lo gy and s ubje ct mat t e r. Re lyin g on the
fie lds of an t hro po lo gy and his t o ry of re ligio n , "The Search
for Origin s ," 1976 (Mary Bro wn Parle e ), in ve s t igat e d the
ro o t s of fe male o ppre s s io n . "C o n n e ct in g The o ry, Pract ice ,
and Value s ," 1977 (He s t e r Eis e n s t e in ), co mpare d the value
s ys t e m part icular to t radit io n al un ive rs it y s t ruct ure to the
n e w s ys t e m n o w pro claime d as the bas is of fe min is t s cho lar-
s hip. Us in g e xpe rie n ce s of art is t s and s cho lars , "C re at in g
Fe min is t Wo rks ," 1977 (Elizabe t h Min n ich), fo cus e d on ho w
the pe rs o n al and the po lit ical me rge in fe min is t pro ce s s and
fo rm. / The s e e arly me e t in gs s hare d a co n ce rn for ide n t ifyin g
co mmo n alit ie s amo n g wo me n as a me an s of de fin in g, le git imiz-
in g, and n amin g wo me n 's s t udie s as a dis ciplin e .
At the he art of the fo cus o n s ame n e s s was an un de rs t an din g
that the e s t ablis hme n t of "wo man " as an appro priat e cat e go ry
was t he primary t as k. On ce "wo man " was pro claime d a viable
"s ubje ct ," the co n ce pt of "diffe re n ce " co uld be in t ro duce d^
The Fut ure o f Diffe re n ce , 1978 (Alice Jardin e ), s o ught to
de fin e the s t ruct ure s that o rgan ize and de t e rmin e o ur co n -
ce pt s of s e xual ide n t it y and diffe re n ce amo n g wo me n and be -
t we e n wo me n and me n . "C las s , Race , and Sex: Explo rin g C o n -
t radict io n s , Affirmin g C o n n e ct io n s ," 1980 (Amy Swe rdlo w),
co n s ide re d the ways in which primary in s t it ut io n s of po we r
divide wo me n acco rdin g to clas s , race , e t hn icit y, and s e xual
pre fe re n ce . C o n t in uin g this an alys is , "The Dyn amics of C o n -
t ro l," 1981 (Han n a Le s s in ge r), e xamin e d the in s t it ut io n s and
Pre face xi
s pe cial in t e re s t gro ups that co n t ro l wo me n 's lives wit hin
the co n t e xt of the s o cio e co n o mic cris e s and the e me rge n ce of
the Ne w Right . The mat urat io n and in cre as in g s o phis t icat io n
of o ur s cho lars hip pe rmit t e d us to fre e ly co n s ide r s ame n e s s
and diffe re n ce , and t he ir e n s uin g co mbin at io n s and pe rmut a-
t io n s .
Durin g the pas t e ight ye ars , the Scho lar and Fe min is t C o n -
fe re n ce has be co me a Ne w Yo rk C it y fe min is t e ve n t , brin gin g
t o ge t he r some six hun dre d wo me n act ivis t s , s cho lars , and
art is t s e ach ye ar. A s e rio us n e s s of purpo s e and ackn o wle dg-
me n t of the difficult ie s of co mbin in g fe min is m and s cho lar-
ship charact e rize t he s e co n fe re n ce s . Jan e Go uld, dire ct o r
of the Barn ard Wo me n 's C e n t e r and part of this pro je ct since
the be gin n in g, has always un de rs t o o d that to be a fe min is t
in the acade my is not an e as y t as k, than one co n s t an t ly
walks a t ight ro pe be t we e n s o -calle d re s pe ct abilit y and radi-
cal t hin kin g. In spite of the difficult ie s , the re wards of
o ur in quiry have be e n e n o rmo us . That is what in s pire s us to
carry o n the pro je ct .
JANIE L. KRITZMAN
The Wo me n 's C e n t e r, Barn ard C o lle ge
Acknowledgments
Pre parin g the ye arly Scho lar and Fe min is t C o n fe re n ce is an
e n o rmo us un de rt akin g for all t ho s e in vo lve d, and e ve ry year
the task be co me s mo re co mple x as the co n fe re n ce gro ws in
size and s co pe . The pre parat io n of a bo o k such as the pre s -
ent an t ho lo gy is e qually difficult . Alt ho ugh the s hapin g of
each co n fe re n ce and e ach an t ho lo gy is the re s po n s ibilit y o f
the acade mic co o rdin at o r and the e dit o r, little co uld be ac-
co mplis he d wit ho ut the he lp of n ume ro us o t he r pe o ple . The
pre s e n t e dit o rs are de light e d to be able to ackn o wle dge he re
their pro fo un d de bt to the Barn ard C o lle ge Wo me n 's C e n t e r
and its de vo t e d s t aff, a de bt s t re t chin g back two and a half
ye ars . The e dit o rs are e qually in de bt e d to the He le n a Rubin -
stein Fo un dat io n , which has funded t he s e co n fe re n ce s for the
past e ight ye ars . In addit io n , they are e xt re me ly grat e ful
to large n umbe rs of o t he r lo cal fe min is t s who took part in
some s t age s of the plan n in g pro ce s s .
As be fit s a fe min is t in s t it ut io n , s uppo rt from the Barn ard
Wo me n 's C e n t e r has be e n s imult an e o us ly pract ical, in t e lle c-
t ual, and e mo t io n al; the ce n t e r is always there whe n n e e de d
mo s t . Jan e Go uld, dire ct o r of the Wo me n 's C e n t e r, has be e n
the guidin g force be hin d the an n ual Scho lar and Fe min is t
C o n fe re n ce s s in ce t he ir in ce pt io n . She mo re than an yo n e e ls e
has give n the co n fe re n ce s t he ir co n t in uit y; he r un ique co n -
t ribut io n has be e n he r vis io n of fe min is m and the wo me n 's
mo ve me n t as a who le , which has pre ve n t e d any co n fe re n ce
from be co min g n arro w or e xclus io n ary. The bre adt h of he r e x-
pe rie n ce has always be e n o ffe re d to us mo s t warmly and ge n -
e ro us ly. In addit io n , he r s upe rb o rgan izat io n of the Wo me n 's
C e n t e r has give n the e dit o rs s mo o t hly fun ct io n in g facilit ie s
in which to wo rk. An yo n e un de rt akin g a s imilar pro je ct kn o ws
ho w rare such facilit ie s are .
Jan ie Krit zman , as s o ciat e dire ct o r of the Wo me n 's C e n t e r,
has s e rve d as e dit o rial co o rdin at o r for this vo lume , as we ll
as as s is t in g in the plan n in g of the s e ve n t h and e ight h co n -
fe re n ce s . Jan ie had o ve rs e e n much of the day-t o -day wo rk
in vo lve d in s o licit in g man us cript s , e dit in g and re vis in g
xiv Acknowledgments
t he m, and che ckin g re vis io n s wit h aut ho rs located all o ve r
the wo rld. In addit io n , she has be e n a liais o n be t we e n two
harrie d e dit o rs wo rkin g in o ppo s it e e n ds of the cit y. Jan -
ie 's calm, he r t act , and he r co n s ide rable un de rs t an din g of
wo me n 's s t udie s , co mbin e d wit h a me t iculo us at t e n t io n to de -
t ail, have be e n crit ical to the s ucce s s of this un de rt ak-
in g.
Ot he rs on the s t aff o f the Wo me n 's C e n t e r have als o co n -
t ribut e d to o ur wo rk amids t t he ir o t he r dut ie s . C hris t in a
Gre e n e , Maria La Sala, and the man y s t ude n t s who have wo rke d
in the Wo me n 's C e n t e r have all, at one time or an o t he r, co n -
t ribut e d time and e ffo rt . Spe cial t han ks are als o due to
He s t e r Eis e n s t e in , fo rme r dire ct o r of the Expe rime n t al St ud-
ies Pro gram at Barn ard, acade mic co o rdin at o r of the s ixt h
Scho lar and Fe min is t C o n fe re n ce , and e dit o r of the firs t an -
t ho lo gy of co n fe re n ce pape rs , titled The Fut ure o f Diffe r-
e n ce . It was large ly t hro ugh he r e ffo rt s that co n fe re n ce
pape rs be gan to be re prin t e d in bo o k fo rm. We are dis ap-
po in t e d that she is no lo n ge r in the Un it e d St at e s and t hus
co uld not be in vo lve d in the pro duct io n of this vo lume .
Fin ally, it is impo rt an t to ackn o wle dge the ro le that the
two co n fe re n ce plan n in g co mmit t e e s playe d in the s hapin g of
co n fe re n ce t he me s , the cho ice of s pe ake rs and wo rks ho p le ad-
ers , and thus the s ubs e que n t co n t e n t s of this vo lume . It
was their e n e rgy and e n t hus ias m that made the co n fe re n ce s e x-
cit in g, and it is that e xcit e me n t that we ho pe is t ran s mit -
ted to o ur re ade rs . C o mmit t e e me mbe rs are ide n t ifie d by the
year or ye ars in which they part icipat e d: Be t t in a Be rch,
1980, 1981; Ro be rt a Be rn s t e in , 1980; Lila Brain e , 1980;
Jan e t C o rpus , 1981; Julie Do ro n , 1980, 1981; Fran ce s
Do ught y, 1980; Jo an Dulchin , 1981; He s t e r Eis e n s t e in , 1980;
We n dy Faire y, 1981; Ire n e Fin e l-Ho n igman , 1980; C at he rin e
Fran ke , 1980; Sus an n e Go rdo n , 1980; At in a Gro s s man , 1981;
Dian e Harrifo rd, 1980, 1981; Elizabe t h Higgin bo t ham, 1981;
Elain e Hughe s , 1980; An ge la Jo rge , 1980; Jacque lin e Le avit t ,
1981; Dian e Le vit t , 1980; She rry Man as s e , 1980, 1981;
C yn t hia No vack, 1980, 1981; Barbara Omo lade , 1980; Elle n
Po llak, 1980; C aro lyn Re e d, 1980; Sus an R. Sacks , 1980,
1981; Mary She e rin , 1981; Barbara Siche rman , 1981; Maxin e
Silve rman , 1980, 1981; Philippa St rum, 1980; An ge la Wils o n ,
1980; Kat hryn B. Yat rakis , 1980; Quan dra St adle r, 1981; and
Laura Whit man , 1981.
To all t he s e pe o ple the e dit o rs e xt e n d t he ir warme s t pe r-
s o n al t han ks .
Han n a Le s s in ge r
Amy Swe rdlo w
Ne w Yo rk C it y, Fe bruary 1982
HANNA LESSINGER and
AMY SWERDLOW
Introduction
The e s s ays in this vo lume are drawn from two co n fe re n ce s ,
the Scho lar and the Fe min is t VII and VIII, pre s e n t e d by the
Barn ard C o lle ge Wo me n 's C e n t e r in the s prin g of 1980 and
1981. Like t he ir pre de ce s s o rs , he ld an n ually s in ce 1974,
bo t h t he s e co n fe re n ce s e xplo re d urge n t and crit ical is s ue s
of co n ce rn to wo me n fro m the van t age po in t o f fe min is t s cho l-
ars hip in all the dis ciplin e s in dialo gue wit h fe min is t act i-
vis m. The go al of the Barn ard co n fe re n ce s from their in ce p-
tion has be e n t wo fo ld: (1) to shed light on wo me n 's role
and s t at us in s o cie t y and on the po s s ibilit ie s for chan ge ,
and (2) to illumin at e the re lat io n s hip be t we e n fe min is t
s cho lars hip and fe min is t act ivis m in o rde r to s t re n gt he n the
co n n e ct io n be t we e n the t wo .
Me e t in g in the fall of 1979, the plan n in g co mmit t e e of the
s e ve n t h Scho lar and Fe min is t C o n fe re n ce co n s ide re d the crit i-
cal is s ue s that wo me n wo uld be facin g in the 1980s . The co m-
mit t e e re co gn ize d that alt ho ugh the de cade of the 1970s had
re ve ale d the po we r of "s is t e rho o d" to in s pire and e n e rgize
t ho us an ds of wo me n to ban d t o ge t he r and chan ge t he ir o wn
live s , it had als o re ve ale d the limit at io n s of "s is t e rho o d"
as a co he s ive po lit ical fo rce capable of achie vin g in s t i-
t ut io n al and po lit ical chan ge . The co mmit t e e , aft e r le n gt hy
de bat e s and de libe rat io n s , de cide d that the mo s t co mpe llin g
is s ue for the 1980s for s cho lars , for act ivis t s , and for all
wo me n was the is s ue of wo me n 's po we r and wo man 's po we rle s s -
n e s s .
Of part icular in t e re s t to the co mmit t e e was the way in
which the primary in s t it ut io n s of po we rt he e co n o my and the
s t at e divide wo me n alo n g the lines of clas s , race , e t hn ici-
t y, and s e xual pre fe re n ce , thus pre ve n t in g them from un it in g
to achie ve and co n s o lidat e e ve n t he ir bas ic and min imal
right s .
The co mmit t e e re co gn ize d that the fe min is t s cho lars hip of
the 1970s , alt ho ugh de vo t e d to a t ho ro ugh in ve s t igat io n o f
the mat e rial, cult ural, and ps ycho lo gical ro o t s of pat riarch-
al o ppre s s io n , had not yet s ufficie n t ly dis t in guis he d the
x v i Introduction
his t o rical part icularit ie s of pat riarchy and its s pe cific
co n t e mpo rary fo rms in diffe re n t clas s e s , race s , and cul-
t ure s , in diffe re n t e co n o mic s ys t e ms , and in diffe re n t part s
of the wo rld. Fo r the mo s t part , co n t e mpo rary fe min is t s
have be e n loath to re co gn ize co n flict amo n g wo me n . They
have t e n de d to ign o re the fact that wo me n of diffe re n t clas s -
es , race s , e t hn ic gro ups , and s e xual pre fe re n ce s have var-
ied , s o me t ime s co n t radict o ry re lat io n s hips to s o cial in s t it u-
t io n s , and e ve n to one an o t he r. While re co gn izin g that
t he re can be clas s co n flict and o ppo s it io n be t we e n the wo man
who e mplo ys a ho us e ho ld wo rke r and the o n e who do e s the paid
ho us e wo rk, the rhe t o ric of the wo me n 's mo ve me n t has tended
to min imize the co n flict and to s t re s s the fact that bo t h
wo me n are s is t e rs in t he ir s e co n dary s t at us to the me n of
their o wn clas s and race , and in t he ir o ppre s s io n by whit e
male e lit e s . An ackn o wle dgme n t of the e xis t e n ce of diffe r-
e n ce , but a re luct an ce to pro be in de pt h its caus e s and its
co n s e que n ce s , has led to gro win g divis io n s wit hin the wo m-
e n 's mo ve me n t , the alie n at io n o f wo me n of co lo r, and dis af-
fe ct io n by t ho s e who pe rce ive the race and clas s privile ge ,
the hie rarchical re lat io n s , and the he t e ro s e xis m of the
larger s o cie t y mirro re d in the wo me n 's right s mo ve me n t and
in fe min is t t he o ry.
The co n fe re n ce plan n in g co mmit t e e , co mpo s e d of Barn ard
facult y and s t ude n t s , plus me mbe rs of the wide r fe min is t co m-
mun it y, re pre s e n t in g wo me n of varie d racial and e t hn ic back-
gro un ds and of diffe re n t o ccupat io n s and acade mic dis ci-
plin e s , cho s e as the t he me for the Scho lar and Fe min is t VII,
"C las s , Race and Se x: Explo rin g C o n t radict io n s Affirmin g
C o n n e ct io n s ." Implicit in the cho ice of this topic was a de -
sire to in ve s t igat e whe t he r, ho w, and un de r what circums t an -
ces the un ive rs al fe male e xpe rie n ce of ge n de r o ppre s s io n
co uld o ve rco me diffe re n ce and co n t radict io n s to cre at e , at
some bo t t o m lin e , the un it y and the co alit io n in s t ruggle
n e ce s s ary fo r wo me n 's e man cipat io n .
The plan n in g co mmit t e e of the Scho lar and Fe min is t VIII,
als o re pre s e n t in g Barn ard wo me n and the fe min is t co mmun it y
at large , de cide d to e labo rat e furt he r on t he s e ide as abo ut
race , s e x, and clas s , and divis io n and un it y amo n g wo me n
rais e d in the pre vio us ye ar. In re s po n s e to a gro win g o n -
s laught on wo me n 's right s and o n fe min is m, co min g bo t h fro m
in s t it ut io n s of the s t at e and from s pe cial in t e re s t gro ups ,
the plan n e rs de cide d to fo cus o n the co n t ro l of wo me n : ho w
they are urge d, pe rs uade d, man ipulat e d, co e rce d, and co n -
t ro lle d in t o t hin kin g and be havin g in ways that do n o t s e rve
their o wn in t e re s t s . The co mmit t e e cho s e as its t o pic, "The
Dyn amics of C o n t ro l," in o rde r to de ve lo p a s ys t e mat ic vie w
of the me chan ics of e co n o mic, po lit ical, and ide o lo gical
Introduction x v ii
co n t ro l impo s e d o n wo me n 's live s , part icularly in the area
of pro duct io n and re pro duct io n . Spe ake rs we re asked to as -
sess the e xt e n t to which the co n t ro l of wo me n is due to pub-
lic po licie s , s o cial in s t it ut io n s , and pat riarchal ide o lo gy
and the e xt e n t to which wo me n pe rpe t uat e their o wn s ubo rdin a-
tion and co n t ro l. In bo t h co n fe re n ce s a ce n t ral is s ue for
co n s ide rat io n was ho w wo me n re s is t divis io n and co n t ro l and
ho w, un de r ce rt ain his t o rical circums t an ce s , they un it e
acro s s clas s and race lin e s to fight for their o wn right s
and for e ach o t he r.
The e s s ays pre s e n t e d in this vo lume ask difficult que s -
t io n s , re je ct co mfo rt able myt hs , s t ruggle to un it e s cho lar-
ship wit h life and t he o ry wit h e xpe rie n ce . The y e xamin e the
co n t radict io n s and co n n e ct io n s of clas s , race , and s e x, of
po we r and po we rle s s n e s s , of diffe re n ce and do min at io n .
The ir go al is n o t to e s t ablis h a un ive rs al t he o ry but to
co un t e ract bias , in diffe re n ce , and impre cis io n in o ur un de r-
s t an din g of wo me n 's o ppre s s io n in o rde r to in cre as e the po s -
s ibilit ie s for co o pe rat io n and un it y amo n g all wo me n .
The e dit o rs ' de cis io n to gro up the pape rs of the s e ve n t h
and e ight h Scho lar and Fe min is t C o n fe re n ce s into a s in gle
vo lume was made whe n it be came cle ar that mo s t of the art i-
cles s ubmit t e d to us shared a co mmo n set of in t e re s t s . Writ -
er aft e r writ e r po in t s o ut that fe min is t t he o ry, to be
e it he r co mpre he n s ive o r e ffe ct ive , mus t mo ve be yo n d the dis -
cus s io n of ge n de r to e n co mpas s the admit t e dly difficult
is s ue s of clas s , of race and e t hn icit y, and of s e xualit y and
s e xual pre fe re n ce . The o t he r co mmo n t hre ad amo n g these wri-
ters is t he ir co n vict io n that the 1980s re pre s e n t a pe rio d
of gre at difficult y, e ve n cris is , for fe min is t act ivit y and
for wo me n in ge n e ral. A co n s e rvat ive backlas h, felt at the
level of public po licy, in majo r in s t it ut io n s , and in the
re alm of ide as , t hre at e n s the le gis lat ive , e co n o mic, and
o rgan izat io n al gain s wo me n have made o ve r the past t we n t y
ye ars . Wo me n 's de man ds are wide ly pe rce ive d as t hre at e n in g:
by the Right , by s e ct io n s of the s t at e , by man y in dividual
wo me n and me n . Wo me n 's de man ds are s e e n as s o me t hin g to be
curt aile d and co n t ro lle d. It is t he re fo re crit ical, as mo s t
of t he s e writ e rs in dicat e , to un de rs t an d the in t e rs e ct io n of
ge n de r wit h race , clas s , or s e xual ide n t it y if the wo me n 's
mo ve me n t is to bro ade n its s co pe .
This kind of fe min is t an alys is is be s t de ve lo pe d out of
clo s e s t udy of part icular gro ups of wo me n at part icular his -
t o rical pe rio ds . Mo s t of the aut ho rs in clude d he re as s ume
that the mult iple s o cial, e co n o mic, po lit ical, and ide o lo gi-
cal in flue n ce s o n wo me n can o n ly be un de rs t o o d in it ially by
e xamin in g t he m in the co n t e xt of s pe cific cas e s . Part I of
this bo o k, "His t o rical Paralle ls ," co n t ain s six pape rs that
xviii Introduction
e xamin e e arlie r pe rio ds of fe min is t act ivit y in o rde r to
rais e que s t io n s abo ut the pre s e n t .
Re n at e Bride n t hal sets out a do min an t theme for the s e c-
tion in he r "No t e s To ward a Fe min is t Diale ct ic." St art in g
fro m paralle ls be t we e n the Un it e d States of the 1980s and
We imar Ge rman y, Bride n t hal argue s that fe min is m go e s t hro ugh
pe rio ds o f advan ce fo llo we d by pe rio ds o f quie s ce n ce as it
s t ruggle s wit h the in e vit able an t ife min is m pro duce d by prio r
fe min is t s ucce s s e s . Jus t such a pe rio d of s t ruggle again s t
an t ife min is m, Bride n t hal be lie ve s , is n o w upo n us . He r dis -
cus s io n als o e mphas ize s the clo s e his t o rical co n n e ct io n s
be t we e n clas s s t ruggle and fe min is m, a t he me t ake n up by
o t he r writ e rs in the bo o k.
The diale ct ic is vis ible again in Judit h Walko wit z's "Male
Vice and Fe male Virt ue : Fe min is m and the Po lit ics of Pro s t i-
t ut io n in Nin e t e e n t h-C e n t ury Brit ain ." Tracin g the de ve lo p-
me n t of late n in e t e e n t h-ce n t ury an t ivice mo ve me n t s dire ct e d
at pro s t it ut io n and po rn o graphy, Walko wit z s ho ws ho w middle -
clas s fe min is t re fo rme rs gradually allie d t he ms e lve s wit h
bo t h wo rkin g-clas s me n and an t ife min is t , re pre s s ive mo ral-
is t s . The bas is of the allian ce was a set o f s hare d ideas
abo ut the ce n t ralit y of the pat riarchal family and the n e e d
to co n t ro l wo rkin g-clas s fe male s e xualit y. By the late
1880s the mo ve me n t had lost its pro gre s s ive and fe min is t di-
re ct io n and was re act io n ary, re pre s s ive , and large ly in male
han ds . Walko wit z's wo rk po in t s to an o t he r re currin g t he me
in this vo lume : not o n ly do clas s e s have o ppo s e d in t e re s t s
in wo me n 's ro le s , but me n and wo me n wit hin the same clas s o f-
ten have co n t radict o ry in t e re s t s .
Eve lyn Bro o ks , writ in g abo ut "The Fe min is t The o lo gy of the
Black Bapt is t C hurch, 1880-1900," implie s that wit hin the
Black co mmun it y of the pe rio d the in t e re s t s of me n and wo me n
we re less an t ago n is t ic t han amo n g t he ir whit e co n t e mpo rar-
ie s . In an o t he r s e ct io n of this bo o k, the pape rs by Eliza-
be t h Higgin bo t ham and C he ryl Gilke s re t urn to t his po in t .
Be caus e Black wo me n Bapt is t s s aw t he ms e lve s as e n gage d in im-
po rt an t wo rk fo r the impro ve me n t o f t he ir race , wo me n we re ,
to a limited e xt e n t , able to bre ak out of their pure ly do me s -
tic ro le s . Us in g t he o lo gical jus t ificat io n s , Black wo me n
we re able to be co me act ive in church and co mmun it y affairs ,
wo rk as e van ge lis t s , e n gage in s o cial re fo rm act ivit ie s , and
ho ld jo bs as t e ache rs , jo urn alis t s , do ct o rs , and writ e rs .
The s e Bapt is t wo me n adapt e d and shaped late n in e t e e n t h-
ce n t ury fe min is m to their o wn n e e ds wit ho ut , acco rdin g to
Bro o ks , drawin g majo r o ppo s it io n fro m me n .
At in a Gro s s man n re t urn s to the e co n o mic and po lit ical s im-
ilarit ie s be t we e n the e arly t we n t ie t h ce n t ury and the pre s -
e n t . In "C ris is , Re act io n , and Re s is t an ce : Wo me n in Ge rma-
Introduction x ix
ny in the 1920s and 1930s ," Gro s s man n addre s s e s he rs e lf to
the vario us at t e mpt s to co n t ro l or re dire ct wo me n 's re pro duc-
t io n and s e xualit y that gre w o ut of Ge rman y's po s t -Wo rld War
I e co n o mic cris is . The s t at e in ge n e ral tried to pro mo t e a
po licy of large familie s s e rvice d by wo me n alre ady pus he d
out of the labor fo rce . The s t at e s imult an e o us ly pro mo t e d
e uge n ic po licie s and advo cat e d s t e rilizat io n for o t he r s e c-
tors of the po pulat io n de e me d "un fit ." The same pe rio d s aw
the de ve lo pme n t of a co un t e rt re n d, the Sex Re fo rm mo ve me n t .
This co alit io n of le ft is t , libe ral, and fe min is t gro ups advo -
cated le galize d abo rt io n , co n t race pt io n , s e x e ducat io n , and
wo me n 's right to s e xual grat ificat io n . Alt ho ugh this mo ve -
me n t imple me n t e d man y pro gre s s ive ide as t hro ugh its clin ics ,
its fe min is t vis io n was limited by the wo rkin g-clas s po lit i-
cal pre o ccupat io n wit h the rise of the Right . As Lis a Dug-
gan n o t e s e ls e whe re in t his bo o k, such re fo rm mo ve me n t s
s t ill saw fe male s e xualit y as pas s ive , e xclus ive ly he t e ro s e x-
ual, and o rie n t e d toward marriage and childbirt h wit hin the
family. Is s ue s of fe male aut o n o my and co n t ro l we re ign o re d.
Gro s s man n sees a po t e n t ial co n flict be t we e n is s ue s of clas s
s t ruggle and is s ue s of fe min is t s t ruggle . Like Bride n t hal,
ho we ve r, she is ho pe ful that the two s t ran ds of re s is t an ce
can re main lin ke d.
Lis a Duggan als o t urn s to the s o cial his t o ry of the 1920s ,
this time in the Un it e d St at e s , to dis cus s links be t we e n fe m-
in is m and le s bian is m. He r art icle , "The So cial En fo rce me n t
of He t e ro s e xualit y and Le s bian Re s is t an ce in the 1920s ," e x-
amin e s the pe rio d's wide s pre ad backlas h again s t the e co n o mic
and po lit ical gain s wo me n had made in the pre vio us de cade .
In the po s t -Wo rld War I wo rld of in dus t rializat io n , e co n o mic
e xpan s io n , and co n s ume ris m, man y of these gain s we re un do n e ,
and fe min is m was charact e rize d as t hre at e n in g. A le s bian
life -s t yle , as one alt e rn at ive to marriage and the pat riarch-
al family, was un de r at t ack. Duggan quo t e s co n t e mpo rary ad-
vice and s e x man uals to good e ffe ct to s ho w jus t ho w the
n o rms of marriage and s e xualit y we re re de fin e d to bo ls t e r
the n ucle ar family again s t the threat posed by fe min is t s ,
s pin s t e rs , le s bian s , and "s e xual de vian t s ," all t ho ught of
as mo re or less in t e rchan ge able . Duggan sees clo s e paral-
lels wit h the pre s e n t , whe n the le s bian or gay alt e rn at ive
to the n ucle ar family is again un de r at t ack fro m co n s e rva-
t ive s who see pat riarchy as t hre at e n e d o n ce mo re by fe male
aut o n o my.
Rayn a Rapp and Elle n Ro s s dis cus s an o t he r as pe ct of the
same pe rio d. In t he ir "The Twe n t ie s ' Backlas h: C o mpuls o ry
He t e ro s e xualit y, the C o n s ume r Family, and the Wan in g o f Fe mi-
n is m," Rapp and Ro s s s t re s s the e co n o mic, s o cial, and po lit i-
cal s hift s that led to the "de mo bilizat io n " of that e arlie r
x x Introduction
fe min is t mo ve me n t . They n o t e n o t o n ly the dire ct at t ack o n
le s bian is m and all ho mo s o cial re lat io n s hips , but als o the
e ro s io n of s e parat e wo me n 's in s t it ut io n s , such as co lle ge s ,
which had fo s t e re d fe male s uppo rt n e t wo rks . The y s ho w ho w
co n s ume ris m and a n e wly de ve lo pe d ado le s ce n t pe e r cult ure in -
t e ract e d wit h Re d-bait in g and a ge n e ral swing to the right
to de s t ro y s o me wo me n 's o rgan izat io n s and chan ge the charac-
ter of o t he rs . Rapp and Ro s s end wit h a ple a that co n t e mpo -
rary fe min is t s learn from the pas t and take s t e ps to avo id a
s imilar dis man t lin g o f their mo ve me n t .
Part II, "The Ne w An t ife min is m," de als e xplicit ly wit h the
co n t e mpo rary co n s e rvat ive t re n ds allude d to in the pre vio us
s e ct io n . Thre e art icle s ide n t ify and an alyze the appe al and
the t act ics of the Ne w Right , which has made an t ife min is m
its ce n t ral and mo s t co mpe llin g is s ue . Zillah Eis e n s t e in ,
in "An t ife min is m and the Ne w Right ," t ackle s the difficult
que s t io n of why vario us kin ds of fe min is m and wo me n 's aut o n o -
my have be e n t arge t e d by the Right . She s e e s co n flict wit h-
in the s t at e o ve r the fo rm of the family mo s t appro priat e to
the pre s e n t s t age of capit alis m. A ce n t e r fact io n , she be -
lie ve s , is willin g to acce pt the t wo -in co me ho us e ho ld. This
fact io n s imply wan t s to mo ve pat riarchal co n t ro l o ve r the in -
cre as in g n umbe r of wo rkin g wo me n from the ho us e ho ld to the
labor marke t . The n e o co n s e rvat ive fact io n wan t s to re t urn
to a "mo ral," o rde re d s o cie t y wit h pat riarchal co n t ro l o ve r
wo me n and t he ir re pro duct ive capacit y firmly re e s t ablis he d
in the family. Bo t h gro ups see the wo me n 's mo ve me n t as a di-
re ct t hre at and are an xio us to dis man t le it . Eis e n s t e in be -
lie ve s t he s e t re n ds are o ppo s e d by a gro win g n umbe r of wo m-
e n , alre ady radicalize d on a n umbe r of e co n o mic is s ue s , but
not yet o rgan ize d. It is t he s e wo me n , wit h t he ir n as ce n t
fe min is t co n s cio us n e s s , who m Eis e n s t e in fe e ls the wo me n 's
mo ve me n t mus t n o w addre s s .
Jan Ro s e n be rg, in he r "Fe min is m, the Family, and the Ne w
Right ," ide n t ifie s the same ge n e ral s o cial and e co n o mic up-
he avals that o t he r aut ho rs n o t e . She s e e s rapid s o cial
chan ge as the root of bo t h fe min is m and the rise of the
Right . Un like o t he r writ e rs in t his bo o k, ho we ve r, Ro s e n -
be rg co n n e ct s wo rkin g-clas s fe male re s po n s ive n e s s to the Ne w
Right dire ct ly to fe min is t e rro rs . She blame s the wo me n 's
mo ve me n t of the 1960s and 1970s for n arcis s is m, in dividual-
is m, and a "s hare d de n igrat io n of family life ." Family
life , Ro s e n be rg s ays , is ce n t ral to wo rkin g-clas s wo me n 's
live s . She s ugge s t s that the capacit y of fe min is m to s ur-
vive the o n s laught from the Right de pe n ds o n its abilit y to
acco mmo dat e to the family, rat he r t han de man din g its o blit e r-
at io n .
Like Ro s e n be rg, Lis a De s po s it o is co n ce rn e d wit h a whit e ,
Introduction x x i
e t hn ic wo rkin g clas s which, she be lie ve s , e mbrace s right -
win g is s ue s out of fear that a value d way of life is abo ut
to be swept away by tides of s o cial chan ge . In "The Ne w
Right and the Abo rt io n Is s ue ,"* De s po s it o carrie s he r an aly-
sis furt he r, ho we ve r. She s t re s s e s the ways in which a
rault iface t e d Ne w Right co alit io n , in allian ce wit h the C at ho -
lic church and o t he r re ligio us o rgan izat io n s , act ive ly man ip-
ulat e s t he s e fe ars to build a fraudule n t an t ife min is t "co n -
s e n s us ." De s po s it o als o in s is t s that fe min is t s mus t ke e p
t ryin g to re ach such pe o ple , be caus e there is , in fact , some
ground for agre e me n t and allian ce . De s po s it o implie s that
there is a s t ran d of libe ral, e ve n pro gre s s ive , t hin kin g
amo n g man y wo rkin g-clas s pe o ple , which make s them ho s t ile to
the Right 's at t e mpt to le gis lat e away wo me n 's re pro duct ive
right s .
As t he s e brie f co mme n t s on the pre ce din g pape rs have in di-
cat e d, one writ e r aft e r an o t he r has ide n t ifie d the divis io n s
of clas s , race , or s e xual o rie n t at io n that s o w dis un it y
amo n g wo me n and hampe r e ffo rt s to o rgan ize wide r co alit io n s .
As vario us pape rs have als o po in t e d o ut , t he s e divis io n s and
an t ago n is ms in t e n s ify in t ime s of e co n o mic s carcit y and
s harpe n e d clas s s t ruggle . The s e ve n pape rs that fo llo w in
Part III, "Ge n de r, C las s , and Race ," re pre s e n t at t e mpt s to
e xamin e s pe cific is s ue s that divide wo me n by s t ruct urin g
t he ir s uppo s e dly co mmo n ge n de r e xpe rie n ce s in diffe re n t
ways . Se ve ral writ e rs als o t o uch on the is s ue of co n s cio us -
n e s s , n o t in g that clas s and race o ft e n shape wo me n 's un de r-
s t an din g of their o bje ct ive s it uat io n s and thus fre que n t ly
divide t he m. In addit io n , all t he s e pape rs insist that
clas s and race are an in t e gral part of fe min is t t he o ry.
Nan cy Hart s o ck s t art s from the pro po s it io n that diffe re n ce
do e s not need to cre at e re lat io n s of do min at io n be t we e n
gro ups . He r art icle , "Diffe re n ce and Do min at io n in the Wo m-
e n 's Mo ve me n t : The Diale ct ic of The o ry and Pract ice ," e xam-
ines the way in which the wo me n 's mo ve me n t has de alt wit h
(or failed to de al wit h) the diffe re n ce s of clas s and race
wit hin its ran ks . Hart s o ck claims that the curre n t co n ce rn
abo ut racis m in the wo me n 's mo ve me n t in dicat e s the co n t in u-
ing difficult y of de alin g wit h is s ue s of diffe re n ce while
als o in dicat in g a co lle ct ive e xpre s s io n of fe min is t willin g-
n e s s to re t hin k the s ign ifican ce of diffe re n ce s . She s ug-
*Lis a De s po s it o 's art icle is the o n ly pape r not o rigin ally
de live re d at a Scho lar and Fe min is t C o n fe re n ce . Rat he r,
De s po s it o spoke at a Wo me n 's Is s ue s Lun che o n , s po n s o re d by
the Barn ard Wo me n 's C e n t e r in the fall o f 1980, whe n the
e ight h Scho lar and Fe min is t C o n fe re n ce was be in g plan n e d.
xxii Introduction
gests that the socially structured recognition of "other-
ness" need not imply domination or exclusion as it has done
in the past. Once the links between power and difference
are severed, Hartsock says, difference may become a source
of creativity and strength to women.
Bonnie Thornton Dill lays out the profound gulf between
Black and white women in her ar t i cl e, '"On the Hem of Life
1
:
Race, Class, and the Prospects for Sisterhood." According
to Dill, the feminist concept of sisterhood, uniting al l wom-
en, has l i t t l e relevance for Black women to whom racial con-
sciousness has always been primary. She describes the recur-
rent fear among Black women that the white women's movement,
largely bourgeois and highly individualistic, will abandon
Blacks at cri t i cal moments in pursuit of benefits for white
women only. In suggesting that feminists should study ques-
tions of ideology, presentation of self, distribution of pow-
er, and the material circumstances shaping Black women's
l i ves, Dill is optimistic about an eventual alliance between
feminists and Black women.
Nancy Boyd Franklin' s ar t i cl e, "Black Family Life-Styles:
A Lesson in Survival," examines difference from the perspec-
tive of ethnic family l i fe-st yl e. She counters the deficit
view of the Black family perpetrated by white social scien-
t i s t s , stating that Black women may choose not to par t i ci -
pate in the women's movement because they perceive i t as
anti-family and highly individualistic. She calls our atten-
tion to the survival mechanisms of the Black familya
product of extended family networks and a history of oppres-
sionand proposes that these coping strategies serve as a
model for other oppressed groups. Citing from her work as a
clinical psychologist, she describes the difficulties faced
by the Black woman, who must struggle to develop an autono-
mous self while defining herself in relation to a large fami-
ly network system.
Elizabeth Higginbotham
1
s "Laid Bare by the System" r ei t er -
ates the point that the women's movement ignores women of
color because it has not understood the real i t i es of racial
oppression or the economic exploitation stemming from i t .
In surveying the experience of various racial ethnic groups,
Higginbothara cites a range of features that set women of
color off from middle-class white women. Among them are a
greater equality between the sexes, the variety of family
forms that developed as survival strategies of the op-
pressed, and the sheer value of the family to such women.
She also notes the segregation of the labor force, which
means that Black and Hispanic women's distribution in the
work force always differs from that of white women. This in
turn contributes to the slower, more difficult economic as-
Introduction xxiii
s imilat io n of racial e t hn ics into U.S. s o cie t y. An ge la
Jo rge 's "Is s ue s of Race and C las s in Wo me n 's St udie s : A Pue r-
to Rican Wo man 's Tho ught s " make s a s imilar ple a that the
wo me n 's mo ve me n t , and part icularly the dis ciplin e of wo me n 's
s t udie s , take in t o co n s ide rat io n the s e parat e his t o ry and o p-
pre s s io n o f Pue rt o Rican wo me n . Ot he rwis e , Jo rge warn s ,
there will be two wo me n 's mo ve me n t s in s t e ad of o n e .
Ro s alin d Po llack Pe t che s ky, writ in g abo ut "Re pro duct io n
and C las s Divis io n s amo n g Wo me n ," o ffe rs a crit ique of the
way man y fe min is t s and Marxis t s have de alt wit h the in t e rs e c-
tion of ge n de r and clas s . Go in g be yo n d the pro po s it io n that
me n and wo me n in the same clas s have co n flict in g in t e re s t s ,
Pe t che s ky pro po s e s that wo me n wit hin the same clas s may als o
have o ppo s in g in t e re s t s in the que s t io n s of wo rk and re pro -
duct io n . She s ugge s t s that wo me n have an in dividual clas s
po s it io n of t he ir o wn which is de fin e d part ially by each wo m-
an 's linked de cis io n s , made e arly in life , e it he r to wo rk
mo s t of he r life or to have man y childre n . The e ffe ct s of
these de cis io n s are , in t urn , me diat e d by e ach wo man 's
family-de rive d clas s backgro un d. The wo rkin g-clas s wo man
who e mbarks on a life of high fe rt ilit y and low wo rk-fo rce
part icipat io n lives t hro ugh very diffe re n t e xpe rie n ce s than
the middle -clas s wo man who make s a s imilar de cis io n .
Diffe re n t s t ill is the life of the wo rkin g-clas s wo man who
has o pt e d for low fe rt ilit y and high wo rk-fo rce
part icipat io n . Pe t che s ky argue s that fe min is t s need to
un de rs t an d mo re cle arly t his re lat io n s hip be t we e n pro duct io n
and bio lo gical re pro duct io n . She go e s on to po in t o ut that
wo me n wit h high fe rt ilit y and low wo rk-fo rce part icipat io n
share one t rait : t he ir re lat ive de pe n de n ce on me n and the
family. She s ugge s t s that it is this gro up of wo me n who are
most re s po n s ive to right -win g appe als in de fe n s e of the
family, s in ce their mat e rial in t e re s t s are so clo s e ly tied
to it .
Lo urde s Be n e ria and Git a Sen in t he ir pape r, "C las s and
Ge n de r In e qualit ie s and Wo me n 's Ro le in Eco n o mic De ve lo p-
me n t : The o re t ical and Pract ical Implicat io n s ," crit icize
the e co n o mic de ve lo pme n t lit e rat ure for its failure to e xam-
ine the in t e ract io n of capit al fo rmat io n , clas s , and ge n de r
re lat io n s . Like Pe t che s ky, they s t re s s the fact that a wo m-
an 's clas s po s it io n s t ruct ure s the me an in g of ge n de r for he r
and may set he r in o ppo s it io n to o t he r wo me n , s in ce clas s is
n e ce s s arily an an t ago n is t ic re lat io n s hip. On e of the po in t s
s t re s s e d by the aut ho rs is that a clas s an alys is wit ho ut
co n s ide rat io n of ge n de r, or ge n de r an alys is wit ho ut co n s id-
e rat io n of clas s , will fail to be n e fit wo me n . Drawin g o n
the e xample of right is t wo me n 's o rgan izat io n in C hile un de r
Alle n de , Be n e ria and Sen o ffe r a part icular warn in g to those
x x iv Introduction
co n ce rn e d wit h s o cialis t de ve lo pme n t : if de ve lo pme n t plan s ,
ho we ve r ge are d toward the wo rkin g clas s , fail to addre s s
wo me n 's part icular in t e re s t s , wo me n will be co me a po t e n t
source of re act io n ary o ppo s it io n .
Part IV of t his vo lume , "C o n t ro l t hro ugh In s t it ut io n and
Ide o lo gy," lo o ks at s o me s pe cific ways wo me n are co n t ro lle d
and man ipulat e d. Of the s ix pape rs , some de al wit h in s t it ut -
io n s , such as we lfare or the legal s ys t e m, that imple me n t
po licy t o ward wo me n . The s e po licie s have built into t he m as -
s umpt io n s abo ut wo me n 's ro le s , s e xualit y, clas s , and race .
Ot he r pape rs in t his s e ct io n de al primarily wit h ide o lo gy.
The y s ho w the s ubt le ways in which wo me n are bro ught to ac-
cept image s of t he ms e lve s , us ually fals e and damagin g. Ide -
o lo gy is part icularly po we rful in co n vin cin g wo me n to in t e r-
n alize t he ir o wn co n t ro l.
Nadin e Taub, in "De fin in g and C o mbat in g Se xual Haras s -
me n t ," t alks abo ut the ways in which fe min is t s , lawye rs , and
the co urt s have be gun to de fin e s e xual haras s me n t and to de -
ve lo p me chan is ms for halt in g it . Taub, who has the act ivis t
vie wpo in t of a fe min is t lawye r, s ho ws ho w s e xual haras s me n t
it s e lf o pe rat e s as a fo rm of co n t ro l o ve r wo me n , by re min d-
ing them of t he ir t radit io n al ro le as s e x o bje ct s and by
s t re s s in g their in appro priat e n e s s and in co mpe t e n ce in the
wo rk place . Taub in dicat e s that the haras s me n t is in t e rwo v-
en wit h chan gin g male -fe male re lat io n s and s hift in g ide as
abo ut s e xual e xpre s s io n . Taub als o de mo n s t rat e s ho w me chan -
is ms to stop s e xual haras s me n t can turn into po t e n t ial we ap-
ons in the han ds of whit e me n who pro s e cut e s e xual haras s -
me n t charge s again s t min o rit y o r radical me n but n o t again s t
mo re po we rful me n .
Be t t ylo u Vale n t in e e xamin e s the racis m, s e xis m, and clas s
pre judice again s t the po o r in co rpo rat e d into the s ys t e m o f
public we lfare . He r "Wo me n o n We lfare : Public Po licy and
In s t it ut io n al Racis m" t race s the de ve lo pme n t of the Aid to
Familie s wit h De pe n de n t C hildre n (AFDC ) pro gram. She s ug-
ge s t s that the s ys t e m n o w fun ct io n s to re e n fo rce fe male s ub-
o rdin at io n and to co n t ro l wo me n 's wo rk-fo rce part icipat io n .
Mo re t han 40 pe rce n t of AFDC re cipie n t s are whit e , Vale n t in e
n o t e s , but the clas s ic image is that of a s hift le s s Black
mo t he r, too lazy to wo rk. Vale n t in e 's figure s als o s ho w the
gro win g po ve rt y of bo t h Blacks and wo me n , which leads he r to
co n clude that po ve rt y and we lfare are fe min is t is s ue s . She
s ugge s t s s ho rt -t e rm go als , s uch as he lpin g wo me n win the as -
s is t an ce to which they are e n t it le d, but she s e e s the lo n g-
t e rm s o lut io n in the pro vis io n of ade quat e ly paid wo rk for
e ve ryo n e in the s o cie t y.
C he ryl To wn s e n d Gilke s co n fro n t s an o t he r de ro gat o ry image
of Black wo me n . In "Fro m Slave ry to So cial We lfare : Racis m
Introduction x x v
and the C o n t ro l of Black Wo me n ," Gilke s s ho ws ho w whit e cul-
ture has pun is he d Black wo me n for their pre e min e n t ro le s in
their familie s and co mmun it ie s and for their s pe cial re la-
t io n s hip wit h Black me n . The do min an t cult ure has labe le d
Black wo me n "de vian t ," bad mo t he rs , and highly dan ge ro us in -
dividuals . In he r mo s t e xt e n de d e xample , Gilke s cit e s the
n o t o rio us Mo yn ihan Re po rt , which art iculat e d and publicize d
these image s at a time whe n Black wo me n we re part icularly ac-
tive in local po lit ics . As a re s ult , Black wo me n have be e n
forced to e xpe n d their e n e rgy in jus t ifyin g their act ivit ie s
to Black me n as we ll as to the whit e wo rld. Ne ve rt he le s s ,
Gilke s co n clude s that Black wo me n s t ill de fin e t he ir majo r
pro ble m as racis m. She warn s that co n s e rvat ive s are again
trying to is o lat e and co n t ain min o rit y pe o ple t hro ugh an at -
tack on min o rit y wo me n .
Fran cin e Quaglio illus t rat e s the way pat riarchal ide als
are e mbe dde d in C at ho lic do ct rin e in he r "Re ligio n as an In -
s t rume n t of So cial C o n t ro l." In s pit e of its co n t e n t io n
that wo man , s ymbo lize d by the Virgin Mary, is all-po we rful,
C at ho licis m act ually sees the Virgin , and all mo rt al wo me n ,
as de pe n de n t , pas s ive , and s e lf-abn e gat in g. Quaglio n o t e s
that t he o lo gy s t ruct ure s re alit y for be lie ve rs , so that it
is lo gical that s uch a t he o lo gical s ys t e m will seek to ally
it s e lf wit h "o t he r s o cial fo rce s . . . pro je ct in g s imilar im-
age s of co n t ro l," such as the Ne w Right .
Lillian Ro bin s o n an alyze s an o t he r s ys t e m of ide as as pre -
sented through the me dia. He r "Wo me n , Me dia, and the Diale c-
tics of Re s is t an ce " go e s be yo n d the us ual fe min is t accus a-
t io n s of me dia s e xis m. Alt ho ugh t he re are still ple n t y of
t he s e s e xis t image s of wo me n aro un d, Ro bin s o n s ays , there
have als o be e n s hift s and chan ge s ; mo vie s and t e le vis io n n o w
o ffe r a bro ade r range of image s and ide as abo ut familie s ,
wo me n , min o rit ie s , and ho mo s e xuals . The pre s e n t pro ble m,
she in dicat e s , is mo re in s idio us . The me dia, whe n they do
s ho w t he s e n e w fo rms of family and s e xual re lat io n s hip,
imply that such t hin gs are n o rmal, e ve n co mmo n place . Wo m-
e n 's long s t ruggle to achie ve chan ge is thus quie t ly n e ga-
t e d. The wo me n 's mo ve me n t it s e lf is s t ill caricat ure d, if
s ho wn at all. Furt he rmo re , as the me dia as s imilat e the s e x-
ual re vo lut io n , they are s ho win g mo re e xplicit s e xualit y,
mo re vio le n ce again s t wo me n and childre n , and mo re fe male
charact e rs who s e s o le fun ct io n in the s t o ry is s e xual. Whe n
fe min is t s try to o ppo s e t he s e t re n ds , they find t he ms e lve s
in an in t e n s e ly co n t radict o ry allian ce wit h the Right .
Elle n Willis 's art icle , "The C halle n ge of Pro family Po li-
t ics : A Fe min is t De fe n s e of Se xual Fre e do m," t ake s up the
t he me of fe min is t an t is e xual at t it ude s and s e xual re pre s s io n
on the cult ural and in dividual le ve ls . Willis ide n t ifie s a
x x v i Introduction
t e n de n cy in the wo me n 's mo ve me n t she labe ls "n e o -Vict o rian ."
Made up of le s bian and s t raight wo me n , this gro up cat e go r-
izes male s e xualit y as vio le n t and be s t ial, in co n t ras t to
the ge n t le , s uppo rt ive , and e mo t io n al fe male varie t y. Ado p-
t io n of t he s e s t e re o t ype s , Willis s ugge s t s , leads man y fe min -
ists into an un wit t in g allian ce wit h the Right . She re co m-
me n ds that this t he o re t ical impas s e be bro ke n by a fe min is t
re e xamin at io n of as s umpt io n s abo ut s e xualit y and s e xual lib-
e rat io n . The cre at io n of a true s e xual libe rat io n mus t de -
ve lo p, Willis be lie ve s , in a re s hapin g of male /fe male re la-
t io n s and in dras t ically alt e re d child-re arin g pract ice s .
Take n t o ge t he r, t he s e e s s ays illumin at e and e n rich e ach
o t he r, as one writ e r aft e r an o t he r adds he r part icular pe r-
s pe ct ive to the o n go in g pro ce s s of fe min is t t he o ry buildin g.
While t he s e e s s ays are a be gin n in g, they do n o t pre t e n d to
o ffe r an y final s o lut io n . Ne ve rt he le s s , t he s e aut ho rs o ffe r
s t rat e gie s and que s t io n s for re s e arch and o rgan izin g. What
the art icle s in t his vo lume s ucce e d in s ho win g is the co n t in -
ued s t re n gt h and vit alit y of a mo ve me n t t hat , ho we ve r divid-
e d, co n t in ue s to be willin g to e xamin e its o wn diffe re n ce s
and co n t radict io n s .
Parti
RENATE BRIDENTHAL
Notes toward a Feminist Dialectic (1981)
The co n t e mpo rary wo me n 's mo ve me n t has o ft e n seen it s e lf as
o rgan ize d to re s is t o ppre s s io n . The pro ble m wit h that co n -
cept is that it appe ars to leave the in it iat ive to the
o ppre s s o r. It o ve rlo o ks the fact t hat , his t o rically, o ppre s -
sion has he ight e n e d whe n the rulin g gro up, t hre at e n e d by
in it iat ive s from t ho s e it o ppre s s e s , has be e n re s is t an t .
We re that not s o , we wo uld have po lit ical s t as is wit h little
chan ge in the le ve ls of e xplo it at io n and o ppre s s io n and the
o ppo s it io n to t he s e . In fact , s t ruggle s for libe rat io n re -
sult from co n t in uin g in it iat ive s , re s is t e d by those who s e
po we r they challe n ge , but als o , s adly, by e le me n t s wit hin
the gro up s e e kin g libe rat io n . The re is e xt e rn al and in t e r-
n al re s is t an ce to fo rward mo ve me n t and fre e do m.
The forward mo ve me n t I me an is that of o ppre s s e d gro ups t o -
ward e qualit y. I will argue he re that fe min is m, in part icu-
lar, is a child of clas s s t ruggle and has e vo lve d wit h it
o n bo t h s ide s o f t hat s t ruggle . It has o ft e n be e n n o t e d
that wo me n are mo s t free to part icipat e in s o cie t y whe n
there is dis rupt io n , such as civil o r fo re ign war. Wo me n on
bo t h s ide s of such co n flict , in t ryin g to part icipat e mo re
fully, find t he ms e lve s bo t h n e e de d and blo cke d. The y be co me
s t imulat e d by that co n t radict io n to fe min is t in s ight s , even
whe n they s e e m to be fight in g t he m. Ho we ve r, not un t il the
n in e t e e n t h ce n t ury did fe min is m be co me a s us t ain e d mo ve me n t .
This was po s s ible t han ks to urban izat io n , ge o graphical mo -
bilit y, and abo ve all, impro ve d co mmun icat io n s . Ide o lo gical-
ly, fe min is m de vo lve d fro m bo urge o is ide o lo gy wit h its as -
s umpt io n s of fo rmal civil e qualit y, yet it was co n t radict e d
by bo urge o is s o cie t y wit h its act ual e co n o mic, s o cial, and
po lit ical in e qualit ie s . Art iculat e d s o cialis m was fed by
the same s t re am. Thus , bo t h the spur to o rgan ize d fe min is m
and the me an s to make it po s s ible be came available at the
same t ime , not by co in cide n ce , of co urs e , since capit alis t
de ve lo pme n t cre at e d bo t h. And alt ho ugh the t ide s of its
o rgan izat io n advan ce and re ce de , fe min is m as a form of
aware n e s s and as in t e n t io n has re main e d at least lat e n t ly
pre s e n t since t he n .
4 Historical Parallels
The s e n o t e s t o ward a fe min is t diale ct ic are pro mpt e d by my
curre n t re s e arch on Ge rman wo me n be t we e n the two wo rld wars ,
a topic always o ve rhun g by in t imat io n s of fas cis m ahe ad.
Two t ho ught s guide my wo rk:
1. What was wo me n 's re lat io n s hip to fe min is m aft e r they wo n
s uffrage ? Did fe min is m die , as some have s ugge s t e d?
2. What was wo me n 's re lat io n s hip to cre e pin g and s ucce s s ful
fas cis m?
Ge rman wo me n are part icularly acce s s ible to re s e arche rs be -
caus e We imar Ge rman y was a highly as s o ciat io n al s o cie t y and
man y wo me n als o o rgan ize d in t o gro ups . I am re s e archin g the
in t e ract io n of o rgan ize d wo me n 's e co n o mic in t e re s t gro ups
wit h ge n e ral n at io n al po lit ics in Ge rman y un de r the We imar
Re public, 1919-1933, up to t he s e gro ups ' dis s o lut io n in 1934
un de r Nat io n al So cialis m. I am fin din g that wo me n 's e co n o m-
ic and po lit ical o rgan izat io n and t he ir ge n de r s e lf-aware -
n e s s at t e n de d majo r s hift s in the o rgan izat io n o f pro duc-
t io n , that this in vo lve d s t ruggle not only wit h me n in the
same are n a, but als o amo n g wo me n of diffe re n t clas s e s , and
that this s t ruggle in vo lve d dive rs e s t rat e gie s , some of
which be came s e lf-de fe at in g. Thus , some wo me n 's in t e re s t
gro ups s uppo rt e d s uppo rt e d Nat io n al So cialis m, though ge n de r
in e qualit y was part of its philo s o phy and po licy.
Be t we e n the two wo rld wars , the Ge rman e co n o my re o rgan ize d
dras t ically un de r the pre s s ure s of in t e rn at io n al trade co mpe -
t it io n , re parat io n s payme n t s , and the ambit io n to be co me a
le adin g wo rld po we r o n ce mo re . In t e n s ifie d mo n o po lizat io n
and n at io n alizat io n of in dus t ry re s t ruct ure d the s e x-s e gre -
gated labor marke t , alre ady dis lo cat e d be caus e of the dis pro -
po rt io n at e n umbe r of male de at hs in Wo rld War I. Mas s co n -
s umpt io n cre at e d n e w marke t s and n e w dis t ribut ive fo rms ,
such as the de part me n t s t o re , wit h acco mpan yin g chan ge s in
the n at ure and n umbe r o f s ale s pe rs o n n e l. An in e fficie n t
agricult ural s e ct o r failed to halt rural-urban migrat io n ,
which adde d to urban un e mplo yme n t while cre at in g labor s ho rt -
age s in the co un t rys ide .
A majo r e ffe ct of t he s e chan ge s was to re lo cat e wo me n in
vario us jo bs , in t e n s ifyin g the e co n o mic war be t we e n the s e x-
e s and its s ubje ct ive re act io n s : bo t h a he ight e n e d fe min is m
and its o ppo s it e , n o s t algia for wo me n 's re t urn to the do me s -
tic s phe re . Wo me n 's re s po n s e to t he ir n e w s it uat io n als o
had a clas s dime n s io n which be came in cre as in gly impo rt an t un -
de r the e co n o mic pre s ure s of in flat io n and de pre s s io n , wit h
the re s ult that wo me n in cre as in gly e xpre s s e d the is s ue s that
divide d t he m rat he r t han t ho s e that might have un it e d t he m.
An o t he r re as o n for this phe n o me n o n is that the re public e x-
Toward a Feminist Dialectic 5
pan de d s uffrage to in clude wo me n , so an e arlie r un ifyin g is -
sue was no longer pre s e n t . In fact , s uffrage pro vide d one
in s t rume n t by which wo me n of diffe re n t clas s e s e xpre s s e d
t he ir s o me t ime s co n flict in g in t e re s t s .
Ho we ve r, e ve n co n s e rvat ive , an t ife min is t wo me n found t he m-
s e lve s , in the co urs e of the co n t in uin g clas s s t ruggle of
the 1920s and 1930s , pre s s in g for t he ir in t e re s t s in vario us
public fo rums , such as the parliame n t , chambe rs of agricul-
t ure and co mme rce , and the pre s s . Wo me n de man de d re pre s e n t a-
t io n , le git imacy, and a public vo ice . The y be gan to act
like fe min is t s , de bat in g s t rat e gie s o f s e x-s e parat is t ve rs us
s e x-in t e grat e d po lit ical act ivit y, and in s is t e d o n t he ir im-
po rt an ce as wo me n to the large r s o cial good as they de -
fined it .
In t his art icle , I will advan ce some t he o re t ical pro po s i-
t io n s e me rgin g from my e mpirical re s e arch. They pe rt ain to
the n at ure of fe min is m, which n o w s e e ms mo re co mple x than I
us e d to t hin k.
Firs t , some ge n e ralizat io n s abo ut what fe min is m is n o t :
1. It is not a t he o ry, in the s e n s e of be in g a t o t al
e xplan at io n of human be havio r.
2. It is not a po s it io n or a pro gram, in the s e n s e of
havin g fin al, un ive rs al, ahis t o rical go als , though
s pe cific pro grams may sound s o .
3. It is not me re ly a pe rs pe ct ive , e it he r, in the s e n s e
of be in g the vie w fro m wo man 's place , t ho ugh it
do e s in clude that me an in g. Wo man 's place , and
t he re fo re he r vie w, chan ge s in time and place , that
is , his t o rically and cult urally. It als o diffe rs by
s o cial clas s . Thus , we as s e s s e ach o f s e ve ral pas t
po in t s on the line fro m a mo vin g po in t on that lin e .
The pe rs pe ct ive re quire s in t e rpre t at io n .
Se co n dly, some t ho ught s on what fe min is m is :
It is s o me t hin g ve ry o bvio us , that we have all be e n s ayin g
for o ve r a de cade : it is a co min g-t o -co n s cio us n e s s . Ho w-
e ve r, t his co min g-t o -co n s cio us n e s s has a part icular fo rm.
That form is of an e vo lut io n that is birt he d t hro ugh clas s
s t ruggle , but that advan ce s t hro ugh a s t ruggle of its o wn
again s t re s is t an ce , bo t h e xt e rn al (s uch as s o cial barrie rs ,
male o ppo s it io n ) and in t e rn al (such as ps ycho lo gical barri-
e rs , fe male o ppo s it io n ). Fe min is m is the gro win g aware n e s s
of bo un darie s , n o w pe rce ive d as s urmo un t able . It cre at e s o p-
po s it io n , that is , an t ife min is m, not o n ly to mo ve me n t , but
to the ve ry ide a of such an e galit arian pe rce pt io n . Fe min -
is m is the co n s cio us n e s s of wo me n as s e parat e s e lve s which
wo me n de rive fro m act ual act ivit y in o t he r s t ruggle s , such
as abo lit io n is m, civil right s , or clas s co n flict , and which
be co me s art iculat e d as an ide o lo gy of ge n de r e qualit y. It
is a de pe n de n t variable that be co me s an in de pe n de n t variable
o ve r t ime . In o t he r wo rds , fe min is m de rive s from alt e re d re -
lat io n s hips wit h the s o cial wo rld and then s e lf-co n s cio us ly
aims at furt he r alt e rat io n in such re lat io n s hips .
I am po s it in g fe min is m as be in g in a diale ct ical re lat io n -
ship to the s o cial wo rld. At e ach e n co un t e r, it co n fro n t s
its re s is t an ce , an t ife min is m, and co mpe ls it als o to take
his t o rical s hape . It cre at e s its o wn art iculat e d o ppo s it e
in co n s cio us an t ife min is m. In the e n s uin g s t ruggle , ho w-
e ve r, wo me n who jo in the re s is t an ce to fe min is m als o t ran s -
fo rm t he ir re lat io n s hip to the s o cial wo rld. By t akin g pub-
lic act io n , they he lp to bre ak do wn the very barrie rs they
have cho s e n to de fe n d. Thus , fe min is m has gro wn from a re la-
t ive ly e lit e mo ve me n t in the n in e t e e n t h ce n t ury to a much
mo re bro adly bas e d mo ve me n t in the t we n t ie t h ce n t ury wit h
glo bal re pe rcus s io n s . This has happe n e d not just t hro ugh a
t rickle -do wn e ffe ct , n o r s imply t hro ugh o s mo s is , acco mmo da-
t io n , or an y o t he r po ro us in t e rpre t at io n , but t hro ugh co n -
s t an t , act ive s t ruggle again s t its o wn n e gat io n .
Jus t as clas s s t ruggle is co n t in uo us , but e xplo de s into
o ve rt clas s co n flict at ce rt ain his t o rical mo me n t s , so fe min -
ism has a s imilar diale ct ical mo ve me n t . In be t we e n his t o ri-
cal mo me n t s of art iculat e d pro grammat ic fe min is m, such as o c-
curre d in t he s e co n d halve s of the n in e t e e n t h and t we n t ie t h
ce n t urie s , fe min is m as a part o f co lle ct ive co n s cio us n e s s
pe rs is t s , co n s o lidat in g and in t e grat in g its gain s , as s e s s in g
its lo s s e s , un t il n e w barrie rs are e xpe rie n ce d. The n it
e me rge s again wit h a fre s hly art iculat e d pro gram.
Thus wo me n dis co ve re d that the vo t e was not e n o ugh. We
will dis co ve r that the ERA is not e n o ugh, as have wo me n in
s o cialis t co un t rie s whe re e qual right s have long be e n co n s t i-
t ut io n ally guaran t e e d. Each n e w pro gram will have to ad-
dre s s the part icular his t o rical and cult ural s it uat io n wit h-
in which its fe min is t co n s cio us n e s s co me s into be in g, un t il
a s o cial in fras t ruct ure e xis t s that allo ws wo me n to co me to
full po t e n t ial and un t il the s o cial n o rm acco mmo dat e s o ur
life cycle wit h its re pro duct ive implicat io n s as we ll as it
do e s me n 's .
The mo de ls of diale ct ical fe min is m, a pro ce s s of co min g-
t o -co n s cio us n e s s t hro ugh s t ruggle , who s e ve ry e n gin e is co n -
t radict io n and re s is t an ce , can be de rive d from the Fre udian ,
the He ge lian , and the Marxian diale ct ics .
The ps ycho an alyt ic mo de l s ho ws s t ruggle in the in dividual
are n a. He re , mat e rial ris in g fro m the un co n s cio us to the
co n s cio us min d do e s so again s t a s t ro n g pull of re s is t an ce
to the aware n e s s of fo rbidde n de s ire s . Pro gre s s in ps ycho an -
alys is is not s mo o t hly lin e ar, but pro ce e ds wit h wave s of re -
gre s s io n , balan cin g out for long pe rio ds in the limbo of
half-co n s cio us n e s s . Each of us as fe min is t s e xpe rie n ce s s im-
ilar re s is t an ce to full aware n e s s as o ur fe ars of re s po n s i-
bilit y and of re t ribut io n co n fro n t o ur de s ire s for full s o -
cial adult ho o d. Each of us is one un it in a co lle ct ive ,
which co lle ct ive ly un de rgo e s that e xpe rie n ce of pus hin g fo r-
ward and pullin g back.
He ge l's mo de l in the Phe n o me n o lo gy o f Min d, an alyze s hu-
man e vo lut io n of co n s cio us n e s s o ve r t ime , be gin n in g wit h the
co n flict -fille d re lat io n s of s lave ve rs us mas t e r. Acco rdin g
to this vie w, the e n s lave d human re alize s his o wn human it y
and thus co me s to co n s cio us n e s s in two ways : (1) t hro ugh his
labo r, which re ve als to him his cre at ive s e lf, t ran s fo rmin g
the n at ural wo rld in t o o bje ct s fo r s o cial us e , and (2)
t hro ugh his re lat io n s hip to his mas t e r, of who m he is by
n e ce s s it y aware , as he is un de r the mas t e r's po we r. The mas -
t e r, by co n t ras t , n e e d not labo r and n e e d n o t re co gn ize the
s e parat e pe rs o n or human it y of the s lave , s in ce the mas t e r
re gards the s lave as a s e rvin g appe n dage of hims e lf. Thus ,
acco rdin g to He ge l, human his t o ry be gin s whe n the s lave o ve r-
t hro ws his mas t e r and co n t in ue s his jo urn e y of co min g-t o -co n -
s cio us n e s s as a human be in g e n gagin g wit h the n at ural and
s o cial wo rlds which he co n t in ually t ran s fo rms t hro ugh in t e r-
act io n wit h t he m.
Fo r wo me n , this mo de l of the his t o rical pro ce s s wo uld have
to be furt he r re fin e d to ackn o wle dge the pre s e n ce of four
rat he r than two part ie s : the mas t e r and mis t re s s , the slave
man and the slave wo man . The slave wo man , t he n , at the same
his t o rical jun ct ure , e n co un t e rs t hre e o t he r pe rs o n ae , of
who m she is by n e ce s s it y aware , t ho ugh they are n o t aware of
he r s e parat e pe rs o n ho o d, for if t he re is s lave ry, there will
als o be pat riarchy. She als o e xpe rie n ce s a do uble cre at ivi-
t y, that of pro ducin g and re pro ducin g, of t ran s fo rmin g bo t h
n at ural and human mat e rial for s o cial e n ds . Such a mo de l
co uld us e fully e xplain why wo me n t o day are so co n s cio us of
the n uan ce s of o ppre s s io n and als o why, give n mult iple o p-
pre s s io n , the s t ruggle has be e n so pro t ract e d. One co uld al-
so argue from it , that wo me n 's co n s cio us n e s s is the highe s t
of all, e n co mpas s in g as it do e s s e ve ral fo rms of human re la-
t io n s hip and labo r.
The Marxian mo de l is his t o rically the mo s t pre cis e , ho w-
e ve r. It allo ws us to ide n t ify part icular his t o rical s it ua-
t io n s in which bo t h clas s and ge n de r s t ruggle o ccur, and to
see ho w they re lat e to one an o t he r. Acco rdin g to this vie w,
majo r chan ge s in the mo de o f pro duct io n alt e r clas s re la-
t io n s and s harpe n clas s s t ruggle , le adin g to t ran s fo rmat io n s
in the o rgan izat io n of s o cie t y and po lit y that are mo re co m-
me n s urat e to chan ge s in e co n o mic o rgan izat io n , and re fle ct
n e w po we r re lat io n s . In this pro ce s s , wo rke rs be co me
in cre as in gly co n s cio us of t he ir po lit ical ro le and mo ve to
as s ume full re s po n s ibilit y o ve r pro duct io n and o ve r the
fruit s of t he ir labo r. In the last ce n t ury and a half,
o rgan ize d clas s co n flict has be e n at t e n de d by o rgan ize d
ge n de r co n flict , but circums t an ce s have de t e rmin e d which of
these be co me s primary for wo me n . So far, while cro s s -clas s
allian ce s have be e n po s s ible for s pe cial is s ue s re lat in g to
all wo me n , e co n o mic cris is pe rio ds have bro ught clas s ide n t i-
ty to the fo re , wit ho ut , ho we ve r, de s t ro yin g an un de rlyin g
fe min is t co n s cio us n e s s , which re s urface s at a later t ime .
I am n o w pro po s in g that in fe min is t mo ve me n t s , e ve n the an -
t ife min is t o ppo s it io n by some wo me n be co me s part of the o ve r-
all fe min is t mo ve me n t , as its o ppo s it e but n e ce s s ary po le .
Thus , paralle lin g the Marxian vie w that all his t o ry is a his -
tory of the wo rkin g clas s co min g to co n s cio us n e s s and to co n -
t ro l o ve r t he ir o wn live s , so all wo me n 's his t o ry is the his -
tory of fe min is m, that is , of wo me n co min g to co n s cio us n e s s
and to co n t ro l o ve r t he ir o wn live s . The re s is t an ce to that
is part of the pro ce s s , be caus e the s t ruggle it s e lf, mo re
than achie ve me n t of any go al, s harpe n s aware n e s s . This e ve n
carrie s o ve r into are n as in which wo me n s t ruggle again s t o n e
an o t he r on clas s or fe min is t is s ue s , for the ve ry act of o r-
gan ize d po lit ical co n flict rais e s wo me n 's co n s cio us n e s s of
t he ir po we rs and of the barrie rs again s t e xpre s s io n of t ho s e
po we rs and t hus as s is t s the advan ce of fe min is m.
This may be hard to acce pt . In o n e in dividual's life t ime ,
re s is t an ce of t his sort is s ubje ct ive ly e xpe rie n ce d as s e t -
back. Phyllis Schlafly and An it a Bryan t are not o ur s is -
t e rs . But t his is a s ho rt -t e rm vie w. In the long t e rm,
past re s is t an ce has be e n abs o rbe d and the co lle ct ive co n -
s cio us n e s s has advan ce d. Fe w wo me n n o w wo uld re t urn the
vo t e or e limin at e t he ms e lve s fro m highe r e ducat io n , t ho ugh
man y re s is t e d t ho s e in n o vat io n s . Twe n t ie t h-ce n t ury wo me n 's
co n s cio us n e s s t ran s ce n ds t he s e o ld co n flict s , t ho ugh it re -
t ain s some re s is t an ce to furt he r chan ge , which can o n ly come
t hro ugh n e w co n flict . In o ur t ime , a n e w fe min is m e n co un -
ters a n e w an t ife min is m, wit h some un re s o lve d o ld is s ue s and
some n e w is s ue s . But the t we n t ie t h-ce n t ury mo ve me n t builds
on the n in e t e e n t h-ce n t ury mo ve me n t , wit h an in t e rve n in g
pe rio d fro m the 1920s to the 1960s which appe are d as s o cial
amn e s ia for fe min is m, but in which act ually gain s we re
in t e grat e d, lo s s e s as s e s s e d, and me s s age s co n ve ye d ge n e ra-
t io n ally. The pe rio d I have s t udie d, the 1920s and 1930s in
Ge rman y, in dicat e d in t e n s e clas s and ge n de r s t ruggle s ,
though the o fficial fe min is t mo ve me n t seemed co mat o s e . The
lull was dige s t ive ; the pro ce s s co n t in ue d, to e xplo de again
in o ur ge n e rat io n .
The curre n t cris is of capit alis m, wit h its re o rgan izat io n
of an alre ady s e x-s e gme n t e d labor marke t and its need to
he ight e n the e xplo it at io n of labo r, has drawn an in cre as in g
pro po rt io n of wo me n into the labor fo rce , whe re their co n -
s cio us n e s s as wo rke rs and s pe cifically as wo me n wo rke rs has
raised aware n e s s to a n e w pro grammat ic level of fe min is m, to
a second wo me n 's mo ve me n t . Te chn o lo gical pro gre s s and s o -
cial diffe re n t iat io n have give n us o pt io n s o ur gran dmo t he rs
n e ve r hada his t o rical gain but have furt he r s e dime n t e d
wo me n toward the bo t t o m of a mo re diffe re n t iat e d s o cial hie r-
archy, wide n in g the gap wit h me n a his t o rical lo s s . This
co n t radict io n has give n rise to the s ubje ct ive e xpe rie n ce of
re lat ive de privat io n , e n ge n de rin g co n t e mpo rary fe min is m. In
s ho rt , it is not me re ly the e xpe rie n ce of co n s t an t o ppre s -
s io n , but the fruit ful and n o t ice able co n t radict io n of gain
and lo s s , of ambiguo us ly met e xpe ct at io n s co min g o ut of
pre vio us s t ruggle s , that has birt he d the mo de rn wo me n 's mo ve -
me n t . We re there no chan ge , we wo uld e xpe rie n ce s t as is .
We re the chan ge o n ly po s it ive , we wo uld not e xpe rie n ce dis -
s at is fact io n . We re the chan ge o n ly n e gat ive , we wo uld not
e xpe rie n ce ho pe or take act io n . C o n t radict io n is the mid-
wife to mo ve me n t , and this mo ve me n t pro gre s s e s t hro ugh co m-
bat wit h the re s is t an ce again s t it in cludin g that of wo me n
and that from wit hin o ur in dividual s e lve s , as the Fre udian
mo de l e lucidat e s . All ho n e s t co n s cio us n e s s -rais in g has
shown us o ur o wn drag, o ur s o me t ime re fus al to mo ve who le -
he art e dly into full re s po n s ibilit y. We carry the s t ruggle
inside o urs e lve s , and o ur re gre s s io n s are not me re ly s t um-
blin g blo cks , but part of the advan ce .
In co n clus io n , I have argue d that fe min is t s and an t ife min -
ists are at o ppo s it e po le s of a shared his t o rical pro ce s s of
fe min is m, de fin e d as co min g-t o -co n s cio us n e s s . The in e rt ial
middle of un fe min is t s re s po n ds als o , le n din g its mas s to
whiche ve r force appe ars pre po n de ran t and thus cre at in g the
s ubje ct ive his t o rical e xpe rie n ce of s o cial pro gre s s or re ac-
t io n . The y are not fro n t -lin e fe min is t s , but I wo uld
in clude them just the same as part of the co lle ct ive
co min g-t o -co n s cio us n e s t hro ugh in t e rn al, n o t just e xt e rn al,
co n flict .
A pre e mpt ive re jo in de r again s t the charge that this vie w
is too o pt imis t ic: it is not an at t e mpt to gauge the fu-
t ure . We are on a fro n t ie r, and no pio n e e r can kn o w what
lies be yo n d. In de e d, the fear of that is what cre at e s re s is -
t an ce again s t furt he r mo ve me n t . He re I am me re ly s ugge s t in g
a way of un de rs t an din g the pas t , the his t o rical pro ce s s al-
re ady be hin d us . We can t race an in t e rrupt e d fe min is m,
who s e his t o ry we are n o w re co n s t ruct in g on a mo re co n s cio us
plan e than o ur an ce s t o rs . As Ro be rt Burt o n said in The
An at o my of Me lan cho ly, we see furt he r, be caus e we stand on
the s ho ulde rs of gian t s .
JUDITH R. WALKOWITZ
Male Vice and Female Virtue: Feminism
and the Politics of Prostitution in
Nineteenth-Century Britain (1980)
Phil Do n ahue : Yo u're not fe arful of be in g looked
do wn upo n as a bun ch of o ld-fas hio n e d
fuddy-duddie s who do n 't un de rs t an d
o ur C o n s t it ut io n and the Firs t Ame n d-
me n t ?
Susan Bro wn mille r: We ll, we kn o w we 're not o ld-fas hio n e d
fuddy-duddie s . We 're radical fe min -
is t s , so I do n ' f think they can ac-
cus e us of be in g o ld-fas hio n e d; some
pe o ple t hin k we 're too n e w-fas hio n e d.
Do n ahue : But yo u un de rs t an d
Bro wn mille r: I t hin k that wo rds like purit y,
mo ralit y, and de ce n cy are ve ry
n ice wo rds . I wis h that the wo me n 's
mo ve me n t wo uld re claim those wo rds .
Bro wn mille r's dis claime r as ide (1), the radical fe min is t at -
tack on co mme rcial s e x j ^ o ld-fas hio n e d; it has its ro o t s
in e arlie r fe min is t campaign s again s t male vice and the do ub-
le s t an dard. In t his e s s ay, I will o ut lin e some of the his -
t o rical pre ce de n t s for the curre n t fe min is t at t ack o n co m-
me rcial s e x, as re pre s e n t e d by the Wo me n Again s t Po rn o graphy
campaign (2). Pas t ge n e rat io n s of fe min is t s at t acke d pro s t i-
t ut io n , po rn o graphy, whit e s lave ry, and ho mo s e xualit y as
man ife s t at io n s of un diffe re n t iat e d male lus t . The s e cam-
paign s we re brillian t o rgan izin g drive s that s t imulat e d
gras s -ro o t s o rgan izat io n s and mo bilize d wo me n not pre vio us ly
bro ught in t o the po lit ical are n a. The vit alit y of the wo m-
e n 's s uffrage mo ve me n t of the late n in e t e e n t h and e arly
t we n t ie t h ce n t urie s can n o t be un de rs t o o d wit ho ut re fe re n ce
to the re vivalis t ic qualit y o f t he s e an t ivice campaign s ,
which o ft e n ran paralle l wit h the s t ruggle for the vo t e . By
de man din g wo me n 's right to pro t e ct t he ir o wn pe rs o n s again s t
The Politics of Prostitution 11
male s e xual abus e and ult imat e ly e xt e n din g t he ir crit ique of
s e xual vio le n ce to the privat e s phe re of the family, they
achie ve d some pe rman e n t gain s for wo me n .
No n e t he le s s , judgin g by the go als stated by fe min is t s t he m-
s e lve s t o pro t e ct and e mpo we r wo me n t he s e campaign s we re
o ft e n s e lf-de fe at in g. A libe rt arian de fe n s e of pro s t it ut e s
found no place in the s o cial purit y s t ruggle ; all too o ft e n
pro s t it ut e s we re o bje ct s of purit y at t acks . Alt ho ugh the
e arly fe min is t s s ucce e de d in s t art in g a dis co urs e on s e x and
mo bilize d an o ffe n s ive again s t male vice , they lost co n t ro l
of the mo ve me n t as it dive rs ifie d. In part this o ut co me was
the re s ult of ce rt ain co n t radict io n s in these fe min is t s ' at -
t it ude s ; in part it re fle ct e d t he ir impo t e n ce to re s hape the
wo rld acco rdin g to their o wn image .
In Gre at Briit ain , e xplicit ly fe min is t mo ral crus ade s
again s t male vice be gan wit h a s t ruggle again s t s t at e re gula-
tion of pro s t it ut io n (3). Parliame n t pas s e d the first of
t hre e s t at ut e s pro vidin g for the s an it ary in s pe ct io n of pro s -
t it ut e s in s pe cific milit ary de po t s in s o ut he rn En glan d and
Ireland in 1864. In it ially t his firs t C o n t agio us Dis e as e s
Act , as it was o blique ly e n t it le d, aro us e d little at t e n t io n
in s ide or o ut s ide of go ve rn me n t al circle s . Public o ppo s i-
tion to re gulat io n did, ho we ve r, s urface in the 1870s , whe n
a co alit io n of middle -clas s e van ge licals , fe min is t s , and rad-
ical wo rkin gme n challe n ge d the act s as immo ral and un co n s t i-
t ut io n al and calle d fo r t he ir re pe al. The part icipat io n of
middle -clas s wo me n in re pe al e ffo rt s s ho cke d man y co n t e mpo -
rary o bs e rve rs , who re garde d this fe male re be llio n as a dis -
t urbin g sign of the t ime s . The s uffrage mo ve me n t was in its
in fan cy, and re s pe ct able co mme n t at o rs looked on wit h ho rro r
and fas cin at io n as middle -clas s ladie s mo un t e d public plat -
fo rms acro s s the co un t ry to de n o un ce the act s as a "s acri-
fice of fe male libe rt ie s " to the "s lave ry of me n 's lus t " and
to de s cribe in min ut e de t ail the "in s t rume n t al rape " of the
in t e rn al e xam (4). One t ro uble d me mbe r of Parliame n t was
mo ve d to re mark to Jo s e phin e But le r, the fe min is t re pe al
le ade r, "We kn o w ho w to man age an y o t he r o ppo s it io n in the
Ho us e or in the co un t ry, but this is ve ry awkward for
us t his re vo lt of wo me n . It is quit e a n e w t hin g; what are
we to do wit h such an o ppo s it io n as t his ?" (5).
Un de r the le ade rs hip of Jo s e phin e But le r, the Ladie s Na-
t io n al As s o ciat io n (LNA) was fo un de d in late 1869 as a s e p-
art is t fe min is t o rgan izat io n . A Ladie s Man ife s t o was is -
s ue d, which de n o un ce d the act s as a blat an t e xample of clas s
and sex dis crimin at io n . The man ife s t o furt he r argue d that
the act s not only de prive d po o r wo me n of their co n s t it ut io n -
al right s and forced t he m to s ubmit to a de gradin g in t e rn al
e xamin at io n , but o fficially s an ct io n e d a do uble s t an dard of
s e xual mo ralit y that jus t ifie d male s e xual acce s s to a clas s
of "falle n " wo me n and pe n alize d wo me n for e n gagin g in the
same vice as me n (6).
The campaign als o dre w t ho us an ds of wo me n into the po lit i-
cal are n a for the first t ime , by e n co uragin g them to chal-
lenge male ce n t e rs of po we rs uch as the po lice , Parliame n t ,
and the me dical and milit ary e s t ablis hme n t s . Rallyin g to
the de fe n s e of me mbe rs of t he ir o wn s e x, these wo me n o ppo s e d
the s e xual and po lit ical pre ro gat ive s of me n . The y re je ct e d
the pre vailin g s o cial vie w of "falle n " wo me n as po llut an t s
of me n and de pict e d t he m in s t e ad as wo me n who had be e n in vad-
ed by me n 's bo die s , me n 's laws , and that "s t e e l pe n is ," the
s pe culum (7).
Mid-Vict o rian fe min is t s t re at e d pro s t it ut io n as the end re -
sult of the art ificial co n s t rain t s place d o n wo me n 's s o cial
and e co n o mic act ivit y: in ade quat e wage s and re s t rict io n s of
wo me n 's in dus t rial e mplo yme n t forced some wo me n on to the
s t re e t s , whe re they took up the "be s t paid in dus t ry"pro s t i-
t ut io n (8). The y als o s aw pro s t it ut io n as a paradigm of the
fe male co n dit io n , a s ymbo l o f wo me n 's po we rle s s n e s s and s e xu-
al vict imizat io n (9). Fe min is t s re alize d that the po pular
s e n t ime n t alizat io n of "fe male in flue n ce " and mo t he rho o d o n ly
t hin ly mas ke d an o lde r co n t e mpt and dis t rus t for wo me n as
"The Se x," as s e xual o bje ct s to be bo ught and sold by me n
(10). The t re at me n t of pro s t it ut e s un de r the act s e pit o -
mize d this pe rvas ive and un de rlyin g mis o gyn y. "Sirs ," de -
clared But le r, "yo u can n o t ho ld us in ho n o ur so long as yo u
drag o ur s is t e rs in the mire . As yo u are un jus t and crue l
to t he m, yo u will be co me un jus t and crue l to us " (11).
As "mo t he rs " an d "s is t e rs ," fe min is t s as s e rt e d t he ir right
to de fe n d pro s t it ut e s , t he re by in vo kin g two diffe re n t kin ds
of aut ho rit y re lat io n s hips . A mo t he r's right to de fe n d
"daught e rs " was o n ly part ially an e xt e n s io n and co n t in uat io n
of wo me n 's t radit io n al role wit hin the family. It was als o
a po lit ical de vice , aime d at s ubve rt in g and s upe rs e din g pa-
t riarchal aut ho rit y: it gave mo t he rs , not fat he rs , the
right to co n t ro l s e xual acce s s to the daught e rs . But it al-
so s an ct io n e d an aut ho rit y re lat io n s hip be t we e n o lde r, mid-
dle -clas s wo me n and yo un g wo rkin g-clas s wo me n t hat , alt ho ugh
carin g and pro t e ct ive , was als o hie rarchical and cus t o dial.
In o t he r co n t e xt s , fe min is t re pe ale rs appro ache d pro s t it ut e s
on a mo re e galit arian bas is , as s is t e rs , albe it falle n o n e s ,
who s e in dividual right s de s e rve d to be re s pe ct e d and who , if
they sold t he ir bo die s on the s t re e t s , had the right to do
so un mo le s t e d by the po lice (12).
This was the radical me s s age of the re pe al campaign . It
was linked to an e n light e n e d vie w o f pro s t it ut io n as an ir-
re gular and t e mpo rary live liho o d for adult wo rkin g-clas s wo m-
en (13). The re gulat io n s ys t e m, fe min is t s argue d, not pro s -
t it ut io n per s e , do o me d in s cribe d wo me n to a life of sin by
publicly s t igmat izin g them and pre ve n t in g them from fin din g
alt e rn at ive re s pe ct able e mplo yme n t . "Amo n g the po o r," de -
clared Jo s e phin e But le r, the "bo un dary lines be t we e n the vir-
t uo us and the vicio us " we re "gradually and impe rce pt ibly
shaded o ff" so that it was "impo s s ible to affix a dis t in ct
n ame and in fallibly as s ign " pro s t it ut e s to an o ut cas t cat e go -
ry (14). In fact , the yo un g wo me n bro ught un de r the acts
lived as part of a dis t in ct fe male s ubgro up in co mmo n lo dg-
ing ho us e s amo n g a he t e ro ge n e o us co mmun it y o f the cas ual la-
bo rin g po o r. The y we re bo t h vict ims and s urvivo rs . The "un -
skilled daught e rs of the un s kille d clas s e s " (15), their
lives we re of a pie ce wit h the large bo dy of labo rin g wo me n
who had to eke out a pre cario us living in the urban job mar-
ket and for who m s e xual co e rcio n was but one form of e xplo i-
t at io n to which they we re s ubje ct e d. But pro s t it ut e s we re
not s imply vict ims of male s e xual abus e : they co uld act in
t he ir o wn de fe n s e , bo t h in dividually and co lle ct ive ly, and
pro s t it ut io n it s e lf o ft e n co n s t it ut e d a "re fuge from un e as y
circums t an ce s " (16) fo r yo un g wo me n who had to live o ut s ide
the family and who had to cho o s e amo n g a s e rie s of un ple as -
ant alt e rn at ive s .
Thro ugh t he ir agit at io n , fe min is t re pe ale rs e s t ablis he d a
po lit ical are n a that made it po s s ible for pro s t it ut e s to re -
s is t , "to s ho w the o ffice rs ," in the wo rds of o n e re gis t e re d
wo man , "t hat we have some re s pe ct for o ur o wn pe rs o n " (17).
LNA le ade rs and t he ir age n t s de s ce n de d upo n s ubje ct e d dis -
t rict s like Plymo ut h and So ut hampt o n , agit at e d amo n g re gis -
tered pro s t it ut e s , and tried to pe rs uade them to re s is t the
re gulat io n s ys t e m.
Po lit ical e xpe die n ce als o pulle d fe min is t s in a diffe re n t di-
re ct io n . On the who le , the dis cus s io n o f vo lun t ary pro s t it u-
tion re ce ive d far less publicit y t han e xpo s e s of in n o ce n t
girls forced do wn into the ran ks of pro s t it ut io n by the "s py
po lice " (18). Fe min is t le ade rs us e d s e n s at io n al s t o rie s of
false e n t rapme n t or in s t rume n t al rape to appe al to wo rkin g-
clas s radicals and middle -clas s e van ge licals alike .
Furt he rmo re , fe min is t pro pagan da was s t ill co n s t rain e d by
an e xt re me ly limited vo cabulary co n s t ruct e d aro un d the theme
of fe male vict imizat io n . By mys t ifyin g pro s t it ut io n and wo m-
e n 's mo ve in t o it , t his pro pagan da impe rfe ct ly e ducat e d the
LNA rank and file on the "po lit ics of pro s t it ut io n ."
A po lit ics of mo t he rho o d als o s t ruct ure d the cro s s -clas s
allian ce be t we e n fe min is t s and radical wo rkin gme n wit hin the
re pe al camp. As mo t he rs , LNA le ade rs called upo n the sons
of the pe o ple to jo in wit h t he m in a re be llio n again s t the
e vil fat he rs , cle arly pre s umin g that their wo rkin g-clas s al-
lies wo uld fo llo w their po lit ical le ad. "Our wo rkin g me n
. are not un willin g to fo llo w the ge n t le guidan ce of a
grave and e ducat e d lady" o r to "de vo t e the who le in flue n ce
of their vo t e . . . whe n the right chord in their he art s and
co n s cie n ce s is t o uche d by a de licat e han d" (19). Iro n ical-
ly, fe min is t s e n co urage d wo rkin gme n to as s ume a cus t o dial
role toward "t he ir" wo me n and fre que n t ly re min de d them of
their pat riarchal re s po n s ibilit ie s as de fe n de rs of the fami-
ly. One LNA po s t e r, for in s t an ce , warn e d "Wo rkin g Me n !" to
"Lo o k to the pro t e ct io n of yo ur wive s and daught e rs . The y
are at the me rcy of the po lice whe re these Acts are in
fo rce " (20). Pro pagan da of this sort aro us e d po pular in dig-
n at io n again s t re gulat io n , but it als o but t re s s e d a pat riar-
chal s t an ce and a s e xual hie rarchy wit hin the o rgan ize d wo rk-
ing clas s that fe min is t s had vigo ro us ly challe n ge d in o t he r
co n t e xt s . At the s ame time that But le r and he r frie n ds we re
trying to build bridge s wit h the o rgan ize d wo rkin g clas s ,
they had to s t ruggle wit h t he ir n e w allie s o ve r pro po s als to
re s t rict female e mplo yme n t . To fe min is t s , a de fe n s e of free
fe male labor and an at t ack on the "s lave ry" of pro s t it ut io n
we re part of the s ame wo rk, but wo rkin g-clas s le ade rs s aw it
o t he rwis e . The y co un t e re d libe rt arian and fe min is t
argume n t s again s t pro t e ct ive le gis lat io n wit h a de fe n s e of
the "family wage " and wit h the vie w that pro s t it ut io n
re s ult e d not from fe male un e mplo yme n t but from the vit iat io n
of the wo rkin g-clas s family whe n adult male labor had to
co mpe t e wit h the che ap labor of wo me n and childre n (21).
Fe min is t s kn e w they we re t re adin g on dan ge ro us gro un d he re .
De s pit e he r s t ro n g fe e lin gs again s t pro t e ct ive le gis lat io n ,
But le r he s it at e d from pre s s in g the po in t at the an n ual
me e t in g of the Trade s Un io n C o n gre s s . "I think it might be
wis e for us not to rais e the que s t io n of the re s t rict io n s on
female labo ur in the Trade s C o n gre s s , this ye ar. . . . It
is such a s e rio us que s t io n for the fut ure , that we mus t try
to avo id that awful t hin ga re al bre ach be t we e n wo me n and
wo rkin gme n " (22).
LNA le ade rs did not e n t ire ly ign o re their fe male co n s t it u-
e n cy in the wo rkin g clas s , but they tended to see wo rkin g
wo me n prin cipally as o bje ct s of co n ce rn than as act ive par-
t icipan t s in the s t ruggle . Alt ho ugh wo rkin g-clas s wo me n
at t e n de d LNA le ct ure s in gre at n umbe rs and loudly vo ice d
t he ir in dign at io n again s t "t ho s e blackguard Act s " (23), they
we re n o t e ffe ct ive ly o rgan ize d in t o t he ir o wn re pe al as s o cia-
t io n s (24). This failure was due in part to the in diffe re n t
o rgan izin g e ffo rt s and the e lit is m of the LNA and in part to
the pract ical difficult y of o rgan izin g wo rkin g-clas s wo me n
give n their e co n o mic de pe n de n ce and e xclus io n from the
po lit ical cult ure (25).
Alt ho ugh capable of e n un ciat in g a radical crit ique of pro s -
t it ut io n , fe min is t re pe ale rs s t ill felt ambivale n t abo ut
pro s t it ut e s as wo me n who man ipulat e d t he ir s e xualit y as a
co mmo dit y. And alt ho ugh they had jo in e d wit h radical wo rk-
in gme n in an at t ack again s t e lit e male privile ge , this
cro s s -clas s , cro s s -ge n de r allian ce was fraught wit h co n t ra-
dict io n s . By and large t he s e an xie t ie s and co n t radict io n s
re main e d s ubme rge d durin g the libe rt arian s t ruggle again s t
state re gulat io n , but they soon s urface d in the mo re re pre s -
sive campaign again s t whit e s lave ry.
Aft e r the s us pe n s io n of the act s in 1883, But le r and he r
circle turned t he ir at t e n t io n to the agit at io n again s t the
fo re ign "t raffic in wo me n " and the e n t rapme n t of childre n in -
to pro s t it ut io n in Lo n do n . Whe n Parliame n t re fus e d to pas s
a bill rais in g the age of co n s e n t and pun is hin g t rafficke rs
in vice , But le r and C at he rin e Bo o t h of the Salvat io n Army ap-
pro ache d W. T. Stead of the Pall Mall Gaze t t e for as s is t -
an ce . The re s ult was the "Maide n Tribut e of Mo de rn Baby-
lo n ," publis he d in the s umme r of 1885 (26).
The "Maide n Tribut e " was one of the mo s t s ucce s s ful pie ce s
of s can dal jo urn alis m publis he d in Brit ain durin g the n in e -
teenth ce n t ury. By us in g s e xual s can dal to s e ll n e ws pape rs
to a middle -clas s and wo rkin g-clas s re ade rs hip, Stead us h-
ered in a n e w e ra of t ablo id s e n s at io n alis m and cro s s -clas s
prurie n ce .
In lurid de t ail, the "Maide n Tribut e " do cume n t e d the sale
of "five po un d" virgin s to aris t o crat ic old rake s , graphical-
ly de s cribin g the way the "daught e rs of the pe o ple " had be e n
"s n are d, t rappe d and o ut rage d e it he r whe n un de r the in flu-
e n ce of drugs or aft e r a pro lo n ge d s t ruggle in a locked
ro o m" (27). The s e rie s had an e le ct rifyin g e ffe ct on public
o pin io n : "By the third in s t allme n t mo bs we re rio t in g at the
Pall Mall Gaze t t e o ffice s , in an at t e mpt to o bt ain co pie s
of the pape r" (28). An e n o rmo us public de mo n s t rat io n was
he ld in Hyde Park (e s t imat e d at 250,000) to de man d the pas -
sage of le gis lat io n rais in g the age of co n s e n t for girls
from t hirt e e n to s ixt e e n . Re fo rme rs of all s hade s we re re p-
re s e n t e d on the do ze n or so de mo n s t rat io n plat fo rms . Fo r
one brie f mo me n t , fe min is t s and pe rs o n al right s advo cat e s
jo in e d wit h An glican bis ho ps and s o cialis t s to pro t e s t the
aris t o crat ic co rrupt io n of yo un g in n o ce n t s (29).
Re ce n t re s e arch de lin e at e s the vas t dis cre pan cy be t we e n lu-
rid jo urn alis t ic acco un t s and the re alit y of pro s t it ut io n .
Evide n ce of wide s pre ad e n t rapme n t of Brit is h girls in Lo n do n
and abro ad is s lim. Durin g the 1870s and 1880s , o fficials
and re fo rme rs un co ve re d a light t raffic in wo me n be t we e n
Brit ain and the co n t in e n t . All but a few of the wo me n e n -
ticed into licensed bro t he ls in An t we rp and Brus s e ls had
be e n pro s t it ut e s in En glan d. Mis le d by pro mis e s of a life
of luxury and e as e as part of a glamo ro us de mimo n de , they
we re s ho cke d and ho rrifie d at the co n dit io n s imposed upo n
them in lice n s e d s t at e bro t he ls , a s harp co n t ras t to what
they had e xpe rie n ce d in En glan d. In mo s t cas e s , t he n , it
was the co n dit io n s of co mme rcial s e x and not the fact that
de e ply ups e t the wo me n (30). St e ad's dis cus s io n of child
pro s t it ut io n co n t ain e d s imilar mis re pre s e n t at io n s and dis t o r-
t io n s . The re un do ubt e dly we re s o me child pro s t it ut e s on the
s t re e t s of Lo n do n , Live rpo o l, and e ls e whe re ; but mo s t of
these yo un g girls we re not vict ims of fals e e n t rapme n t , as
the vign e t t e s in the "Maide n Tribut e " s ugge s t e d; the girls
we re o n the s t re e t s be caus e the alt e rn at ive s we re so limit -
e d. "Sin ce s e xualit y in we s t e rn cult ure s is so mys t ifie d,"
n o t e s Gayle Rubin , "the wars o ve r it are o ft e n fought at
o blique an gle s , aime d at pho n y t arge t s , co n duct e d wit h mis -
place d pas s io n s , and are highly, in t e n s e ly, s ymbo lic" (31).
The "Maide n Tribut e " e pis o de s t rikin gly illus t rat e s bo t h
this mys t ificat io n and its po lit ical co n s e que n ce s . Shift in g
the cult ural image of the pro s t it ut e to the in n o ce n t child
vict im e n co urage d n e w, mo re re pre s s ive , po lit ical in it ia-
t ive s o ve r s e x.
Why then did fe min is t re fo rme rs e n do rs e this crus ade ? Why
did they ally wit h re pre s s ive mo ralis t s and an t is uffragis t s
who we re as an xio us to cle ar the s t re e t s of pro s t it ut e s as
to pro t e ct yo un g girls fro m e vil pro cure rs and vicio us aris -
t o crat s ? Like the image o f the in s t rume n t al vio lat io n of
re gis t e re d wo me n un de r the e arlie r act s , the story of aris t o -
crat ic co rrupt io n of virgin s "ge n e rat e d a s e n s e of o ut rage
wit h which a wide s pe ct rum of public o pin io n found it s e lf in
s ympat hy" (32). Fe min is t re pe ale rs un do ubt e dly be lie ve d
they co uld man ipulat e this po pular an ge r for their o wn pur-
po s e s , first to s e cure the full re pe al of the act s (they
we re fin ally re mo ve d fro m the s t at ut e bo o ks in 1886) and
then to launch a s us t ain e d as s ault on the do uble s t an dard.
The y we re als o at t ract e d to the radical me s s age in St e ad's
e xpo s e of aris t o crat ic vice . The dis re put able pe rfo rman ce
o f MPs durin g the de bat e s o ve r the age of co n s e n t co n firme d
fe min is t s ' wo rs e s us picio n s abo ut "t he vicio us uppe r clas s -
e s ." Durin g the de bat e s , old rake s like C ave n dis h Be n t in ck
t re at e d pro s t it ut io n as a n e ce s s ary and in e vit able e vil, and
o t he rs o pe n ly de fe n de d s e xual acce s s to wo rkin g-clas s girls
as a t ime -ho n o re d pre ro gat ive of ge n t le me n .
Fe min is t s felt o blige d to re dre s s the s e xual wro n gs do n e
to po o r girls by me n o f a s upe rio r clas s , but they re gis -
tered the same re pugn an ce and ambivale n ce toward in co rrigi-
ble girls as they had e arlie r t o ward un re pe n t an t pro s t i-
t ut e s . Fo r them as we ll as for mo re re pre s s ive mo ralis t s ,
the de s ire to pro t e ct yo un g wo rkin g-clas s girls mas ke d impul-
ses to co n t ro l the girls ' s e xualit y, which in t urn re fle ct e d
their de s ire to impo s e a s o cial code that s t re s s e d fe male ad-
o le s ce n t de pe n de n cy. This co de was mo re in ke e pin g wit h mid-
dle -clas s n o t io n s of girlho o d t han wit h the lived re alit y of
the e xpo s e d and un s upe rvis e d daught e rs of the labo rin g po o r
who we re on the s t re e t s . Re s pe ct able wo rkin g-clas s pare n t s
ce rt ain ly shared man y of the same s e n t ime n t s toward female
ado le s ce n t s . De s pit e the fact that they o ft e n sent their
daught e rs o ut to wo rk at t hirt e e n , they n o n e t he le s s took
pain s to re s t rict t he ir s o cial in de pe n de n ce and s e xual kn o wl-
e dge and e xpe rie n ce (33).
An o t he r s ubt he me of fe min is t dis cus s io n was that yo un g fe -
male s of all clas s e s we re vuln e rable to male s e xual vio -
le n ce . "The re was no place of abs o lut e s afe t y, n e it he r in
s t re e t s , n o r parks , n o r railways , n o r in the ho us e s , whe re
the pro cure s s e s we re o ft e n kn o wn to e n t e r as charwo me n , n o r
indeed in the ve ry churche s and chape ls ," one s pe ake r an -
n o un ce d at a me e t in g of middle -clas s wo me n (34). Alt ho ugh
female vict imizat io n was a s in ce re co n ce rn of fe min is t s , it
als o s e rve d dive rs e po lit ical in t e re s t s . Whe re as fe min is t s
ide n t ifie d the "o ut lawe d po lit ical co n dit io n of wo me n " (35)
as the root caus e of the crime s e xpo s e d in the "Maide n Trib-
ut e ," an t ife min is t s used the o ccas io n to act ivat e me n into a
n e w crus ade to pro t e ct rat he r t han e man cipat e wo me n a cru-
sade that was , at t ime s , o ve rt ly mis o gyn is t . "Let us appe al
to t he ir man ho o d, to t he ir chivalry, to their re ve re n ce for
their o wn mo t he rs and s is t e rs t o pro t e ct the maide n s of the
lan d," de claime d one s pe ake r, who rapidly ackn o wle dge d that
the o bje ct s of such man ly s o licit ude "t ho s e po o r, s illy,
we ak childre n who kn o w not the fright ful ruin they are brin g-
ing on their live s "we re not wo rt hy of the ide als they had
in s pire d (36).
What was the o ut co me of the "Maide n Tribut e " affair? The
public furo r forced the pas s age of the C rimin al Law Ame n d-
me n t Act of 1885, a part icularly n as t y and pe rn icio us pie ce
of o mn ibus le gis lat io n . It rais e d the age of co n s e n t for
girls from t hirt e e n to s ixt e e n , but als o gave po lice far
gre at e r s ummary juris dict io n o ve r poor wo rkin g-clas s wo me n
and childre n a t re n d that But le r and he r circle had always
o ppo s e d. It also co n t ain e d a claus e makin g in de ce n t act s be -
t we e n co n s e n t in g male adult s a crime , thus fo rmin g the bas is
of legal pro s e cut io n of male ho mo s e xuals in Brit ain un t il
1967. An an t iaris t o crat ic bias may have pro mpt e d the in clu-
sion of this claus e (re fo rme rs acce pt e d its in clus io n but
did not t he ms e lve s pro po s e it ), as ho mo s e xualit y was as s o ci-
ated wit h the co rrupt io n of wo rkin g-clas s yo ut h by the same
uppe r-clas s pro fligat e s who on o t he r o ccas io n s we re thought
to buy the s e rvice s of yo un g girls (37).
De s pit e the public o ut cry again s t co rrupt aris t o crat s and
in t e rn at io n al t rafficke rs , the claus e s of the n e w bill we re
main ly e n fo rce d again s t wo rkin g-clas s wo me n and re gulat e d
adult rat he r t han yo ut hful s e xual be havio r. Be t we e n 1890
and 1914, the s ys t e mat ic re pre s s io n of lo dgin g ho us e bro t h-
e ls was carrie d o ut in almo s t e ve ry majo r city in Gre at Brit -
ain . In man y lo cale s , legal re pre s s io n dramat ically af-
fected the s t ruct ure and o rgan izat io n of pro s t it ut io n .
Pro s t it ut e s we re upro o t e d fro m t he ir n e ighbo rho o ds and had
to find lo dgin gs in o t he r are as of the cit y. The ir act ivit y
be came mo re co ve rt and furt ive . C ut o ff fro m an y o t he r s us -
t ain in g re lat io n s hip, they we re forced to rely in cre as in gly
o n pimps for e mo t io n al s e curit y as we ll as pro t e ct io n
again s t le gal aut ho rit ie s . In de e d, wit h the wide pre vale n ce
of pimps in the e arly t we n t ie t h ce n t ury, pro s t it ut io n s hift -
ed from a fe male - to a male -do min at e d t rade . Furt he r, there
n o w e xis t e d a gre at e r n umbe r of third part ie s wit h a s t ro n g
in t e re s t in pro lo n gin g wo me n 's stay o n the s t re e t s . In
t he s e and o t he r re s pe ct s , the 1885 act dro ve a we dge be t we e n
pro s t it ut e s and the po o r wo rkin g-clas s co mmun it y. It e ffe ct -
ive ly de s t ro ye d the bro t he l as a family in dus t ry and ce n t e r
of a s pe cific female s ubcult ure , furt he r un de rmin e d the s o -
cial and e co n o mic aut o n o my of pro s t it ut e s , and in cre as in gly
re n de re d t he m s o cial o ut cas t s (38).
But pro s t it ut e s we re n o t the o n ly o bje ct s of re fo rmis t at -
t acks . In the wake of St e ad's "s ho ckin g re ve lat io n s ," the
Nat io n al Vigilan ce As s o ciat io n (NVA) was fo rme d. Firs t o r-
gan ize d to e n s ure the lo cal e n fo rce me n t of the C rimin al Law
Ame n dme n t Act , the NVA soon turned its at t e n t io n to burn in g
o bs ce n e bo o ks and at t ackin g mus ic halls , t he at e rs , and n ude
pain t in gs . It co n de mn e d the wo rks of Balzac, Zo la, and Ra-
be lais as o bs ce n e and s ucce s s fully pro s e cut e d their Brit is h
dis t ribut o rs ; it at t acke d birt h co n t ro l lit e rat ure and adve r-
t is e me n t s for "fe male pills " (abo rt ifacie n t drugs ) on the
same gro un ds . To these mo ral crus ade rs , "po rn o graphic lit e r-
at ure ," thus bro adly de fin e d, was a vile e xpre s s io n of the
same "un diffe re n t iat e d male lus t " (39) that ult imat e ly led
to ho mo s e xualit y and pro s t it ut io n . The fact that po rn o gra-
phy was n o w available in in e xpe n s ive e dit io n s un do ubt e dly
he ight e n e d middle -clas s co n ce rn o ve r the e me rge n ce of a de -
ge n e rat e and un s upe rvis e d urban po pular cult ure (40).
Alt ho ugh the s o cial purit y mo ve me n t served middle -clas s in -
t e re s t s , it is a co mmo n e rro r amo n g his t o rian s to as s ume
that wo rkin g-clas s s uppo rt for s o cial purit y was e phe me ral
o r that bo t h be fo re and aft e r the s umme r of 1885 s o cial pur-
ity re main e d an almo s t e xclus ive ly middle -clas s mo ve me n t .
Middle -clas s e van ge licals may have pre do min at e d in the NVA,
but the value s of s o cial purit y s e e m to have pe n e t rat e d ce r-
tain po rt io n s of the wo rkin g clas s .
By the mid-e ight ie s , Ellice Ho pkin s , the fe male pio n e e r in
s o cial purit y, had alre ady o rgan ize d hun dre ds of male chas t i-
ty le ague s and fe male re s cue s o cie t ie s . Be s ide s co un s e lin g
wo rkin g-clas s mo t he rs on ho w to avo id incest in t he ir ho me s ,
she re gularly de live re d s pe e che s o n purit y be fo re me e t in gs
of workingraen. She and o t he rs s ucce s s fully re cruit e d t ho u-
s an ds of re s pe ct able wo rkin gme n t hro ugho ut the n at io n into
Whit e C ro s s armie s , who we re de dicat e d to pro mo t in g the
single s t an dard of chas t it y and at t ackin g public and privat e
vice . The pre s cript ive lit e rat ure dis t ribut e d by s o cial pur-
ity gro ups als o s e e ms to have in flue n ce d the child-re arin g
pract ice s of the t ime . Edwardian wo rkin g-clas s pare n t s we re
n o t able for the s t rict s che dule s , purit an ical t re at me n t of
mas t urbat io n , and s e ve re re s t rict io n s they place d on their
t e e n age daught e rs ' s o cial and s e xual be havio r. Alt ho ugh the
lat e -Vict o rian and Edwardian ye ars re pre s e n t e d a ge rmin at io n
pe rio d for the fo rmulat io n of a "n e w s e xualit y," the avail-
able fact s abo ut s e xualit yt he ge n e ral de clin e in bo t h
ve n e re al dis e as e and pro s t it ut io n , the high age of marriage
and low ille git imacy rat e s , the appare n t ly limited us e of
co n t race pt ive s amo n g the wo rkin g clas s e s s e e m to s uppo rt
the hypo t he s is that "s e xual re s t rain t " was indeed "s pre adin g
do wn t hro ugh s o cie t y" (41).
But s e xual re s t rain t co uld als o s e rve wo me n 's in t e re s t s .
In a cult ure whe re wo me n we re o ft e n the vict ims of s e xual
co e rcio n yet blame d for the crime s co mmit t e d again s t them
(42), and whe re it was difficult e ve n to co n ce ive of female
s e xual age n cy as long as wo me n lacked age n cy in o t he r vit al
are as , de fe n de rs of wo me n 's right s co uld and did re gard the
do ct rin e of fe male pas s io n le s s n e s s and male s e xual s e lf-
co n t ro l as a s ign ifican t advan ce o ve r t radit io n al as s ump-
t io n s of a dan ge ro us and act ive fe male s e xualit y (43). What -
e ve r its drawbacks , this s e xual s t rat e gy re s ult e d in some
pe rman e n t gain s for wo me n : it made it po s s ible for wo me n to
n ame in ce s t and rape as crime s again s t t he ir pe rs o n (rat he r
t han as crime s again s t the pro pe rt y of me n ). Mo s t part icu-
larly, t hro ugh the In ce s t Act of 1908, yo un g wo me n we re
o ffe re d legal re co urs e again s t s e xual vio le n ce by male fami-
ly me mbe rs for the first time (44). By in s is t in g that wo me n
had the right to re fus e the s e xual de man ds of hus ban ds , fe m-
in is t s wo rkin g wit hin the s o cial purit y frame wo rk laid the
fo un dat io n for a n e w e galit arian code of marit al re lat io n s
s t ill to be fully re alize d in the co n t e mpo rary e ra (45). In
fe min is t han ds , de s e xualizat io n co uld e mpo we r wo me n to at -
t ack the cus t o mary pre ro gat ive s of me n ; it co uld als o
validat e a n e w s o cial role for wo me n o ut s ide of the
he t e ro s e xual family.
Since middle -clas s wo me n e labo rat e d these ide as , it is
hard to kn o w what wo rkin g-clas s wo me n t ho ught of t he m. La-
bo rin g wo me n did part icipat e in mo t he rs ' me e t in gs , and they
may have found the mo ral aut ho rit y impart e d to de s e xualize d
wo me n at t ract ive , as it re in fo rce d the po we r of mo t he rs and
female co lle ct ivit ie s (46). In the de n s e urban n e ighbo r-
ho o ds of lat e -Vict o rian and Edwardian En glan d, whe re fe male
n e ighbo rs shared s pace and s e rvice s and fe male re lat ive s s us -
tained the bo n ds of kin s hip, s o cial and s e xual n o rms we re o f-
ten art iculat e d at s t re e t level t hro ugh hie rarchical fe male
n e t wo rks . The mo t he rs of Plymo ut h, Lan cas t e r, and Salfo rd,
for e xample , e n fo rce d incest t abo o s , s o cialize d their daugh-
t e rs in t o a fat alis t ic and de pe n de n t fe min in it y, and in cre as -
ingly s hun n e d "bad wo me n " (o ft e n at the in s t igat io n of puri-
ty age n cie s ) (47).
On the who le , the act ivit ie s of n e ighbo rho o d mat riarchs
s us t ain e d s o cial hie rarchie s and divis io n s , part icularly
alo n g ge n e rat io n al and s e x lines (48). Fe male s e xual re s pe c-
t abilit y in t he s e n e ighbo rho o ds was purchas e d at a high
price , wit h lit t le pro mis e of s o cial in de pe de n ce . The "n e w
wo man " o pt io n was s imply not available to wo rkin g-clas s
daught e rs : they co uld not as pire to a fut ure o ut s ide of he t -
e ro s e xual do me s t icit y. Fo r wo rkin g-clas s wo me n , such a fu-
ture co uld only fo re bo de a life of hards hip and ho me le s s -
n e s s . As a re s ult , the co n t radict o ry n at ure o f the po we r
impart e d to wo me n t hro ugh pas s io n le s s n e s s appe ars e ve n mo re
appare n t for wo rkin g-clas s wo me n . Ho we ve r much such a do c-
trine mit igat e d the po we rle s s n e s s of de pe n de n t wive s , it
left wo rkin g-clas s wo me n alie n at e d from and ign o ran t of
t he ir o wn s e xualit y and bo dy and un able to co n t ro l t he ir
re pro duct io n a dis ablin g co n dit io n , to judge from the de -
pre s s in g le t t e rs co lle ct e d by the Wo me n 's C o o pe rat ive Guild
in t he ir vo lume , Mat e rn it y (49).
So cial purit y pre s e n t e d wo rkin gme n wit h a diffe re n t set of
implicat io n s and o ppo rt un it ie s ; it co uld bo ls t e r t he ir aut h-
o rit y as re s po n s ible pat riarchs if they we re willin g to s ub-
mit t he ms e lve s to a ce rt ain do me s t ic ide o lo gy. In ge n e ral,
s e xual re s pe ct abilit y be came the hallmark of the re s pe ct able
wo rkin gman , an xio us to dis t an ce hims e lf fro m the "be s t iali-
t y" o f the cas ual labo rin g po o r at a time whe n in cre as e d
pre s s ure was be in g place d on the re s pe ct able wo rkin g clas s
to bre ak t he ir ties wit h o ut cas t gro ups . The s o cial purit y
mo ve me n t it s e lf pro vide d an ave n ue of s o cial mo bilit y for
some me n like William C o o t e , a fo rme r co mpo s it o r who be came
the n at io n al s e cre t ary o f the NVA. C han gin g e mplo yme n t pat -
t e rn s als o s e e m to have re in fo rce d pat riarchal t e n de n cie s
amo n g s kille d s e ct o rs of the wo rkin g clas s by the end of the
ce n t ury, as the pro po rt io n of marrie d wo me n wo rkin g o ut s ide
the ho me de clin e d and the family wage for male wo rke rs be -
came an e s s e n t ial de man d of t rade un io n s . In this co n t e xt ,
s o cial purit ywhich calle d upo n me n to pro t e ct and co n t ro l
t he ir wo me n may have s e rve d as the ide o lo gical co ro llary of
the family wage , mo rally le git imat izin g the pre ro gat ive s of
pat riarchy in s ide and o ut s ide the family (50).
What was the s ubs e que n t re lat io n s hip be t we e n fe min is m and
s o cial purit y? In it ially, pro min e n t fe min is t s filled man y
of the co mmit t e e po s it io n s of the NVA, but this co n n e ct io n
was s ho rt -live d. But le r and he r circle re s ign e d whe n the
prurie n t and re pre s s ive dire ct io n of the NVA be came appar-
e n t . Thro ugho ut the late e ight ie s and n in e t ie s , But le rit e s
warn e d t he ir wo rke rs to "be ware " of the re pre s s ive me t ho ds
of the s o cial purit y s o cie t ie s who we re "re ady to acce pt and
e n do rs e an y amo un t of co e rcive and de gradin g t re at me n t of
t he ir fe llo w cre at ure s in the fat uo us be lie f that yo u can
o blige human be in gs to be mo ral by fo rce " (51). But t he ir
warn in gs we re too lat e . The n e w s o cial purit y mo ve me n t had
pas s e d t he m by, while abs o rbin g a go o dly n umbe r of the LNA
ran k and file (52).
Mo de rat e s uffragis t s like Millice n t Fawce t t and Elizabe t h
Blackwe ll re main e d wit hin the ran ks of s o cial purit y, and
fe min is t purit y re fo rme rs , mo s t n o t ably Laura Ormis t o n
C han t , we re pro min e n t in the at t ack o n t he at e rs and immo ral
public e n t e rt ain me n t s . Fe min is t s s t ill main t ain e d a vo ice
wit hin s o cial purit y aft e r 1885, but they we re in co n s t an t
dan ge r of be in g e n gulfe d by po s it io n s far re mo ve d from their
o wn . To be s ure , fe min is t re pe ale rs had e arlie r faced a s im-
ilar dile mma, but the pro ble m of s o cial-purit y fe min is t s was
co mpo un de d by the fact that s o cial purit y was by no me an s an
e xplicit ly fe min is t or libe rt arian caus e , n o r was it do min -
ated by a fo rce ful fe min is t le ade r like Jo s e phin e But le r.
The re act io n ary implicat io n s of s o cial purit y, fo r fe min is t s
and pro s t it ut e s alike , are illumin at e d by the public co n t ro -
ve rs y s urro un din g the Jack the Rippe r murde rs .
In the aut umn of 1888, the at t e n t io n of the "clas s e s " as
we ll as the "mas s e s " was rive t e d on a s e rie s of brut al mur-
de rs of pro s t it ut e s re s idin g in lo dgin g ho us e s in the Whit e -
chape l are a of East Lo n do n (53). Public re s po n s e to the
murde rs was wide s pre ad and dive rs e , but the pe o ple who mo bil-
ized o ve r the murde rs we re almo s t e xclus ive ly male .
An army of We s t End me n , fas cin at e d by the murde rs and
be n t on hun t in g the Rippe r, in vade d the East End (54). Me an -
while , a half-do ze n male vigilan ce co mmit t e e s we re set up
in Whit e chape lby To yn be e Hall, by the Je wis h co mmun it y, by
the radical and s o cialis t wo rkin gme n 's clubs (55 )i The s e
male pat ro ls we re o rgan ize d to pro t e ct wo me n , but t he y als o
co n s t it ut e d s urve illan ce of the un re s pe ct able po o r and of
lo w-life wo me n in part icular. The y we re e xplicit ly mo de le d
on e xis t in g purit y o rgan izat io n s alre ady act ive in the are a
that had he lpe d to clo s e do wn two hun dre d bro t he ls in the
East End in the ye ar be fo re the Rippe r murde rs (56). As we
have s e e n , the me s s age of s o cial purit y to me n was mixe d:
it de man de d that me n co n t ro l t he ir o wn s e xualit y, but it
gave them po we r to co n t ro l the s e xualit y of wo me n as we ll,
s in ce it calle d upo n them to pro t e ct their wo me n and to re -
pre s s bro t he ls and s t re e t walke rs .
The s e ge n e ralizat io n s are bo rn e out by the Rippe r e pis o de ,
whe n me n o s t e n s ibly out to hun t the Rippe r o ft e n haras s e d
wo me n on the s t re e t s while hus ban ds t hre at e n e d wive s wit h
"rippin g" in t he ir ho me s (57). Fe male vuln e rabilit y e xt e n d-
ed we ll be yo n d the "dan ge r zo n e " o f Whit e chape l. Thro ugho ut
Lo n do n , re s pe ct able wo me n , afraid to ve n t ure out alo n e at
n ight , we re e ffe ct ive ly place d un de r "ho us e arre s t " and we re
de pe n de n t on male pro t e ct io n . De s pit e the public o ut cry
again s t the "male mo n s t e r" "who s t alks the s t re e t s of Lo n -
do n " (58) in s e arch of falle n wo me n , public at t e n t io n in e vit -
ably re ve rt e d to the de grade d co n dit io n s of the Whit e chape l
vict ims t he ms e lve s . "The de grade d and de prave d lives of the
wo me n ," o bs e rve d C an o n Barn e t t of To yn be e Hall in the
Time s , we re mo re "appallin g than the act ual murde rs " (59).
Me n like Barn e t t fin ally man ipulat e d public o pin io n and co n -
s o lidat e d it be hin d clo s in g do wn lo dgin g ho us e s whe re the
murde re d vict ims o n ce lived and re placin g them wit h art is an
dwe llin gs . Thro ugh the s urve illan ce of vigilan ce co mmit -
t e e s , the murde rs he lpe d to in t e n s ify re pre s s ive act ivit ie s
alre ady un de rway in the Whit e chape l are a and to has t e n the
re o rgan izat io n of pro s t it ut io n in the East End (60).
Durin g the Rippe r man hun t , fe min is t s we re un able to mo bil-
ize an y co un t e ro ffe n s ive again s t wide s pre ad male in t imida-
tion of wo me n . Jo s e phin e But le r and o t he rs did e xpre s s co n -
ce rn that the upro ar o ve r the murde rs wo uld lead to the
re pre s s io n of bro t he ls and to s ubs e que n t ho me le s s n e s s of
wo me n ; but t he s e we re is o lat e d in t e rve n t io n s in an o ve rwhe lm-
in gly male -do min at e d de bat e .
Alt ho ugh some fe min is t s s t ill main t ain e d a n at io n al pre s e n ce
in the purit y crus ade , all in all, by the late 1880s fe min -
is t s had lost co n s ide rable aut ho rit y in the public dis cus -
sion o ve r s e x to a co alit io n of male pro fe s s io n al e xpe rt s ,
co n s e rvat ive churchme n , and s o cial purit y advo cat e s . On the
o t he r han d, s o cial purit y pe rman e n t ly left its imprin t o n
the wo me n 's mo ve me n t t hro ugh the Firs t Wo rld War. Bo t h the
s ixt e e n -ye ar campaign again s t s t at e re gulat io n and later s e x-
ual s can dals such as the "Maide n Tribut e " in grain e d the
t he me of the s e xual wro n gs pe rpe t rat e d again s t wo me n by me n
on later fe min is t co n s cio us n e s s . Aft e r the 1880s , the "wo m-
e n 's re vo lt " be came "a re vo lt that is Purit an and not Bo he m-
ian . It is an upris in g again s t the t yran n y of o rgan ize d in -
t e mpe ran ce , impurit y, mammo n is m, and s e lfis h mo t ive s " (61).
On the who le , this at t ack on male do min an ce and male vice
in vo lve d no po s it ive as s e rt io n of fe male s e xualit y. Al-
t ho ugh a s mall min o rit y of fe min is t s like Olive Schre in e r
and St e lla Bro wn e we re de e ply in t e re s t e d in the que s t io n of
fe male ple as ure , t he y we re far re mo ve d fro m the fe min is t
main s t re am, whe re the public dis cus s io n of s e xualit y and
male do min an ce was s t ill co uche d wit hin the t e rms of a "s e pa-
rate s phe re " ide o lo gy, implyin g that wo me n we re mo ral, "s pir-
it ual" cre at ure s who n e e de d to be pro t e ct e d from an imalis t ic
"carn al" me n and de man din g, in the wo rds of C hris t abe l Pan k-
hurs t , the Edwardian milit an t s uffragis t , "vo t e s for wo me n "
and "chas t it y" fo r me n (62). Mo re o ve r, the o bs e s s io n wit h
male vice again s ide t racke d e arly t we n t ie t h-ce n t ury fe min -
is t s into an o t he r crus ade again s t whit e s lave ry (1912),
while o bs curin g the e co n o mic bas is of pro s t it ut io n . It e ve n
pro mpt e d the mo s t pro gre s s ive wo me n of the day to advo cat e
rais in g the age of co n s e n t to t we n t y-o n e . Fin ally, it led
to re pre s s ive public po licie s . C o mme n t in g on the e n fo rce -
me n t of the Whit e Slave ry Act of 1912, Sylvia Pan khurs t re -
marke d, "It is a s t ran ge thing that the latest C rimin al
Ame n dme n t Act , which was pas s e d o s t e n s ibly to pro t e ct wo me n ,
is be in g used almo s t e xclus ive ly to pun is h wo me n " (63).
The s e then are the e arly his t o rical links be t we e n fe min is m
and re pre s s ive crus ade s again s t pro s t it ut io n , po rn o graphy,
and ho mo s e xualit y. Be gun as a libe rt arian s t ruggle again s t
the s t at e s an ct io n of male vice , the re pe al campaign he lpe d
to s pawn a hydra-he ade d as s ault on n o n marit al, n o n re pro duct -
ive s e xualit y. The s t ruggle again s t state re gulat io n
e vo lve d into a mo ve me n t that us e d the in s t rume n t s of the
s t at e for re pre s s ive purpo s e s .
It may be mis le adin g to in t e rpre t the e ffe ct s of these
later crus ade s s o le ly as blin d, re pre s s ive at t acks on s e xual-
it y; in man y ways they clarifie d and ide n t ifie d who le n e w
are as of s e xualit y. Acco rdin g to Miche l Fo ucault , this
e labo rat io n of n e w s e xualit ie s was a s t rat e gy for e xe rcis in g
po we r in s o cie t y. By fe rre t in g o ut n e w are as of illicit s e x-
ual act ivit y and s o me t ime s de fin in g them into e xis t e n ce , a
n e w "t e chn o lo gy of po we r" was cre at e d that facilit at e d co n -
t ro l o ve r an e ve r-wide n in g circle of human act ivit y (64).
But po we r is not s imply imman e n t in s o cie t y; it is de plo ye d
by s pe cific his t o rical age n t s , who have acce s s to varyin g
s o urce s and levels of po we r (65).
The re alit y of a hie rarchy of po we r s e ve re ly impe de d fe min -
is t s ' e ffo rt s to use purit y crus ade s to de fe n d and e mpo we r
wo me n . Re s cue wo rk, mo t he rs ' me e t in gs , and mo ral s uas io n by
no me an s carrie d the same aut ho rit y as a mo rals po lice un de r
the C o n t agio us Dis e as e s Act s , male vigilan ce co mmit t e e s , or
an e me rgin g "s cie n ce of s e xualit y" co n t ro lle d by male pro fe s -
s io n als . The fe min is t challe n ge to male s e xual pre ro gat ive s
was a majo r his t o ric de ve lo pme n t , o n e n e ce s s ary pre co n dit io n
for the ide o lo gy of e galit arian he t e ro s e xual re lat io n s . But
whe n fe min is t s tried to use the po we rs of the s t at e to pro -
tect wo me n , part icularly pro s t it ut e s who had be e n the o rigin -
al o bje ct s of their pit y and co n ce rn , fe min is t s us ually came
face to face wit h t he ir o wn impo t e n ce .
What are the mo ral le s s o n s of t he s e mo ral crus ade s ? If
there is o n e , it is that co mme rcial s e x as a locus of s e xual
vio le n ce again s t wo me n is a ho t and dan ge ro us is s ue for fe m-
in is t s . In t he ir de fe n s e of pro s t it ut e s and co n ce rn to pro -
tect wo me n from male s e xual aggre s s io n , fe min is t s we re limit -
ed by t he ir o wn clas s bias and by t he ir co n t in ue d adhe re n ce
to a "s e parat e s phe re " ide o lo gy that s t re s s e d wo me n 's puri-
t y, mo ral s upre macy, and do me s t ic virt ue s . Mo re o ve r, they
lacked the cult ural and po lit ical po we r to re s hape the wo rld
acco rdin g to t he ir o wn image . Alt ho ugh they tried to set
the s t an dards of s e xual co n duct , they did not co n t ro l the in -
s t rume n t s of s t at e that ult imat e ly e n fo rce d t he s e n o rms .
The re we re t ime s , part icularly durin g the an t ire gulat io n is t
campaign , whe n fe min is t s we re able to do min at e and s t ruct ure
the public dis co urs e on s e x and to aro us e po pular fe male an -
ger at male s e xual lice n s e . Yet this an ge r was e as ily s ub-
ve rt e d into re pre s s ive campaign s again s t male vice and s e xu-
al variat io n , co n t ro lle d by me n and co n s e rvat ive in t e re s t s
who s e go als we re an t it he t ical to the value s and ide als of
fe min is m.
This le ave s us wit h a ce n t ral dile mma: ho w to de vis e an
e ffe ct ive s t rat e gy to co mbat s e xual vio le n ce and humiliat io n
in o ur s o cie t y, whe re vio le n t mis o gyn y s e e ms so de e ply ro o t -
ed and whe re the me dia co n t in ue to amplify the t e rro r of
male vio le n ce , as it did durin g the s e xual s can dals of the
1880s , co n vin cin g wo me n that they are he lple s s vict ims . We
mus t s t ruggle to live o ur live s fre e ly wit ho ut humiliat io n
and vio le n ce . But we have to be aware of the pain ful co n t ra-
dict io n s of o ur s e xual s t rat e gy, n o t o n ly for the s e x wo rk-
ers who s t ill re gard co mme rcial s e x as the "be s t paid in dus -
t ry" available to t he m but als o for o urs e lve s as fe min is t s .
We mus t take care not to play in t o the han ds of the Ne w
Right or the Mo ral Majo rit y, who are o n ly too de light e d to
cas t wo me n in the ro le s of vict ims re quirin g male pro t e ct io n
and co n t ro l and who de s ire to turn fe min is t pro t e s t into a
po lit ics of re pre s s io n (66).
Notes
1. "Phil Do n ahue Sho w," 18 July 1979, Mult ime dia Pro gram
Pro duct io n s , C hicago . An e arlie r ve rs io n of this e s -
say firs t appe are d as a re vie w e s s ay, "The Po lit ics of
Pro s t it ut io n ," Sign s 6 (Aut umn 1980):123-35. This
e s s ay will als o appe ar in His t o ry Wo rks ho p Jo urn al
(Sprin g 1982) and in Po lit ics o f Se xualit y, e d. An n
Sn it o w, C hris t in e St an s e ll, and Sharo n Tho mps o n (New
Yo rk: Mo n t hly Re vie w Pre s s , fo rt hco min g 1983). I
wo uld like to t han k Amy Swe rdlo w, Sharo n Tho mps o n ,
Barbara Taylo r, and Elle n Dubo is for t he ir crit ical
s ugge s t io n s and advice .
2. Writ in gs s uppo rt in g the Wo me n Again s t Po rn o graphy po s i-
t io n are in clude d in Take Back the Night : Wo me n on
Po rn o graphy, e d. Laura Le de re r (New Yo rk: William
Mo rro w & C o ., 1980). Kat hle e n Barry ide n t ifie s the
Brit is h fe min is t mo bilizat io n again s t s t at e re gula-
tion as the first wave of pro t e s t le adin g to the cur-
rent campaign again s t po rn o graphy and "s e xual s lave ry"
in Fe male Se xual Slave ry (En gle wo o d C liffs , N.J.:
Pre n t ice -Hall, 1979), ch. 2. Two us e ful crit ique s of
Wo me n Again s t Po rn o graphy in clude Elle n Willis , "Lus t
Ho rizo n s : Is the Wo me n 's Mo ve me n t Pro -Se x?" Village
Vo ice , 17 Jun e 1981; De idre En glis h, Ambe r
Ho llibaugh, and Gayle Rubin , "Talkin g Se x: A C o n ve rs a-
tion on Se xualit y and Fe min is m," So cialis t Re vie w
(1981):43-62.
3. Edward Bris t o w, Vice and Vigilan ce : Purit y Mo ve me n t s
in Brit ain s in ce 1700 (Dublin : Gill & Macmillan ,
1977); De bo rah Go rham, "The 'Maiden Tribut e of Mo de rn
Babylo n
1
Re e xamin e d. C hild Pro s t it ut io n and the Idea
of C hildho o d in Lat e -Vict o rian En glan d," Vict o rian
St udie s 21 (Sprin g 1978):353-69; Paul Me Hugh, Pro s t i-
t ut io n and Vict o rian So cial Re fo rm (New Yo rk: St .
Mart in 's Pre s s , 1980); Judit h R. Walko wit z, Pro s t it u-
t io n and Vict o rian So cie t y: Wo me n , C las s , and the
State (Ne w Yo rk: C ambridge Un ive rs it y Pre s s , 1980);
Je ffre y We e ks , Se x, Po lit ics and So cie t y (Lo n do n :
Quart e t Bo o ks , 1981), ch. 5.
4. Mrs . Ke ll of So ut hampt o n , quo t e d in Walko wit z, Pro s t it u-
t io n , p. 170; Nat io n al Le ague Jo urn al (Lo n do n ), 1
Se pt e mbe r 1879.
5. An M. P. to Jo s e phin e But le r, quoted in Jo s e phin e
But le r: An Aut o bio graphical Me mo ir, e d. Ge o rge W.
Jo hn s o n and Lucy Jo hn s o n (Bris t o l: Arro ws mit h, 1913),
p. 90.
6. "Wo me n 's Pro t e s t ," quo t e d in Jo s e phin e But le r, Pe rs o n al
Re min is ce n ce s o f a Gre at C rus ade (Lo n do n : H. Mars h-
all & So n , 1911), pp. 9, 10; Ke it h Tho mas , "The Do uble
St an dard," Jo urn al o f the His t o ry o f Ide as 20
(1959):195-216.
7. Than ks to Mart ha Vicin us and C arro ll Smit h-Ro s e n be rg for
t he s e pe rce pt io n s .
8. Jo s e phin e But le r to Mary Prie s t man , 4 May 1874, n o .
3327, But le r C o lle ct io n , Fawce t t Library, Lo n do n .
9. Mary Hume Ro t he ry, A Le t t e r Addre s s e d to the Right Ho n .
W. E. Glads t o n e , M.P., and t he Ot he r Me mbe rs o f He r Ma-
je s t y's Go ve rn me n t and o f Bo t h Ho us e s o f Parliame n t ,
To uchin g the C o n t agio us Dis e as e s Act s o f 1866 and
1869, and The ir Pro po s e d Ext e n s io n to the C ivil Po pula-
t io n (Man che s t e r, 1870), p. 18. Sally Mit che ll n o t e s
the chan gin g de fin it io n and s o cial ide n t it y of the
"falle n wo man " in wo me n 's fict io n , from an o bje ct of
charit y in the 1840s and 1850s to a re ade r s ubs t it ut e
in the 1860s in "Se n t ime n t and Suffe rin g: Wo me n 's
Re cre at io n al Re adin g in the 1860s ," Vict o rian St ud-
ie s 21 (1977):29-45.
10. Nan cy F. C o t t , "Pas s io n le s s n e s s : An In t e rpre t at io n of
Vict o rian Se xual Ide o lo gy, 1790-1850," Sign s 4
(1978):219-36; Tho mas , "Do uble St an dard," pp. 213,
214.
11. Jo s e phin e But le r, quo t e d in Bris t o w, Vice and Vigil-
an ce , p. 83.
12. The Ro yal C o mmis s io n as a C o urt o f Jus t ice . Be in g an
Examin at io n o f the De clarat io n t hat "The Po lice are
Not C harge able wit h An y Abus e o f The ir Aut ho rit y"
(Lo n do n , 1871).
13. Ibid.; Judit h R. Walko wit z, "The Makin g of an Out cas t
Gro up: Pro s t it ut e s and Wo rkin g Wo me n in Nin e t e e n t h-
C e n t ury Plymo ut h and So ut hampt o n ," in A Wide n in g
Sphe re : C han gin g Ro le s o f Vict o rian Wo me n , e d. Mar-
tha Vicin us (Blo o min gt o n : In dian a Un ive rs it y Pre s s ,
1977), pp. 72-93.
14. But le r, On the Mo ral Re claimabilit y o f Pro s t it ut e s
(Lo n do n : privat e ly publis he d, 1870).
15. Abraham Fle xn e r, Pro s t it ut io n in Euro pe (Ne w Yo rk:
C e n t ury C o ., 1914), p. 6.
16. Do wn ward Pat hs : An In quiry in t o the C aus e s Which C o n -
t ribut e to the Makin g o f the Pro s t it ut e , wit h a
fo re wo rd by A. Maude Ro yde n (Lo n do n : G. Be ll & So n s ,
1916), p. 48.
17. Re gis t e re d pro s t it ut e to Jo s e phin e But le r, quo t e d in
Walko wit z, Pro s t it ut io n , p. 202.
18. Re pe ale rs re fe rre d to the plain clo t he s o ffice rs of the
Me t ro po lit an Po lice fo rce , wo rkin g un de r the C o n t a-
gio us Dis e as e Act s , as "s py po lice ."
19. "Se ve n t h An n ual Re po rt of the LNA, . . . 1876," LNA Re -
po rt s , 1870-1886, But le r C o lle ct io n , Fawce t t Library,
Lo n do n .
20. "Wo rkin g Me n !" LNA po s t e r dis playe d durin g the C o lche s -
ter by-e le ct io n of 1870, H.J. Wils o n C o lle ct io n , Faw-
cett Library.
21. See the e xchan ge be t we e n Ro be rt Apple gart h and Jo s e phin e
But le r, P.P. 1871, Que s t io n 13, 114-15. See als o
Apple gart h's s pe e ch at "Gre at Mas s Me e t in g in the Corn
Exchan ge , Le e ds ," Shie ld, 21 Oct o be r 1871.
22. Jo s e phin e But le r to Mary Prie s t man , 5 De ce mbe r 1876,
But le r C o lle ct io n , Fawce t t Library, Lo n do n .
23. "Jo s e phin e But le r," Wo man 's Dre adn o ught , 24 Oct o be r
1914.
24. York was a n o t able e xce pt io n . "Twe lft h An n ual Re po rt
. . . of the LNA, 1881," LNA Re po rt s .
25. For a fulle r dis cus s io n , see Walko wit z, Pro s t it ut io n ,
pp. 143-46.
26. "The Maide n Tribut e of Mo de rn Babylo n ," pt s . I-IV, Pall
Mall Gaze t t e , 6, 7, 8, 10 July 1885; Go rham, "Maide n
Tribut e ," and Bris t o w, Vice and Vigilan ce , are the
be s t s e co n dary dis cus s io n s of the s can dal.
27. Go rham, "Maide n Tribut e ," p. 354.
28. Bris t o w, Vice and Vigilan ce .
29. Fo r in s t an ce , Ge o rge Be rn ard Shaw and Olive Schre in e r,
who s e ide as of s e xual hygie n e and female s e xual ple a-
sure we re at o dds wit h e van ge lical mo ralis t s , we re al-
so drawn in t o the "Maide n Tribut e " agit at io n . See
Ruth Firs t and An n Sco t t , Olive Schre in e r (Ne w Yo rk:
A. De ut s ch, 1980), pp. 155-56; Fre de rick Whyt e , The
Life of W.T. Stead (Lo n do n : C ape , 1925), 1:175.
30. Go rham, "Maide n Tribut e ," pp. 376-78.
31. Gayle Rubin , un publis he d e s s ay, 1981.
32. Go rham, "Maide n Tribut e ," p. 355.
33. Go rham, "Maide n Tribut e ," pp. 372, 373; Walko wit z, Pro s -
t it ut io n , p. 249. Fo r re fo rme rs , "girlho o d" was a
s t age in life marke d by de pe n de n cy, n o t an y s pe cific
ps ycho s e xual de ve lo pme n t . Acco rdin gly, de bat e s o ve r
the age of co n s e n t rare ly in clude d re fe re n ce to the ac-
tual s e xual de ve lo pme n t of the girls they we re s e e kin g
to pro t e ct . The age of co n s e n t was arbit rary; in de e d,
man y re fo rme rs wan t e d to rais e it to e ight e e n , some to
t we n t y-o n e . Mo re o ve r, man y of the same as s umpt io n s
abo ut pro t e ct in g and co n t ro llin g fe male ado le s ce n t s
ult imat e ly led to the de fin it io n and in carce rat io n of
s e xually act ive , girls as "s e x de lin que n t s ."
34. "The C rus ade again s t the C rime s of Mo de rn Babylo n ,"
Pall Mall Gaze t t e , 23 July 1885.
35. Mary Prie s t man to the e dit o r, Pall Mall Gaze t t e , 23
July 1885.
36. "A C rus ade to Me n ," Pall Mall Gaze t t e , 24 July 1885.
37. Je ffre y We e ks , Coining Out : Ho mo s e xual Po lit ics in Brit -
ain fro m the Nin e t e e n t h C e n t ury to the Pre s e n t (Lo n -
do n : Quart e t Bo o ks , 1977), pp. 18-20.
38. See Walko wit z, Pro s t it ut io n , pp. 210-13.
39. We e ks , C o min g Out , p. 18.
40. Bris t o w, Vice and Vigilan ce , p. 201. Similarly, puri-
ty re fo rme rs we re co n ce rn e d abo ut the pe rn icio us e f-
fect of mus ic hall e n t e rt ain me n t , not only be caus e
they de e me d man y of the act s o bs ce n e , but be caus e the
act s e n co urage d wo rkin gme n to e mulat e the paras it ic,
lice n t io us life of the "s we ll." See Pe t e r Baile y,
Le is ure and C las s in Vict o rian En glan d: Rat io n al
Re cre at io n and the C o n t e s t fo r C o n t ro l, 1830-1885
(Lo n do n : Ro ut le dge & Ke gan Paul, 1978), p. 47.
41. Bris t o w, Vice and Vigilan ce , pp. 103-6; Walko wit z,
Pro s t it ut io n , pp. 210-13, 253; Ro be rt Ro be rt s , The
C las s ic Slum: Salfo rd Life in the Firs t Quart e r o f
the C e n t ury (Man che s t e r: Man che s t e r Un ive rs it y
Pre s s , 1971), p. 23, ch. 3; Paul Tho mps o n , The Edward-
ian s (Blo o min gt o n : In dian a Un ive rs it y Pre s s , 1975),
ch. 5; St an dis h Meachara, A Life Apart : The En glis h
Wo rkin g C las s 1890-1914 (C ambridge , Mas s .: Harvard
Un ive rs it y Pre s s , 1977), pp. 64-67.
42. Susan Edwards , "Se x C rime s in the Nin e t e e n t h C e n t ury,"
Ne w So cie t y 49 (13 Se pt e mbe r 1979):562-63; An n a
C lark, "The Lan guage of Rape and Se duct io n in the Nin e -
t e e n t h C e n t ury" (un publis he d pape r, 1981); Jan
Lambe rt z, "Male -Fe male Vio le n ce in Lat e -Vict o rian and
Edwardian En glan d" (B.A. dis s ., Harvard Un ive rs it y,
1979); Lin da Go rdo n , co mme n t ary on s e s s io n on "Family
Vio le n ce ," Be rks hire C o n fe re n ce on Wo me n 's His t o ry,
Vas s ar C o lle ge , May 1981.
43. I am fo llo win g Nan cy C o t t 's use of the co n ce pt of pas -
s io n le s s n e s s to "co n ve y the vie w that wo me n lacked s e x-
ual aggre s s ive n e s s , that t he ir s e xual appe t it e s co n -
t ribut e d a min o r part . . . to t he ir mo t ivat io n s , that
lus t fuln e s s was s imply un charact e ris t ic. The co n ce pt
of pas s io n le s s n e s s re pre s e n t e d a clus t e r of ideas
abo ut the co mparat ive we ight of wo man 's carn al n a-
t ure " ("Pas s io n le s s n e s s ," p. 220).
44. Vict o r Baile y and She ila Blackburn , "The Pun is hme n t of
Incest Act 1908: A Case St udy of Law C re at io n ," C rim-
in al Law Re vie w (1979):708-18; She ila Je ffrys , "The
Spin s t e r and He r En e mie s : Se xualit y and the Last Wave
of Fe min is m," Scarle t Wo me n 13 (Pt . 2, July
1981):23.
45. Elle n Ho lt zman , "The Purs uit of Marrie d Lo ve : Wo me n 's
At t it ude s toward Se xualit y and Marriage in Gre at Brit -
ain , 1918-1939," Jo urn al o f So cial His t o ry (1982);
An gus McLare n , Birt h C o n t ro l in Nin e t e e n t h C e n t ury
En glan d (Lo n do n , 1978), pp. 198, 199.
46. He le n Me lle r, Le is ure an d the C han gin g C it y, 1870-1914
(Lo n do n : Ro ut le dge & Ke gan Paul, 1976), pp. 133, 139,
174; Mrs . Layt o n , "Me mo rie s of Se ve n t y Ye ars ," in
Life as We Have Kn o wn It , ed Margare t Lle we llyn Da-
vie s (Lo n do n : W. W. No rt o n & C o ., 1931, re p. 1975),
p. 40.
47. Walko wit z, Pro s t it ut io n , pp. 208-10, 244-45; Emma
Smith [ps e ud.], A C o rn is h Waif's Tale : An Aut o bio gra-
phy (Ne w Yo rk, 1956), ch. 2; Elizabe t h Ro be rt s ,
"Le arn in g and Livin g: So cializat io n Out s ide Scho o l,"
Oral His t o ry 3 (Aut umn 1975):20-23; Ro be rt s , C las -
sic Slum, pp. 22, 23.
48. Me acham, A Life Apart , pp. 64-67; Ro be rt s , C las s ic
Slum, p. 43.
49. Margare t Lle we llyn Davie s , Mat e rn it y: Le t t e rs from
Wo rkin g Wo me n (Lo n do n : W.W. No rt o n & C o ., 1915; re p.
1978); "Tran s cript io n of In t e rvie w of Be rt ha with
Marie Sharde lo e and Fran ce s Widdo ws o n ," South Lo n do n
Wo me n 's His t o ry Wo rks ho p, 1979.
50. Bris t o w, Vice and Vigilan ce , p. 118; Gare t h St e dman
Jo n e s , "Wo rkin g-C las s C ult ure and Wo rkin g-C las s Po li-
t ics in Lo n do n , 1870-1900; No t e s on the Re makin g of a
Wo rkin g C las s ," Jo urn al o f So cial His t o ry 4 (Summe r
1974):474-79, 485-87; Walko wit z, Pro s t it ut io n , pp.
201-13.
51. Jo s e phin e But le r, quo t e d in Je s s ie Higs o n , The St o ry o f
a Be gin n in g (Lo n do n , 1955), pp. 35, 36.
52. For re cruit me n t of re pe ale rs into s o cial purit y, see
Walko wit z, Pro s t it ut io n , pp. 239-43; Bris t o w, Vice
and Vigilan ce , pp. 98, 99.
53. To m C ulle n , Aut umn o f Te rro r (Lo n do n : Bo dle y He ad,
1965); Dan Fars o n , Jack the Rippe r (Lo n do n , 1972);
Ale xan de r Ke lly, Jack t he Rippe r: A Biblio graphy and
Re vie w o f the Lit e rat ure (Lo n do n : As s o ciat io n of
As s is t an t Librarian s , 1973); Do n ald Rumbe lo w, The
C o mple t e Jack the Rippe r (Bo s t o n : Graphic So cie t y,
1975); Je rry Whit e , Ro t hs child Buildin gs : Life in an
Eas t End Te n e me n t Blo ck 1887-1920 (Lo n do n : Ro ut le dge
& Ke gan Paul, 1980); C haim Be rman t , Lo n do n 's Eas t
En d: Po in t o f Arrival (Ne w Yo rk: Macraillan, 1976),
pp. 112-18; Judit h R. Walko wit z, "Jack the Rippe r and
the Myt h of Male Vio le n ce ," Fe min is t St udie s 8 (Fall
1982).
54. Echo , 14 Se pt e mbe r 1888; Time s , 12 No ve mbe r 1888.
55. Daily C hro n icle , 15 Se pt e mbe r 1888; Daily Te le graph,
2 Oct o be r 1888, 4 Oct o be r 1888; D.N., 9 Oct o be r
1888.
56. Bris t o w, pp. 167-69; He n rie t t a Barn e t t , C an o n Barn e t t :
His Life , Wo rk and Frie n ds by His Wife (Lo n do n :
Murray, 1921), pp. 305-8. Purit y le ade rs we re not
e n t ire ly ple as e d wit h the pro life rat io n of vigilan ce
gro ups o ut s ide their co n t ro l. On St e ad's re s po n s e ,
see St ar le ade r, 11 Se pt e mbe r 1888.
57. Time s (Lo n do n ), 1 Oct o be r 1888, 12 No ve mbe r 1888;
Elwyn Jo n e s , e d., Rippe r File (Lo n do n : Barke r,
1975), pp. 147, 148; Echo , 3 Oct o be r 1888; St ar,
10 No ve mbe r 1888; C e n t ral C rimin al C o urt , Lo n do n ,
Se s s io n s Pape rs , Min ut e s of Evide n ce , vo l. 109
(1888-89), pp. 76-77.
58. Eas t Lo n do n Adve rt is e r, 24 Se pt e mbe r 1888; Daily
C hro n icle , 10 Se pt e mbe r 1888.
59. William Barn e t t to the e dit o r, Time s (Lo n do n ), 16
No ve mbe r 1888.
60. Whit e , Ro t hs child Buildin gs , ch. 1; Walko wit z, Pro s t i-
t ut io n , pp. 210-13.
61. "The Ne w Wo man ," Wo man 's Sign al, 29 No ve mbe r 1894.
62. C hris t abe l Pan khurs t , The Gre at Sco urge and Ho w to End
It^ (Lo n do n : E. Pan khurs t , 1913).
63. "Pro t e ct in g Wo me n ?" Wo man 's Dre adn o ught , 19 De ce mbe r
1914.
64. Miche l Fo ucault , The His t o ry o f Se xualit y. Vo l. 1,
An In t ro duct io n , t ran s . Ro be rt Hurle y (Ne w Yo rk:
Pan t he o n Bo o ks , 1978).
65. Than ks to Je ffre y We e ks and Elle n Dubo is for this pe r-
ce pt io n .
66. Rosalind Petchesky, "Antiabortion, Antifeminism, and the
Rise of the New Right," Feminist Studies 5 (1980):
206-46.
EVELYN BROOKS
The Feminist Theology of the Black Baptist
Church, 1880-1900 (1980)
Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, Black Baptist women ex-
pressed their "righteous and burning zeal" to go forward in
Christ' s name in their writings and in speeches delivered
before male-dominated missionary associations (1). They
challenged the "silent helpmate" image of female church
work, and set out to convince their brethren that women were
as obliged as men to advance Baptist efforts. During these
years, Black Baptist women translated their fervor into ac-
tion by establishing and administering separate women's
societies at the state and local level. In 1900 their "burn-
ing zeal" culminated in the formation of a national organiza-
tion, namely, the Women's Convention, Auxiliary to the
National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc.
Black Baptist women reinforced their sense of sex con-
sciousness by recognizing their solidarity with women across
racial lines. Within this female-centered context, they ac-
centuated the theme of woman as saving force, rather than
woman as victim; they thereby encouraged an aggressive woman-
hood that felt a personal responsibility to labor, no less
than men, for the salvation of the world. Black Baptist wom-
en conceived of themselves as part of an evangelical si st er -
hood united in the battle against ignorance, intemperance,
and irreligion. On religious as well as patriotic grounds,
their evangelical zeal fervently rejected a fragile, passive
womanhood, or the type preoccupied with fashion, novels, and
self-indulgence. America offered them a vast mission field
to sol i ci t as never before the active participation of self-
disciplined, self-sacrificing workers. Women leaders in the
Black Baptist Church were well acquainted with the history
of white Baptist women's societies and praised their work
for the freed-people, Indians, immigrants, and set t l ers on
the western frontier (2).
The religious posture of Black Baptist women in the last
two decades of the nineteenth century conforms to Rosemary
Ruether's and Eleanor McLaughlin's conceptualization of the
"stance of ' radical obedience.
1
" Referring to female lead-
e rs hip in C hris t ian it y, Rue t he r and McLaughlin dis t in guis h
wo me n 's po s it io n s of "lo yal dis s e n t " aris in g wit hin the main -
line churche s from wo me n 's po s it io n s of he re s y that co mple t e -
ly re je ct e d the do ct rin e s of the t radit io n al de n o min at io n s .
The y argue for the wide r in flue n ce of the fo rme r, s in ce wo m-
e n , in the "s t an ce of 'radical o be die n ce ,'" seized o rt ho do x
t he o lo gy in de fe n s e of s e xual e qualit y (3).
The fe min is t t he o lo gy of the Black Bapt is t C hurch ce rt ain -
ly did not co n s t it ut e a bre ak fro m o rt ho do xy, but it did e n -
tail the re s t at e me n t of o rt ho do xy in pro gre s s ive , indeed lib-
e rat in g t e rms for wo me n . Black re ligio us le ade rs alre ady
adhe re d to a pro gre s s ive t he o lo gy whe n it came to t he ir be -
lief in racial e qualit y. In the Jim C ro w Ame rica of the
late n in e t e e n t h ce n t ury, Black Bapt is t min is t e r Rufus Pe rry
e ve n dared to in t e rpre t the Bible as a s o urce of an cie n t
Black his t o ryas the root fro m which race pride s ho uld gro w
(4). The libe rat in g prin ciple in C hris t ian it y was not n e w
to Black pe o ple who , for ge n e rat io n s un de r s lave ry, re je ct e d
s cript ural t e xt s that de fe n de d human bo n dage . De s pit e the
re luct an ce of the s lave mas t e r to quo t e the biblical pas s age ,
"n e it he r bond n o r free in C hris t Je s us ," the s lave s e x-
pre s s e d its me an in g in t he ir s pirit uals and praye rs (5). In
the Black Bapt is t C hurch of the late n in e t e e n t h ce n t ury, the
wo me n in the le ade rs hip calle d at t e n t io n to the ve rs e in its
mo re co mple t e fo rm: "Ne it he r bo n d n o r fre e , n e it he r male
n o r female in C hris t Je s us ." By e xpo un din g the biblical pre -
ce de n t s for wo me n 's right s , Black Bapt is t wo me n claime d
t he ir right to in t e lle ct ual, t he o lo gical, and e t hical dis -
co urs e .
The s pe e che s and writ in gs of Black wo me n me mbe rs of the
male -do min at e d Ame rican Nat io n al Bapt is t C o n ve n t io n (ANBC ),
fo re run n e r of the Nat io n al Bapt is t C o n ve n t io n , U.S.A., In c.,
fo cus e d on the role of wo me n in the church and in the bro ad-
er Ame rican s o cie t y. Virgin ia Bro ught o n , Mary C o o k, and
Lucy Wilmo t Smith stood o ut as the in t e lle ct ual le ade rs of
the caus e of Black Bapt is t wo man ho o d be t we e n 1880 and 1900
(6). No n e of the wo me n we re t he o lo gian s in an y s t rict and
fo rmal s e n s e , and yet t he ir t he o ce n t ric vie w of the wo rld in
which they lived jus t ifie s callin g t he m t he o lo gian s in the
bro ad s pirit that Go rdo n Kaufman de s cribe s :
Obvio us ly, C hris t ian s are in vo lve d in t he o lo gizin g at e v-
ery t urn . Eve ry at t e mpt to dis co ve r and re fle ct upo n
the re al me an in g of the Go s pe l, of a pas s age in the Bi-
ble , of Je s us C hris t , is t he o lo gizin g; e ve ry e ffo rt to
dis co ve r the be arin g of the C hris t ian faith or the C hris -
tian e t hic on the pro ble ms of pe rs o n al and s o cial life
is t he o lo gical. Fo r C hris t ian t he o lo gy is the crit ical
The Black Baptist Church 33
analysis and creative development of the language ut i l -
ized in apprehending, understanding, and interpreting
God's act s, faci l i t at i ng their communication in word and
deed. (7)
Virginia Broughton described the Black woman's rising con-
sciousness as part of the "general awakening and rallying t o-
gether of Christian women" of al l races, and traced the prov-
idential evolution of this movement to Eve in the Garden of
Eden. In 1904 Broughton, in Women's Work, as Gleaned from
the Women of the Bible, summed up the ideas that had marked
her public lectures, correspondence, and house-to-house vi s i -
tations since the 1880s, and sought to inspire the churchwom-
en of her day "to assume their several callings" (8).
Mary V. Cook, the most scholarly of a l l , expressed her
views in the Black press, in an edited anthology, and in
speeches before various groups, including the American Na-
tional Baptist Convention. She served on the executive
board of the ANBC, and was honored by being selected to
speak on woman's behalf in the classic statement of Black
Baptist doctrine, The Negro Baptist Pulpit (1890). In
more militant language than Broughton, Cook strove to en-
large woman's power in the church. She termed the Bible an
"iconoclastic weapon" that would destroy negative images of
her sex and overcome the popular misconceptions of woman's
place in the church and in the world at large. Like Brough-
ton, Cook derived her position from the "array of heroic and
saintly women whose virtues have made the world more t ol er-
able" (9).
Lucy Smith wrote extensively in the Black press, served as
historian of the American National Baptist Convention, and
until her death in 1890, delivered strong feminist st at e-
ments at i t s annual meetings (10). Other men and women
joined the three to form an art i cul at e cadre committed to
voicing woman's concerns. These Baptist interpreters of the
Bible perceived themselves as part of the vanguard of the
movement to present the theological discussion of woman's
place (11). They used the Bible to sanction both domestic
and public roles for women. While each of the feminist theo-
logians had her own unique style and emphasis, the basic ar-
guments resembled each other closely on four essential roles
for women: in the home, in the church, in social reform,
and in the labor force. In every case, the Baptist women
emphasized biblical passages that portrayed women posi-
t i vel y.
Black feminist theologians did not depict woman as having
a fragile, impressionable nature, but rather as having a
capacity to influence man. They described woman's power of
persuasion over the opposite sex as hi st ori cal l y positive,
for the most part. They did, however, also mention a few
instances of woman's negative influence, notably, the bib-
l i cal stories of Delilah and Jezebel. But this discussion,
too, emphasized man's vulnerability to woman's strength,
even though i t was pernicious, and never recognized an
innate feminine weakness to fall before temptation. "She
may send forth healthy, purifying streams Which will
enlighten the heart and nourish the seeds of virtue; or cast
a dim shadow, which will enshroud those upon whom i t falls
in moral darkness" (12).
According to the feminist theology of the Black Baptist
women, although the Bible showed women in a dual image, i t
also portrayed both good and evil men, and thus only af-
firmed woman's likeness to man and her oneness with him in
the joint quest for salvation. Virginia Broughton argued
that the Genesis story explicitly denied any right of man to
oppress woman. Her interpretation of woman's creation
stressed the fact that God had not formed Eve out of the
"crude clay" from which he had molded Adam. She reminded
her readers that God purposely sprung Eve from a bone, locat-
ed in Adam's side and under his heart, for woman to be man's
helpmate and companion. Broughton noted that God took the
bone neither from Adam's head for woman to reign over him,
nor from his foot for man to stand over her. Broughton
pointed out that if woman had been Satan's tool in man's
downfall, she was also God's instrument for human regenera-
tion, since i t was to Eve alone that God entrusted the germ
for human redemption by commanding that "the seed of woman
shall bruise the serpent' s head." Broughton argued that re-
demption was therefore inseparably linked with motherhood
and woman's role in the physical deliverance of this redeem-
er (13).
Feminist theologians praised and took pride in the mothers
of Isaac, Moses, Samson, and other greater or lesser heroes
of the Old Testament. They described these Old Testament
women as providing far more than the bodily receptacles
through which great men were born into the world. They were
responsible for raising the sons who would deliver Israel
from i t s oppressors. The mother's determining hand could ex-
tend as far back as the chi l d' s prenatal stageor so con-
cluded Virginia Broughton in a reference to Samson's mother:
"An angel appeared to Manoah's wife, told her she should
have a son and instructed her how to deport herself after
the conception, that Samson might be such a one as God would
have him be, to deliver Israel from the oppression of the
Phi l i st i nes" (14).
Since motherhood was regarded as the greatest sanctity,
Mary the mother of Jesus personified the highest expression
of womanhood. Of al l biblical mothers she assumed the posi-
tion of the "last and sublimest i l l ust rat i on in this rel a-
tion" (15). Hers was motherhood in i t s purest form, in i t s
most feminine, for i t was virginal and without the interces-
sion of a man. To the feminist theologians of the Black Bap-
t i s t Church, Jesus, conceived from the union of woman and
the Angel of God, became the fruition of God's commandment
in Genesis. Mary Cook's knowledge of ancient history and
the Latin classics added further insight into the virgin
mother theme and revealed i t s roots in antiquity. The story
of the twins, Remus and Romulus, the mythical founders of
Rome, also reinforced the theme of the virgin mother.
According to Cook, "Silvia became their mother by the God
Mars, even as Christ was the son of the Holy Ghost" (16).
Motherhood remained the salient domestic motif, though the
feminist theologians also referred to the roles of wife,
si st er , and daughter in order to complete the larger picture
of woman's participation in the home. They frequently at -
tributed a man's conversion or a minister' s righteous l i f e-
style to a mother's influence, a s i s t er ' s guidance, or to
the tender persuasion of a devoted wife or daughter. Mar-
riage was especially presented as "a holy est at e." Speaking
before the American National Baptist Convention in 1888 on
the subject, "Women in the Home," Mrs. G.D. Oldham of Ten-
nessee asserted: "The home is the fi rst i nst i t ut i on God es-
tablished on earth. Not the church, or the st at e, but the
home." To Oldham, woman's domestic role was of supreme im-
portance and represented her "true sphere," since within the
home, woman exercised her greatest influence of a l l . Accord-
ing to Oldham, i t was in the home where woman reigned "queen
of al l she surveys, her sway there is none can dispute, her
powers there is none can bat t l e. " Although she acknowledged
that exceptional women would seek work outside the home and
indicated her hope that they not be excluded from careers in
government and the natural sciences, Oldham firmly believed
that most women would confine their act i vi t i es to domestic
duties. She exhorted women to be the ministers, not the
slaves of their homes. Woman as horaemaker should provide
her husband with an atmosphere of comfort and bl i ss.
Oldhara's image of marriage and home life romanticized wom-
an' s abi l i t y to create a refuge from worldly pressures and
problems. Home life was to resemble the "center of a cy-
clone where not even a feather is moved by the hurricane
that roars around i t " (17).
For feminist theologians such as Cook and Broughton, the
image of woman as a loyal, comforting spouse transcended the
husband-wife to embrace the relationship of woman to Jesus.
wo man that has t ake n the t ro uble to vis it he r." She e n co ur-
aged wo me n to o rgan ize s o cial purit y s o cie t ie s , s e win g
s cho o ls , and o t he r t ype s of un io n s in o rde r to uplift the
do wn t ro dde n (22). The t ire le s s wo rk of Do rcas , who sewed
garme n t s for the n e e dy, be came a s t an dard biblical re fe re n ce
for wo man 's charit able wo rk.
Mary Cook als o argue d the un ique capabilit y of wo me n to
cle an s e immo ralit y, in de ce n cy, and crime "in the face of the
go ve rn me n t which is e it he r too co rrupt to care , or too timid
to o ppo s e ." Fo r C o o k, Bapt is t wo me n t ypifie d much mo re t han
the ho pe of the church, they re pre s e n t e d the ho pe of the
wo rld, in as much as t he ir in flue n ce wo uld have gre at e r mo ral
than po lit ical s way. Since Cook pe rce ive d s o cie t al ills as
primarily a mo ral is s ue , she did not trust t he ir e radicat io n
to le gis lat io n alo n e . Mary Cook pict ure d the ide al wife o f
a min is t e r as a go o d ho me make r, an in t e lle ct ual, and at the
fo re fro n t o f s o cial re fo rm caus e s . She e n co urage d wo me n to
e n gage act ive ly in charit able wo rk in o rphan age s , ho s pit als ,
and pris o n s (23).
Pro po n e n t s of a fe min is t t he o lo gy e n de avo re d to bro ade n
wo rk o ppo rt un it ie s for wo me n . Lucy Wilmo t Smit h, his t o rian
of the Ame rican Nat io n al Bapt is t C o n ve n t io n , put it s quare ly
be fo re he r pre do min an t ly male audie n ce in 1886 whe n she de -
cried the diffe re n ce in t rain in g be t we e n bo ys and girls .
She noted that the n in e t e e n t h-ce n t ury wo man was de pe n de n t as
n e ve r be fo re upo n he r o wn re s o urce s for e co n o mic s urvival.
Smith be lie ve d that girls , like bo ys , mus t be taught to
value the dign it y of labo r. She re je ct e d vie ws that co n s id-
ered wo rk for wo me n dis dain ful or t e mpo rarily n e ce s s ary at
be s t vie ws that co n ce de d to wo me n o n ly the ult imat e go al of
de pe n de n cy on me n . "It is ," she wro t e , "o n e of the e vils
of the day that from babyho o d girls are taught to look fo r-
ward to the time whe n they will be s uppo rt e d by a fat he r, a
bro t he r, or s o me bo dy e ls e 's bro t he r." She e n co urage d Black
wo me n to e n t e r fie lds o t he r t han do me s t ic s e rvice , and s ug-
ge s t e d that e n t e rpris in g wo me n try t he ir hand at po ult ry
rais in g, s mall fruit garde n in g, dairyin g, be e cult ure , le c-
t urin g, n e ws pape r wo rk, pho t o graphy, and n urs in g (24).
In s imilar fas hio n , Mary Cook s ugge s t e d that wo me n seek
o ut e mplo yme n t as e dit o rs of n e ws pape rs or n e ws co rre s po n -
de n t s in o rde r to pro mo t e wo me n 's caus e s and in o rde r to
reach o t he r mo t he rs , daught e rs , and s is t e rs . She advo cat e d
t e achin g yo ut hs t hro ugh the de ve lo pme n t of juve n ile lit e ra-
t ure , and urge d wo me n in the de n o min at io n 's s cho o ls to mo ve
be yo n d s ubo rdin at e jo bs by t rain in g and applyin g for po s i-
t io n s as t e ache rs and admin is t rat o rs . Cook prais e d wo me n
wit h care e rs as writ e rs , lin guis t s , and phys ician s , and she
told the 1887 co n ve n t io n of the Ame rican Nat io n al Bapt is t
The Black Baptist C hurch 39
C o n ve n t io n that wo me n mus t "co me from all the pro fe s s io n s ,
fro m the humble C hris t ian to the e xpo un de r of His wo rd; from
the o be die n t cit ize n to the rule r of the lan d" (25).
Again , the Bapt is t wo me n found biblical pre ce de n t s to bo l-
ster t he ir co n vict io n s and to in s pire the wo me n of their o wn
day. In the Bo o k of Judge s , De bo rah, a marrie d wo man , be -
came judge , pro phe t , and warrio r who m God appo in t e d to lead
Is rae l again s t its e n e mie s . De pict in g De bo rah as a wo man
wit h a s pirit in de pe n de n t of he r hus ban d, Cook as s e rt e d:
Her wo rk was dis t in ct from he r hus ban d's who , it s e e ms ,
took no part what e ve r in the wo rk of God while De bo rah
was in s pire d by the Et e rn al e xpre s s ly to do His will and
to t e s t ify to he r co un t ryme n that He re co gn ize s in His
fo llo we rs n e it he r male n o r fe male , he e din g n e it he r the
"we akn e s s " of o n e , n o r the s t re n gt h of the o t he r, but
s t rict ly callin g t ho s e who are pe rfe ct at he art and will-
ing to do his biddin g. (26)
Huldah, wife of Shallum, was als o s in gle d out by Cook and
Bro ught o n . Huldah lived in a co lle ge in Je rus ale m whe re she
s t udie d the law and in t e rpre t e d the Wo rd of God to prie s t s
and o t he rs who s o ught he r kn o wle dge . Biblical e xample s had
re ve ale d that God used wo me n in e ve ry capacit y and thus
pro ve d to Cook that t he re co uld be no is s ue of pro prie t y,
de s pit e the re luct an ce of me n . She urge d the s pre ad of wo m-
an 's in flue n ce in e ve ry caus e , place , and in s t it ut io n that
re s pe ct e d C hris t ian prin ciple s , and admo n is he d he r audie n ce
that no pro fe s s io n s ho uld be re co gn ize d by e it he r me n or wo m-
e n if it we re not C hris t ian . She co n clude d he r argume n t
wit h an as s e rt io n of wo man 's "le gal right " to all ho n e s t la-
bo r, as she challe n ge d he r s is t e rs in the fo llo win g ve rs e :
Go , and toil in an y vin e yard,
Do not fear to do and dare ;
It yo u wan t a field of labor
Yo u can find it an ywhe re . (27)
The fe min is t t he o lo gy of the Black Bapt is t C hurch co mbin e d
the ide as of s e ve ral dis t in ct in t e lle ct ual t re n ds . Its ide -
alizat io n of the ho me and mo t he rho o d re fle ct e d s o cie t y's s e x-
ual bifurcat io n of the privat e s phe re of ho me and family
fro m the public s phe re of bus in e s s and po lit ics . Like o t he r
Ame rican s , the Bapt is t t hin ke rs acce pt e d a prio ri the n o t io n
of ce rt ain in t rin s ic diffe re n ce s be t we e n the male and fe male
pe rs o n alit y. The do min an t t ho ught of the age as cribe d to
wo man ho o d a fe min in e e s s e n ce that was virt uo us , pat ie n t , ge n -
t le , and co mpas s io n at e , while de s cribin g man ho o d as rat io n -
al, aggre s s ive , fo rce ful, and jus t . Un like man , wo man was
co n s ide re d n at urally re ligio us , bo un d by gre at e r e mo t io n al-
is m, and wit h a gre at e r capacit y to s ympat hize and fo rgive .
Be caus e the man ife s t at io n of the fe min in e e s s e n ce be came
mo s t re adily appare n t in the act of rais in g childre n in the
ho me , fe min in e virt ue s e quat e d e as ily wit h mat e rn al quali-
ties (28). It appe are d axio mat ic that God and n at ure had
o rdain e d wo man 's s t at io n in life by pro vidin g he r wit h a job
and wo rk place un co n t e s t ably he r o wn .
Yet the Bapt is t fe min is t t he o lo gian s we re in flue n ce d by
the s e cular wo man 's mo ve me n t and its at t ack on s e xually e x-
clus ive s phe re s . Se cular fe min is m s o ught to bro ade n wo man 's
wo rk by de fe n din g he r right to the wo rld o ut s ide the ho me .
Alt ho ugh this mo ve me n t tended to que s t io n ge n de r-pre s cribe d
ro le s , mo s t adhe re n t s to n in e t e e n t h-ce n t ury fe min is m s t ill
co n t in ue d to de fin e wo man ho o d, that is , the fe min in e e s -
s e n ce , in t e rms s e parat e and dis t in ct fro m man ho o d. The pre -
e min e n ce of mat e rn al qualit ie s in mo ldin g the fut ure charac-
ter of yo ut h t ran s lat e d in t o wo man 's s upe rio r abilit y to
s hape the mo ral de s t in y of the larger Ame rican s o cie t y.
Fran ce s Willard, the s uffragis t and t e mpe ran ce le ade r, as -
serted that wo man carrie s he r "mo t he r-he art " in t o e ve ry o c-
cupat io n she e n t e re d and lost n o n e of he r fe min in it y in the
pro ce s s . On the co n t rary, wo man 's "ge n t le t o uch" re fin e d
and s o ft e n e d all the pro fe s s io n s (29).
Eve n mo re dire ct ly an alo go us , the fe min is t impe t us in the
writ in gs and s pe e che s of Black Bapt is t s formed part of the
large r t radit io n of a fe min is t t he o lo gical ge n re that
s pan n e d the e n t ire n in e t e e n t h ce n t ury. Fe min is t t he o lo gical
writ in gs e s pe cially pro life rat e d in the ce n t ury's lat t e r de c-
ade s t he ye ars that re ligio us his t o rian Sydney Ahls t ro m has
termed the "go lde n age of libe ral t he o lo gy." Art hur Me ie r
Schle s in ge r, Sr., de s ign at e d the last quart e r of the n in e -
t e e n t h ce n t ury as the "crit ical pe rio d in Ame rican Pro t e s -
t an t is m." Bo t h his t o rian s have co rre ct ly as s e s s e d the in t e l-
le ct ual climat e of the age . Darwin is t bio lo gical t he o rie s
of e vo lut io n , s o cial Darwin is m, and a ho s t of ge o lo gical dis -
co ve rie s and his t o rical s t udie s challe n ge d what had pre vio us -
ly s e e me d to be the t ime le s s in fallibilit y of the Bible . A
radical t e n de n cy to de n y an y s acre d aut ho rit y to the Scrip-
t ure s found advo cat e s amo n g "in fide ls " such as famed o rat o r
Ro be rt In ge rs o ll and s uffragis t Elizabe t h Cady St an t o n , bo t h
of who m in dis crimin at e ly s he lve d the bo o k wit h o t he r lit -
e rary mas t e rpie ce s . At the o t he r end of the s pe ct rum stood
the fun dame n t alis t s , man y of who m we re s o ut he rn Pro t e s t an t s
t e n acio us ly ho ldin g on to the lit e ral t rut h of e ach biblical
s t at e me n t de s pit e dis clo s ure s of in accuracie s and co n t radic-
t io n s (30).
Be t we e n these e xt re me s we re libe rals who came from the pul-
pit s and s e min arie s of n o rt he rn Pro t e s t an t de n o min at io n s
in fact , some of the same gro ups re s po n s ible for e s t ablis h-
ing in s t it ut io n s of highe r le arn in g for Black pe o ple in the
So ut h. The gre at majo rit y of these libe rals at t e mpt e d to
re co n cile t he ir t radit io n al re ligio us be lie fs wit h the n e w
s o cial and s cie n t ific t he o rie s . By art iculat in g a re s il-
ient and vibran t o rt ho do xy, e van ge lical libe ralis m, led by
min is t e rs such as He n ry Ward Be e che r, Ne wman Smyt h, William
Ne wt o n C larke , and Was hin gt o n Gladde n , e ffe ct e d the s urvival
of t radit io n al Pro t e s t an t is m in an age of que s t io n in g and
po s it ivis t ic de vo t io n to accuracy. Dis cus s in g the large ly
"co n s e rvat ive in t e n t " of this libe ralizin g in flue n ce , Win -
throp Huds o n writ e s :
The ce n t ral co n ce rn of the e van ge lical libe rals was
quit e e xplicit ly apo lo ge t ic. The y wis he d to pre s e rve
the t rut h of the go s pe l as it s po ke to the he art s of
me n . In the face of what man y feared might be fat al as -
s ault s on C hris t ian fait h, they s o ught to re s t at e the e s -
s e n t ial do ct rin e s of e van ge lical C hris t ian it y in t e rms
that wo uld be bo t h in t e lligible and co n vin cin g and thus
to e s t ablis h them o n a mo re s e cure fo un dat io n . (31)
This e xact intent may be at t ribut e d to the writ in gs of fe m-
inist t he o lo gian s . Fran ce s Willard, als o a co n t ribut o r to
fe min is t t he o lo gy, re co n cile d wo man 's right s wit h the vit al
spirit of the Bible , alt ho ugh she re je ct e d some of its lit e r-
al pro n o un ce me n t s on wo me n . She n o t e d that the in s is t e n ce
o n "re al fact s " had chan ge d not o n ly vie ws t o ward s cie n ce
and me dicin e , but als o those toward t he o lo gy. This e mphas is
caus e d the lat t e r to be co me mo re fle xible and to see the
Bible as an e xpan s ive wo rk that "gro ws in bre adt h and accura-
cy wit h the ge n e ral gro wt h of human it y." Willard advo cat e d
the "s cie n t ific in t e rpre t at io n of the Ho ly Script ure s ," and
urged wo me n to lend the pe rs pe ct ive of t he ir s e x to the mo d-
e rn e xe ge s is of the Bible (32).
Ot he r t radit io n al Pro t e s t an t s who e mplo ye d a fe min is t he r-
me n e ut ic in biblical crit icis m in clude d such wo me n 's right s
pro po n e n t s as An n a Ho ward Shaw, me dical do ct o r and o rdain e d
Me t ho dis t Pro t e s t an t min is t e r, who pre s e n t e d he r vie ws in
1891 in the s pe e ch "Go d's Wo me n " be fo re the an n ual me e t in g
of the Nat io n al C o un cil of Wo me n ; Lille De ve re aux Blake , n o v-
e lis t and aut ho r of Wo man 's Place To day (1883), a s e rie s
of four e s s ays that challe n ge d the Le n t e n le ct ure s of Re v.
Mo rgan J. Dix; T. De Wit t Talmage , min is t e r of C e n t ral Pre s -
byt e rian C hurch in Ne w Yo rk, who s e s e rmo n s we re s yn dicat e d
in the Black and whit e pre s s acro s s the co un t ry; and Be n ja-
min T. Ro be rt s , Fre e Me t ho dis t min is t e r and aut ho r o f Or-
dain in g Wo me n (1891). In co n t radis t in ct io n to the co n de mn a-
tion of the Bible in Elizabe t h C ady St an t o n 's The Wo man 's
Bible (1895), the fe min is t t he o lo gy that was ris in g in the
o t he r main lin e de n o min at io n s argue d for wo man 's right s from
the s t an dpo in t of libe ral o rt ho do xy (33). Its go al was to
make re ligio n less s e xis t , n o t to make wo me n less re ligio us .
Fe min is t t he o lo gy pro ce e de d durin g the late n in e t e e n t h ce n -
tury wit hin the co n t e xt of the libe ralizat io n of t he o lo gy.
Fe min is t t he o lo gy did not make co n ve rt s of all who pro fe s s e d
Pro t e s t an t libe ralis m, but it cle arly re pre s e n t e d a s ubmo ve -
me n t wit hin the libe ral e van ge lical e ffo rt to re lat e t he o lo -
gy to co n cre t e s o cial is s ue s . Durin g the "go lde n age of lib-
e ral t he o lo gy," re ligio us e ducat io n and crit ical t he o lo gical
s cho lars hip t o o k o n un pre ce de n t e d dyn amis m. Re fe rrin g to
the t e rm C hris t o lo gy as a co in age of his day, Augus t us
Strong n o t e d in 1884 that the s t udy of C hris t had be co me a
s cie n ce in its o wn right (34). As biblical s cho lars in ve s t i-
gated and de bat e d the human and divin e n at ure of C hris t ,
some of t he m als o dre w at t e n t io n to his mas culin e and fe min -
ine qualit ie s in an e ffo rt to dis cus s the fe min izat io n of re -
ligio n in ge n e ral. The wo rks of An n Do uglas and Barbara
We lt e r have an alyze d e arlie r as pe ct s o f the fe min izat io n of
Ame rican Pro t e s t an t is m. Lo o kin g at de ve lo pme n t s to 1860
(We lt e r) and to 1875 (Do uglas ), they have re ve ale d a we alt h
of re ligio us and lit e rary mat e rials that in cre as in gly ide n t i-
fied the church and C hris t hims e lf wit h fe min in e at t rib-
ut e s s o ft , ge n t le , e mo t io n al, and pas s ive (35). The dis cus -
s io n , pro and co n , o f a church and Savio r wit h fe min in e vir-
tues ce rt ain ly lost n o n e of its vibran cy aft e r 1875. In
fact , s e ve ral o ut s t an din g re ligio us le ade rs us e d the co n ce pt
to fight fo r wo me n 's right s as we ll as to addre s s o t he r s o -
cial que s t io n s of the late n in e t e e n t h ce n t ury. Po pular min -
is t e rs , such as T. De Wit t Talmage , s po ke of the "mo t he rho o d
of Go d," and Laure n ce Oliphan t urged the n e ce s s it y of re co g-
n izin g the "divin e fe min e prin ciple in Go d" (36).
In July and Augus t 1898, the Biblical Wo rld, jo urn al of
the Bapt is t -fo un de d Un ive rs it y of C hicago Divin it y Scho o l,
fe at ure d a t wo -part s e rie s on the s ubje ct of C hris t as a fe m-
in in e po we r. Writ t e n by Ge o rge Mat he s o n of Edin burgh, the
art icle s co n t e n de d that the Bible chro n icle d the ce n t urie s -
old s t ruggle be t we e n the mas culin e and fe min in e ide als . The
Book of Re ve lat io n was s aid to climax in C hris t 's vict o ry
o ve r sin and in the fin al t riumph of fe min in e value s .
Mat he s o n de s cribe d fe min in e po we r as a pas s ive fo rce , e qual
in s t re n gt h to the mus cular po we r o f me n , but wit h a co m-
ple t e ly diffe re n t n at ure . He de rive d his co n ce pt io n of a
t riumphan t fe min in e ide al fro m the Be at it ude s of C hris t 's
Se rmo n on the Mo un t , in which Je s us not o n ly ble s s e d the vir-
t ue s of me e kn e s s , t e n de rn e s s , and fo rgive n e s s , but als o cham-
pio n e d t he m as the n e w he ro is m that bo t h me n and wo me n
s ho uld re s pe ct . Mat he s o n co n t ras t e d the fe min in e "fo rce to
be ar up" again s t the mas culin e "fo rce to be ar do wn ," and
dis t in guis he d fe min in e po we r from the n e ut e r "in abilit y to
e xe rt an y po we r." He als o ide n t ifie d fe e lin gs of re s ign a-
tion and impo t e n ce as n e ut e r, n o t fe min in e . He prais e d wo m-
an 's charit able wo rk on be half of s o cie t y's n e gle ct e d. He
re garde d wo man 's wo rk in ho s pit als , as ylums , and o rphan age s
to be re pre s e n t at ive o f the fe min in e ide al and of wo man 's
co mmit me n t to t ran s fo rm the wo rld in t o a place that value d
the in dividual o ve r the s t at e or a part icular clas s . Acco rd-
ing to Mat he s o n , t his s pirit wo uld gradually brin g abo ut a
s o cial re vo lut io n in go ve rn me n t , labo r, and s o cie t y at large
(37).
The me t apho rical co un t e rpo s in g o f fe min in e and mas culin e
t rait s to re fle ct o ppre s s e d and o ppre s s o r gro ups t hro ugho ut
his t o ry ult imat e ly re duce d mas culin it y to a n e gat ive s o cial
t rait . Like Mat he s o n , Fran ce s Willard ado pt e d this t act ic
in Wo man in the Pulpit (1888), a fe min is t po le mic that ad-
vo cat e d the o rdin at io n of wo me n . C it in g the t e s t imo n y of n u-
me ro us male and fe male s uppo rt e rs , she favo re d wo man 's right
to acce s s to the cle rgy not be caus e of an an dro gyn o us pe rs o n -
ho o d, but pre cis e ly be caus e of he r wo man ho o d, he r fe min in e
e s s e n ce . Willard's co n ce pt , the "mo t he r-he art ," charact e r-
ized as s ympat he t ic, in t uit ive , and mo rally pure , be came the
in s t in ct ive , immut able t rait that e quippe d wo me n e s pe cially
for re ligio us wo rk. In Willard's o pin io n , the mo t he r-he art
was go dlike , while re ligio n was , abo ve all, an "affair o f
the he art ," a s o urce of in n e r co mfo rt and s pirit ual re ge n e ra-
t io n . She de fin e d mas culin e qualit ie s acquis it ive n e s s and
fo rce as marke t charact e ris t ics and co n clude d that they had
led o n ly to the purs uit of wo rld do min io n and the at t e n dan t
re alit y of a "whit e male dyn as t y re ign in g un dis put e d un t il
o ur o wn day." She cas t igat e d me n for t he ir his t o rical in -
abilit y to in t e rpre t the s pirit ual co n t e n t of re ligio n in
an y me an in gful way:
It is the me n who have t ake n the s imple , lo vin g, t e n de r
Go s pe l of the Ne w Te s t ame n t , so s uit e d to be the pro clam-
at io n of a wo man 's lips ; and t ran s lat e d it in t e rms of
s ace rdo t alis m, do gma, and mart yrdo m. It is me n who have
give n us the de ad le t t e r rat he r t han a livin g Go s pe l.
The mo t he r-he art of God will n e ve r be kn o wn to the wo rld
un t il t ran s lat e d in t o t e rms of speech by mo t he r-he art e d
wo me n . (38)
Oppo n e n t s of the fe min in e ve rs io n of re ligio n o ft e n co n -
ceded C hris t 's fe min in e qualit ie s , but re affirme d the do mi-
n an ce of his mas culin e at t ribut e s . Such writ e rs co un t e re d
e ffo rt s to s ubs ume C hris t 's man lin e s s in the glo rificat io n
of the fe min in e by co n t e n din g that his fe min in e virt ue s ,
n ame ly, t e n de rn e s s , s ympat hy, and fo rgive n e s s , we re s ubo rdi-
n at e to his mas culin e charact e ris t ics o f as s e rt ive le ade r-
ship and s t ro n g in t e lle ct ualit y. De fe n de rs of the mas culin e
o rie n t at io n e vo ke d the image of the "church milit an t " in the
re ligio us co n que s t of the wo rld, and o ffe re d a "t o ugh C hris -
t ian it y" wit h s t e rn , un co mpro mis in g fe at ure s as a co un t e r-
po in t to the s o ft n e s s and e mo t io n alis m o f a fe min ize d church
(39).
The Mas culin e in Re ligio n (1906), writ t e n by a whit e Bap-
tist min is t e r in Bro o klyn , Ne w Yo rk, e xe mplifie d the male re -
but t al to fe min is t t he o lo gy. The aut ho r, C arl De lo s C as e ,
advan ce d a "co mparat ive ps ycho lo gy of re ligio n " that re co g-
nized two s e xually dis t in ct re ligio us e xpre s s io n s . Alt ho ugh
Case acce pt e d o n ly one t he o lo gical s t at e me n t of fait h, he ar-
gued that s e xualit y de t e rmin e d the an gle of vis io n by which
faith was wo rs hippe d and pract ice d. Wo me n be came re ligio us
for e mo t io n al re as o n s , me n did so for rat io n al o n e s . C as e
ide n t ifie d the "o ve rfe min izat io n of re ligio us life " to be
bo t h the caus e and the e ffe ct of the pre po n de ran ce of fe male
church me mbe rs . He blame d this fe min izin g pro ce s s for cre at -
ing a mo de rn church pre dis po s e d to s e lf-s acrifice , me e kn e s s ,
and s e lf-abn e gat io n . He charge d that wo man 's pe rvas ive in -
flue n ce too n arro wly de fin e d C hris t ian life as s yn o n ymo us
wit h fe min in e be havio r, which co n s e que n t ly made the church
un at t ract ive to me n by de n yin g them a co n t in uit y be t we e n the
church and the male pe rs o n alit y. Be mo an in g the fe min izat io n
o f re ligio us art , C as e n o t e d that po rt rait s of C hris t t ran s -
mit t e d an e ffe min at e male wit h long bro wn hair, dre amy e ye s ,
and a me e k and re s ign e d de me an o r. By co un t e rin g the n o t io n
of the church as wo man 's do main , Case and o t he r s po ke s me n
for virile s e rmo n s , mart ial hymn s , and a rugged C hris t ian it y
ho pe d to re s t o re the church's appe al to me n and to re n de r it
as le git imat e an o ut le t for male e xpre s s io n as bus in e s s , the
fact o ry, or the lodge (40).
Alt ho ugh the fe min is t t he o lo gian s of the Black Bapt is t
C hurch faile d to part icipat e in this de bat e , the dual image s
of C hris t as fe min in e and mas culin e , pas s ive and aggre s s ive ,
and me e k and co n que rin g in fo rme d their o wn s e lf-pe rce pt io n s
and s e lf-mo t ivat io n s . The Black fe min is t t he o lo gian s s hift -
ed back and fo rt h from fe min in e to mas culin e image ry whe n
de s cribin g their role wit hin the e van ge lical crus ade that s i-
mult an e o us ly fo s t e re d bo t h t he ir s e x and race aware n e s s . Be -
ing Bapt is t was ce n t ral to their s e n s e of self and mis s io n .
Se lf-de fin it io n for Black churchwo me n als o always pro ce e de d
from the o bvio us dicho t o my of s e x and race . Le s s o bvio us -
ly, e ach of the two cat e go rie s formed a s e parat e bas is for
the art iculat io n of a dual ge n de r co n s cio us n e s s . Wit hin the
co n t e xt s of s e x and race , Black wo me n un de rs t o o d t he ms e lve s
e qually as ho me make rs and as s o ldie rs .
The bo n d of wo man ho o d was ve ry re al and de fin able to Black
Bapt is t wo me n , who o ft e n e xpre s s e d t he ir vie ws in e xplicit ly
s e x-co n s cio us lan guage . Virgin ia Bro ught o n calle d at t e n -
t io n to the fe min in e s ymbo lis m in the Bible (for e xample ,
the de s ign at io n of the church as the bride of C hris t ), and
she re garde d such me t apho rs as co n ve yin g biblical e s t e e m for
wo me n (41). Black fe min is t t he o lo gy pre s e n t e d wo man 's up-
lift wit hin an e vo lut io n ary frame wo rk that re pe at e dly re -
ferred to the de grade d s t at us of wo me n in an cie n t civiliza-
t io n s and in co n t e mpo rary n o n -C hris t ian cult ure s , thus argu-
ing that the s t an dard of wo man ho o d e vo lve d to a highe r plan e
wit h the spread of C hris t ian it y. This vie w e n han ce d the s ig-
n ifican ce of mo t he rho o d and do me s t icit y. Since mo t he rs we re
co n s ide re d the t ran s mit t e rs of cult ure , wo man 's virt ue and
in t e llige n ce wit hin the ho me me as ure d the le ve l of civiliza-
t io n (42).
Whit e Bapt is t mis s io n ary Jo an n a P. Mo o re was highly re gard-
ed by Black Bapt is t s in the South for he r s e ve ral de cade s of
s e rvice t he re aft e r the C ivil War. A s t ro n g re s pe ct e r of
"wo man ly" be havio r, Mo o re n o n e t he le s s draft e d a po s it io n pa-
pe r addre s s e d to Lo uis ian a Black churche s and s t at e d that
wo me n 's dut ie s in clude d a wide r ran ge of re s po n s ibilit ie s
t han co lle ct in g mo n e y and co o kin g din n e rs for min is t e rs .
C it in g biblical pre ce de n t s , she argue d that mis s io n ary wo me n
s ho uld s e rve as t e ache rs and le ade rs . He r co n ce pt io n of an
o ut go in g wo man ho o d, e n gage d in t e achin g, ho us e -t o -ho us e vis i-
t at io n , and t e mpe ran ce wo rk n e ve r min imize d the s in gular
impo rt an ce of wo man 's do me s t ic ro le . But she e n co urage d mis -
s io n ary wo me n to live and min gle amo n g the mas s e s , and crit i-
cized t ho s e who imagin e d t he ms e lve s on a pe de s t al re achin g
do wn to the lo wly. He r ide as co in cide d wit h the vie ws of
the Black fe min is t t he o lo gian s who saw wo me n ide ally as fun c-
t io n in g wit hin the t radit io n al ho me e n viro n me n t , but als o go -
ing into the wo rld and s pre adin g the fait h. Mo o re e xpre s s e d
t his dualit y in a de s cript io n o f he rs e lf and he r co -wo rke rs :
We are the highway and he dge wo rke rs , who are als o able
to e xpo un d the Script ure s . We can he lp a tired mo t he r
cut o ut a garme n t fo r he r child, and me an while t e ach
bo t h mo t he r and child the Go s pe l. We n o t o n ly pray for
the s ick, but als o co o k them a t e mpt in g mo rs e l of fo o d.
We are e qually at ho me in parlo r or kit che n . "Our s ho e s
are iro n and bras s ," t he re is no road too hard for us to
t rave l. (43)
The fe min is t t he o lo gian s of the Black Bapt is t C hurch co n -
sidered the co mbin e d e ffo rt s of Black and whit e wo me n to be
e s s e n t ial to the pro gre s s of Black pe o ple and to harmo n io us
race re lat io n s . By C hris t ian izin g the ho me and e ducat in g
the mas s e s , wo man pro vide d the ke y to s o lvin g the race pro b-
lem in Ame rica. Black wo me n likened t he ir role to the bibli-
cal que e n Es t he r who had act e d as an in t e rme diary be t we e n
the kin g and he r pe o ple , and they e n vis io n e d t he ms e lve s as
in t e rce din g on be half of t he ir race in co o pe rat ive mis s io n -
ary wo rk. The y fre que n t ly cited Black and whit e "apo s t le s
of mo de rn mis s io n s ," n amin g we ll-kn o wn Black le ade rs in the
wo man 's mo ve me n t , such as So jo urn e r Trut h and Fran ce s Elle n
Wat kin s Harpe r, and whit e wo me n , such as Fran ce s Willard and
Jo an n a Mo o re . Lucy Smith als o allude d to Euro pe an lumin ar-
ies Harrie t Mart in e au and Madame de St ae l to bo ls t e r he r ar-
gume n t s for wo man 's right to e mplo yme n t and e ducat io n (44).
C e rt ain ly the in t e lle ct ual e quals of t he ir me n , the Black
fe min is t t he o lo gian s e pit o mize d the qualit y of wo man 's ra-
t io n al po we rs . Wide ly re ad, t his e ducat e d fe male e lit e in -
cluded in its s pe e che s and writ in gs re fe re n ce s to in t e rn a-
t io n ally re n o wn e d male s cho lars like Jo hn Rus kin , Edward
Gibbo n , and He rbe rt Spe n ce r. The Black Bapt is t wo me n impli-
cit ly and e xplicit ly challe n ge d the idea that me n we re in t e l-
le ct ual and wo me n we re e mo t io n al. Mary C o o k e xplain e d that
the cult ivat io n of the fe male in t e lle ct was C hris t 's s pe cial
mis s io n to wo man and pro claime d furt he r:
It is not C hris t ian it y which dis parage s the in t e lle ct of
wo man and s co rn s he r abilit y for do in g go o d, for its re c-
o rds are filled wit h he r marve lo us s ucce s s e s . Eman ci-
pate wo man from the chain s that n o w re s t rain he r and who
can e s t imat e the part she will play in the wo rk o f the
de n o min at io n . (45)
The fe min is t t hrus t of the Black Bapt is t t he o lo gian s was
not un ifo rm in t o n e . Virgin ia Bro ught o n in co rpo rat e d a co n -
ciliat o ry at t it ude toward me n . She urge d co mple me n t ary wo rk
wit h a de e pe r s e n s it ivit y to what she calle d man 's "lo n g
che ris he d po s it io n of be in g rule r of all he s urve ys ." She
re fe rre d to the "wo man ly e xe rcis e " of t ale n t , and at a time
whe n wo man 's role was e me rgin g but not yet cle arly de fin e d,
she tended to as s ure me n that wo me n wo uld not seek un aut ho r-
ized o ffice . To Bro ught o n , s e parat e wo me n 's o rgan izat io n s
pro vide d an are n a wit hin which they co uld e xpre s s the co n -
ce rn s of their s e x and e s t ablis h their o wn prio rit ie s and
t as ks (46). Mary C o o k and Lucy Smith co n curre d wit h Bro ugh-
ton on the impo rt an ce of aut o n o mo us wo me n 's s o cie t ie s , but
they s po ke in mo re milit an t t e rms . In a de man d for n e w e x-
pe ct at io n s of wo me n , Smith re ve ale d he r o ut s po ke n be lie f in
wo man 's n e e d to ado pt at t it ude s us us ally ide n t ifie d as male
in o ut lo o k:
Eve n in o ur o wn Ame rica, in t his last quart e r of the
Nin e t e e n t h C e n t ury ablaze wit h the e le ct ric light o f in -
t e llige n ce , if she [wo man ] leaves the pat hs made
s t raight and level by ce n t urie s of s t e ady t ramp of he r
s e x, she is de n o min at e d s t ro n g-min de d or mas culin e by
those who forget that "n e w o ccas io n s make n e w dut ie s ."
(47)
Ho we ve r, Lucy Smith co uld e as ily, almo s t impe rce pt ibly,
mo ve from a fe min is t pe rs pe ct ive to one that fo re s aw racial
un it y. On one o ccas io n she s t at e d that e ducat e d Black wo me n
he ld ce rt ain advan t age s o ve r t he ir whit e co un t e rpart s . She
be lie ve d that the ide n t ical labor re alit y for male and fe -
male s lave s cre at e d a s o lidarit y not found in the whit e
race , and she prais e d the Black man of he r day for co n t in u-
ing to ke e p his wo man by his side as he mo ve d into n e w kin ds
of wo rk. Smith n o t e d that the whit e wo man "has had to co n -
test wit h he r bro t he r e ve ry inch of the gro un d for re co gn i-
t io n " (48). Mary C o o k s po ke of the fre e do m wo me n e xe rcis e d
wit hin the Bapt is t de n o min at io n , and told the me n o f the
Ame rican Nat io n al Bapt is t C o n ve n t io n : "I am n o t un min dful
of the kin dn e s s yo u n o ble bre t hre n have e xhibit e d in not bar-
ring us from yo ur plat fo rms and de libe rat io n s . All ho n o r I
say to such me n " (49). Thus racial ide n t it y cre at e d an o t he r
me dium t hro ugh which Black wo me n e xpre s s e d fe min in e and mas -
culin e ide als .
Racial co n s cio us n e s s place d Black wo me n be s ide t he ir me n
in the same mis s io n ary mo ve me n t that s pawn e d a s is t e rho o d be -
t we e n t he ms e lve s and whit e wo me n . Fro m the pe rs pe ct ive of
racial s e lf-he lp and s e lf-de t e rmin at io n , this e van ge lical
crus ade s an ct io n e d at least a t he o re t ical blurrin g of be hav-
ior e xclus ive ly as s o ciat e d wit h e it he r the mas culin e o r the
fe min in e e s s e n ce . De s pit e the co mmo n as s umpt io n of wo man 's
mo ral s upe rio rit y, the mo ralis t ic at t it ude imbued in racial
uplift wo rk n e ve r re co gn ize d the do uble s t an dard of s e xual
be havio r for s o cial purit y (50). C o n ce pt s like s e lf-s acri-
fice and pat ie n ce lost t he ir t radit io n ally fe min in e co n n o t a-
t io n s and be came s o urce s of s t re n gt h e n do rs e d by me n as we ll
as wo me n . Black min is t e rs champio n e d s e lf-de n ial as a pre re -
quis it e for be t t e rin g the race , while they haile d pat ie n ce
as n e ce s s ary to the buildin g of a s t ro n g Black de n o min at io n -
al fo rce . The writ in gs of Black Bapt is t min is t e rs admit t e d
no in he re n t co n t radict io n in e n co uragin g humilit y and pie t y
while at the same time applaudin g "C hris t ian man ho o d." In
his an t ho lo gy The Ne gro Bapt is t Pulpit , Edward McKn ight
Brawle y prais e d the s e lf-s acrificin g at t it ude of mis s io n ar-
ies to the South in the same bre at h that he s ho ut e d: "C o n -
tend for the fait h." In the 1890s the Re ve re n d C harle s Oc-
t avio us Bo o t he of Alabama co mme n de d the pre s e n t wave of
"charit able and self abas in g" me n who we re co un t e rin g the
o lde r s t yle of arro gan t , bo as t ful le ade rs . An t ho n y Bin ga,
Black Bapt is t min is t e r in Man che s t e r, Virgin ia, de s cribe d
the ide al de aco n as be in g wis e , grave , and lo ft y, but als o
lo n g-s uffe rin g, ge n t le , and me e k (51).
Black wo me n o ft e n s hift e d fro m fe min in e to mas culin e co n -
ce pt s and image s whe n de s cribin g t he ir role and the wo rk be -
fore t he m. Jo in e d in a s t ruggle for the e co n o mic, e ducat io n -
al , and mo ral advan ce me n t of t he ir pe o ple , Black me n and
wo me n alike e mplo ye d the lan guage of war whe n charact e rizin g
their e ffo rt s to co mbat the le gacy of s lave ry and the co n t in -
ue d ris e o f racis m at the turn of the t we n t ie t h ce n t ury.
The Black wo me n in the Bapt is t C hurch un que s t io n in gly
t ho ught of t he ms e lve s as the "ho me fo rce " and in dut ie s that
re quire d lo ve , humilit y, and ge n t le n e s s , and yet t he s e s ame
wo me n co n s t an t ly e xho rt e d each o t he r to as s ume the role of
valian t "s o ldie r"t o go out into the "highways and he dge s "
and fo rge the "lin k be t we e n the church milit an t and the
church t riumphan t ." This aggre s s ive , warlike at t it ude co m-
mo n ly ide n t ifie d wit h male s e lf-pe rce pt io n un de rlay the fe -
male in s is t e n ce upo n wo me n as le ade rs , n o t me re ly he lpmat e s
(52). The Old Te s t ame n t figure s De bo rah and Huldah be came
the re curre n t re fe re n ce po in t s illus t rat in g wo man 's capacit y
to co mbin e humilit y and grace wit h aggre s s ive ze al and
s t ro n g in t e lle ct ualit y. The e xample s of De bo rah and Huldah
we re als o cited by the Black Bapt is t wo me n to pro ve that mar-
riage n e e d n o t n e gat e public le ade rs hip fo r wo me n .
This dual s e lf-pe rce pt io n of Bapt is t me n and wo me n n e ve r
alt e re d the hie rarchical s t ruct ure of the church by re vo lu-
t io n izin g po we r re lat io n s be t we e n the s e xe s , n o r did it in -
hibit min is t e rs like An t ho n y Bin ga fro m as s umin g male in t e l-
le ct ual and phys ical s upe rio rit y o ve r the majo rit y of wo me n
(53). It did not caus e Black wo me n to challe n ge the male
mo n o po ly of the cle rgy, or lead them to do min at e bus in e s s
me e t in gs and co n ve n t io n s in which bo t h male s and fe male s par-
t icipat e d. But the dual co n s cio us n e s s facilit at e d a gre at e r
appre ciat io n of wo man 's po t e n t ial co n t ribut io n to the race
and the de n o min at io n . It e n co urage d wo me n to re ve re t he ir
t radit io n al role in the ho me while vigo ro us ly e s t ablis hin g
n e w s e lf-de fin it io n s and n e w s phe re s of in flue n ce .
Wit hin the Ame rican Nat io n al Bapt is t C o n ve n t io n , Black
fe min is t t he o lo gy wo n s uppo rt fro m arde n t race le ade rs like
William J. Simmo n s and C harle s H. Parris h of Ke n t ucky,
Walt e r H. Bro o ks of Was hin gt o n , D.C ., and Harve y Jo hn s o n of
Marylan d (54). In 1899 the Nat io n al Bapt is t Magazin e , the
o fficial o rgan of the ANBC , gave firs t -page co ve rage to an
art icle on wo me n 's in flue n ce . In this cas e , the writ e r,
Re v. J. Fran cis Ro bin s o n , s uppo rt e d "human right s for e ve ry
in dividual of e ve ry race , of e ve ry co n dit io n , re gardle s s of
s e x." In t ro ducin g biblical t e xt s to illus t rat e the his t o ri-
cal impo rt an ce of wo me n 's church wo rk and charit able act ivi-
t y, Ro bin s o n co n clude d that wo me n s ho uld be allo we d to re ign
not only in the ho me but in the po lit ical wo rld as we ll. He
e n do rs e d wo me n 's s uffrage and admit t e d his pre fe re n ce for
the ballo t s of wo me n as o ppo s e d to those of s alo o n ke e pe rs
and ward bo s s e s . He fin ally urge d wo man 's e qualit y in the
n ame of pro gre s s and e n light e n e d t ho ught , s t at in g:
The s lave s have be e n e man cipat e d; n o w let us e man cipat e
the wo me n ! The un co n dit io n al and un ive rs al and imme di-
ate e man cipat io n of wo man ho o d is the de man d of the age
in which we live ; it is the de man d of the s pirit of o ur
in s t it ut io n s ; it is the de man d of the t e achin gs of C hris -
t ian it y; it is he r right , an d, in the n ame of Go d, let
us s t art a wave of in flue n ce in this co un t ry that s hall
be felt in e ve ry St at e , e ve ry co un t y, e ve ry co mmun it y,
e ve ry ho me and e ve ry he art . (55)
Pe rhaps the pro gre s s ive as pe ct s of fe min is t t he o lo gy, as
part of the libe ral t he o lo gical impuls e of the age , are mo s t
cle arly e vide n t whe n juxt apo s e d be s ide the image of wo man
and the church in An n Do uglas 's The Fe min izat io n of Ame ri-
can C ult ure (1977). Do uglas 's dis cus s io n of the dis e s t ab-
lis he d, n o n e van ge lical de n o min at io n s in the No rt he as t is an
in dict me n t of an an t i-in t e lle ct ual, mis o gyn is t cle rgy who ,
like its pre do min an t ly fe male lait y, o ccupie d a po s it io n mar-
gin al to go ve rn me n t as we ll as to an in cre as in gly in dus t rial-
ized and urban ize d Ame rica. Acco rdin g to Do uglas , the o ut -
come was a fe min ize d re ligio n and a "lo s s of t he o lo gy" o n
the part of min is t e rs who by 1875 pre fe rre d to read fict io n
and po e t ry rat he r t han t hin k abo ut and de ve lo p t he o lo gical
s cho lars hip. Wo rs e ye t , Do uglas fin ds wo me n in t he s e n o rt h-
e as t e rn churche s un able and dis in clin e d to pro vide a po le mi-
cal t he o lo gy to co un t e r the s e n t ime n t alis m and co n s ume ris m
that fin ally e n gulfe d t he m all (56). Do uglas 's ge n e raliza-
t io n s of an in s ipid, an t i-in t e lle ct ual re ligio us t radit io n ,
ho we ve r, can n o t be imput e d cat e go rically to the large r Pro t -
e s t an t co mmun it y. He r n arro w fo cus ign o re s e van ge lical fe m-
inist writ in gs of the n in e t e e n t h ce n t ury (57). He r po rt ray-
al of in t e lle ct ually ban krupt Ne w En glan d C o n gre gat io n alis t s
and Un it arian s ign o re s their libe ral e van ge lical win gs .
The s e gro ups figured pre e min e n t ly in the rappro che me n t of
s cie n ce and t he o lo gy be t we e n 1870 and 1900 (58).
Similarly, no ge n e ralizat io n s can be s us t ain e d abo ut an e f-
fete and de bilit at e d wo man ho o d and cle rgy wit hin the Black
Bapt is t C hurch. Alt ho ugh margin al to the Ame rican po lit ico -
e co n o mic main s t re am, the Black Bapt is t male and fe male le ad-
e rs hip re it e rat e d time and again the n e ce s s it y of havin g an
e ducat e d pulpit and an e ducat e d lait y. The ir writ in gs co n -
de mn e d the un in t e llige n t pre ache r who made his co n gre gat io n
happie r, but faile d to make it wis e r (59). The s e le ade rs ,
as wit n e s s e d by the me n and wo me n of the Ame rican Nat io n al
Bapt is t C o n ve n t io n , co n s ide re d t he ms e lve s to be the po lit i-
cal, s o cial, and s pirit ual vo ice s o f Afro -Ame rican Bapt is t s
(60). Of e qual impo rt an ce , Black Bapt is t wo me n , who added
to the fe min is t t he o lo gical lit e rat ure of the late n in e -
t e e n t h ce n t ury, e xpre s s e d pride in t he ir o wn me n t al co mpe -
tence and challe n ge d s e xis m fro m the s t an dpo in t of biblical
crit icis m and in t e rpre t at io n . The fe min is t t he o lo gy of
Black Bapt is t wo me n had s ign ifican t implicat io n s for t he ir
future re ligio us wo rk. It but t re s s e d wo me n 's de man ds for
gre at e r part icipat io n and in fus e d t he ir e xpan din g ran ks wit h
o pt imis m abo ut wo man 's de s t in y at the dawn of a n e w ce n t ury.
It als o e n co urage d aggre s s ive wo me n to aban do n the old
ideal of the s ile n t he lpmat e and pro mpt e d t he m to e s t ablis h
and co n t ro l aut o n o mo us mis s io n ary co n ve n t io n s at the s t at e
and n at io n al le ve ls . If Black Bapt is t wo me n we re in the end
not radical e n o ugh, they we re s ure ly in ge n io us in fas hio n in g
the Bible as an "ico n o clas t ic we apo n " fo r their caus e . The
fe min is t t he o lo gian s o f the Black Bapt is t C hurch had o pe r-
ated "fro m a s t an ce of 'radical o be die n ce .
1
" And be caus e
they argue d from the van t age po in t of o rt ho do xy, the bre t h-
re n we re co mpe lle d to lis t e n .
Notes
1. Nat io n al Bapt is t C o n ve n t io n , Jo urn al o f the Twe n t ie t h
An n ual Se s s io n o f the Nat io n al Bapt is t C o n ve n t io n ,
He ld in Richmo n d, Virgin ia, Se pt e mbe r 12-17, 1900,
pp. 195-96.
2. Ame rican Nat io n al Bapt is t C o n ve n t io n , Jo urn al and Le c-
t ure s , 1887, p. 57; Mary V. C o o k, "Wo rk for Bapt is t
Wo me n ," in The Ne gro Bapt is t Pulpit , e d. Edward M.
Brawle y (Philade lphia: Ame rican Bapt is t Publicat io n
So cie t y, 1890), pp. 273-79, 285.
3. Ro s e mary Radfo rd Re ut he r and Ele an o r McLaughlin , e ds .,
Wo me n o f Spirit (Ne w Yo rk: Simo n & Schus t e r, 1979),
p. 19.
The B lack B ap tist Church 51
Rufus Pe rry traced the an ce s t ry of Black Ame rican s to
the biblical C us hit e s who we re the de s ce n dan t s of
C us h, Ham's e lde s t s o n . Acco rdin g to Pe rry, the C us h-
ites we re the an cie n t Et hio pian s and in dige n o us Egyp-
t ian s who s e his t o ry e xe mplifie d pro we s s in me dicin e ,
war, art , and re ligio us t ho ught . Ide n t ifyin g the C us h-
ite le ade rs of the Bible , Pe rry co n s ide re d the gre at -
n e s s of the African past to be the fo un dat io n s t o n e of
the Afro -Ame rican 's fut ure . See Rufus L. Pe rry, The
C us hit e s , o r the De s ce n dan t s o f Ham as Fo un d in the Sa-
cred Script ure s and in the Writ in gs o f An cie n t His t o ri-
an s and Po e t s fro m No ah to the C hris t ian Era (Sprin g-
fie ld, Mas s .: Wille y & C o ., 1893), pp. 17-18, 158-61.
Be n jamin Mays s pe aks of the s lave s ' and later the fre e d-
me n 's be lie f in human and s pirit ual e qualit y as a Go d-
s an ct io n e d ide a. See Be n jamin Mays , The Ne gro 's God
as Re fle ct e d in His Lit e rat ure (Bo s t o n : C hapman &
Grime s , 1938), pp. 19-127; Euge n e Ge n o ve s e dis cus s e s
C hris t ian it y's in he re n t me an in g to slave s o cie t y by de -
s cribin g the diale ct ic wit hin C hris t ian it y it s e lfit s
co n s e rvat ive qualit y, i.e ., the e t hic of s ubmis s ive -
n e s s , and its o ppo s it e libe rat in g in t e n t , i.e ., "s piri-
t ual fre e do m and e qualit y be fo re Go d." See Euge n e D.
Ge n o ve s e , Ro ll Jo rdan Ro ll (Ne w Yo rk: Ran do m Ho us e ,
1974), pp. 161-68. Fo r a t re at me n t of n o rt he rn an t e -
be llum Black vie ws , see Mo n ro e Fo rdham, Majo r The me s
in No rt he rn Black Re ligio us Tho ught , 1860-1880 (Hicks -
ville , N.Y.: Expo s it io n Pre s s , 1975), pp. 139-50,
153-54; als o see for an o ve rall s t udy of the radical
t e n de n cy in Black re ligio n , Gayraud Wilmo re , Black Re -
ligio n and Black Radicalis m (Garde n C it y, N.Y.: Do u-
ble day C o ., 1973), pp. 136-86.
Virgin ia Bro ught o n was bo rn a s lave , but aft e r the C ivil
War was able to gain an e ducat io n and graduat e from
Fis ke Un ive rs it y in 1875. She wo rke d as a mis s io n ary
in Me mphis and Nas hville . In 1900 Bro ught o n was one
of the fo un din g me mbe rs o f the Wo man 's C o n ve n t io n , Aux-
iliary to the Nat io n al Bapt is t C o n ve n t io n , U.S.A.,
In c. Mary C o o k was bo rn a s lave durin g the C ivil War,
but was als o able to get an e ducat io n aft e rwards , part -
ly t hro ugh the fin an cial s uppo rt of Ne w En glan d whit e
Bapt is t wo me n and t hro ugh the he lp of William J.
Simmo n s , Bapt is t min is t e r and pre s ide n t of the State
Un ive rs it y at Lo uis ville . Cook re ce ive d the A. B. de -
gre e from the State Un ive rs it y at Lo uis ville in 1887,
Tfhere she als o t aught Lat in and lit e rat ure . Aft e r he r
marriage to min is t e r C harle s H. Parris h, C o o k wo rke d
wit h him at Ecks t e in No rt o n Un ive rs it y in Ke n t ucky.
Alt ho ugh it is not cle ar whe t he r Lucy Wilmo t Smith was
bo rn a s lave , she gre w up in ve ry humble circums t an -
ce s . He r mo t he r, Margare t Smit h, was Lucy's sole
pro vide r, and she s t ruggle d to give he r daught e r an
e ducat io n . Smith graduat e d fro m the n o rmal de part me n t
of the State Un ive rs it y at Lo uis ville in 1887. She
wo rke d as a jo urn alis t , t aught at the state un ive rs i-
t y, and was an arde n t s uppo rt e r of wo man 's s uffrage .
See Tho mas 0. Fulle r, His t o ry o f the Ne gro Bapt is t s
o f Te n n e s s e e (Me mphis : Has kin s Prin t -Ro ge r Williams
C o lle ge , 1936), pp. 81-83; I. Garlan d Pe n n , The Afro -
Ame rican Pre s s and Its Edit o rs (Sprin gfie ld, Mas s .:
Wille y, 1891), pp. 366-74; G.F. Richin gs , Evide n ce s
of Pro gre s s amo n g C o lo re d Pe o ple , 12th e d. (Philade l-
phia: Ge o . S. Fe rgus o n C o ., 1905), pp. 224-27;
C harle s H. Parris h, e d., Go lde n Jubile e o f the Ge n e r-
al As s o ciat io n o f C o lo re d Bapt is t s in Ke n t ucky (Lo uis -
ville , Ky.: Maye s Prin t in g C o ., 1915), pp. 284-85.
7. Go rdo n D. Kaufman , Sys t e mat ic The o lo gy (Ne w Yo rk:
C harle s Scribn e r's So n s , 1968), p. 57.
8. Virgin ia Bro ught o n , Wo me n 's Wo rk, as Gle an e d fro m the
Wo me n o f t he Bible , an d Bible Wo me n o f Mo de rn Time s
(Nas hville : Nat io n al Bapt is t Publis hin g Bo ard, 1904),
pp. 3, 23, 36.
9. Brawle y, The Ne gro Bapt is t Pulpit , pp. 271-86; ANBC ,
Jo urn al and Le ct ure s o f the Se co n d An n ive rs ary o f the
1887 Ame rican Nat io n al Bapt is t C o n ve n t io n , He ld wit h
the Third Bapt is t C hurch, Mo bile , Ala., Augus t 25-28,
1887 (n .p., n .d.), p. 49.
10. Pe n n , The Afro -Ame rican Pre s s , pp. 376-81.
11. Mary Cook s t at e d: "As the Bible is an ico n o clas t ic we a-
po n it is bo un d to bre ak do wn image s of e rro r that
have be e n rais e d. As n o one s t udie s it so clo s e ly as
the Bapt is t s , t he ir wo me n s hall t ake the le ad." ANBC ,
Jo urn al and Le ct ure s , 1887, p. 49.
12. Ibid., pp. 53-54; als o see t his e valuat io n of wo man 's in -
flue n ce by Black Bapt is t min is t e r William Bis ho p
Jo hn s o n , e dit o r of The Nat io n al Bapt is t Magazin e ,
whe n he s t at e d: "Man may lead un n umbe re d ho s t s to vic-
t o ry, he may rend kin gdo ms , co n vuls e n at io n s , and
dre n ch bat t le fie lds in blo o d, but wo man wit h he ave n ly
s mile s and ple as an t wo rds can o ut n umbe r, o ut we igh, and
o ut s t rip the n o ble s t e ffo rt s of a ge n e rat io n ." See
William Bis ho p Jo hn s o n , The Sco urgin g o f a Race , and
Ot he r Se rmo n s and Addre s s e s (Was hin gt o n , D.C .:
Be re s fo rd Prin t e r, 1904), p. 78.
13. Bro ught o n , Wo me n 's Wo rk, as Gle an e d fro m the Bible ,
pp. 5-7.
14. Ibid., pp. 11-16.
15. Ibid., p. 25.
16. Mary Cook de s cribe d Mary, the mo t he r of Je s us , as "n o n -
e xce lle d mat e rn al de vo t io n ." See ANBC , Jo urn al and
Le ct ure s , 1887, pp. 47-48.
17. Re pre s e n t at ive of the cult of do me s t icit y, Oldham's ve r-
sion of ho me life advo cat e d wo man 's co mple t e at t e n t ive -
n e s s to he r hus ban d's n e e ds . See ANBC , Jo urn al, Se r-
mo n s , and Le ct ure s , of the Third An n ive rs ary o f the
Ame rican Nat io n al Bapt is t C o n ve n t io n , He ld wit h the
Spruce St re e t Bapt is t C hurch, Nas hville , Se pt e mbe r
23-24, 1888 (n .p., n .d.), pp. 88, 90.
18. ANBC , Jo urn al and Le ct ure s , 1887, p. 48; Bro ught o n ,
Wo me n 's Wo rk, pp. 31-32; Brawle y, Ne gro Bapt is t Pul-
pit , p. 273.
19. The argume n t that at t e mpt e d to re s t rict Paul's wo rds e x-
clus ive ly to "immo ral" wo me n of C o rin t h was us e d by
bo t h Black and whit e advo cat e s of gre at e r church ro le s
for wo me n . Se e , for e xample , Fran ce s Willard, Wo man
in t he Pulpit (Bo s t o n : D. Lo t hro p C o ., 1888), pp.
159, 164; ANBC , Jo urn al and Le ct ure s , 1887, pp. 48-
50.
20. Ibid., pp. 49-50.
21. Bro ught o n re s t rict e d wo me n in t he s e t hre e cas e s bas e d o n
the fact that n o n e of the t we lve apo s t le s we re wo me n .
Ot he rwis e , she s o ught to e n co urage wo me n by n o t in g
that of the s e ve n t y who fo llo we d Je s us , "we are not
sure they we re all me n ." A clas s ic re jo in de r to those
who s hare d Bro ught o n 's vie w o n the t we lve apo s t le s was
Fran ce s Willard's s t at e me n t that no Black or Ge n t ile
had be e n amo n g the t we lve , but this did not re s t rict
me n of e it he r gro up from s e e kin g o rdin at io n to the min -
is t ry. See Bro ught o n , Wo me n 's Wo rk, pp. 39-41; Wil-
lard, Wo man in t he Pulpit , p. 35.
22. Olive Bird C lan t o n was the wife of Ne w Orle an s min is t e r,
So lo mo n T. C lan t o n . Olive C lan t o n was raised in
De cat ur, Illin o is , whe re she o bt ain e d a high s cho o l
e ducat io n . He r hus ban d was e le ct e d s e cre t ary of the
Ame rican Nat io n al Bapt is t C o n ve n t io n in 1886. In a
bio graphical s ke t ch of So lo mo n C lan t o n , Wiliam J.
Simmo n s , then pre s ide n t of the ANBC , de s cribe d Olive
C lan t o n as "o n e of the mo s t dis cre e t , amiable and
acco mplis he d wo me n in the co un t ry." See William J.
Simmo n s , Me n o f Mark (C le ve lan d, Ohio : Ge o . M.
Re we ll & C o ., 1887), pp. 419-21; ANBC , Jo urn al and
Le ct ure s , 1887, pp. 56-57.
23. Ibid., pp. 46, 55.
24. ANBC , Min ut e s an d Addre s s e s o f the Ame rican Nat io n al
Bapt is t C o n ve n t io n . He ld at St . Lo uis , Mo . Augus t
25-29, 1886 in the Firs t Bapt is t C hurch (Jacks o n ,
Mis s .: J.J. Spe lman Publis he r, 1886), pp. 68-74.
25. ANBC , Jo urn al and Le ct ure s , 1887, pp. 50-53, 55-56.
26. Ibid., p. 47; Bro ught o n , Wo me n 's Wo rk, pp. 27-28.
27. ANBC , Jo urn al and Le ct ure s , 1887, p. 55-56.
28. Fo r dis cus s io n s o n the cult o f mo t he rho o d and do me s t ici-
t y, as we ll as t re at me n t of wo man 's un ique qualit ie s
re lat ive to man 's , see the fo llo win g: An n Do uglas ,
The Fe min izat io n o f Ame rican C ult ure (Ne w Yo rk:
Alfre d A. Kn o pf, 1977), pp. 87-89; Barbara We lt e r,
"The Cult of True Wo man ho o d, 1820-1860," Ame rican
Quart e rly 18 (Sprin g 1966):151-74; {Catherine Kish
Sklar, C at he rin e Be e che r (Ne w Yo rk: W.W. No rt o n &
C o ., 1976), pp. 134-37; An n e Firo r Sco t t , The So ut h-
e rn Lady (C hicago : Un ive rs it y of C hicago Pre s s ,
1970), p. 37.
29. Willard, Wo man in the Pulpit , pp. 54-64; Do uglas , The
Fe min izat io n o f Ame rican C ult ure , pp. 51-52.
30. Sydn e y E. Ahls t ro m, A Re ligio us His t o ry o f the Ame rican
Pe o ple (Ne w Have n : Yale Un ive rs it y Pre s s , 1972), pp.
763-87; Art hur Me ie r Schle s in ge r, "A C rit ical Pe rio d
in Ame rican Pro t e s t an t is m, 1875-1900," Mas s achus e t t s
His t o rical So cie t y Pro ce e din gs 44 (1930-32):523-48;
Richard Ho fs t adt e r, So cial Darwin is m in Ame rican
Tho ught , 1860-1915 (Philade lphia: Un ive rs it y of Pe n n -
s ylvan ia Pre s s , 1944), pp. 1-16, 88; Barbara We lt e r,
"So me t hin g Re main s to Dare ," in t ro duct io n to Elizabe t h
C ady St an t o n et al., The Wo man 's Bible , re prin t e d.
(Ne w Yo rk: Arn o Pre s s , 1974), pp. v-xi.
31. The labe l "pro gre s s ive o rt ho do xy," co in e d by the facult y
of An do ve r Se min ary in 1884, accurat e ly charact e rize d
the majo rit y of e van ge lical libe rals who s o ught to re -
tain C hris t ian do ct rin e as much as po s s ible , while al-
lo win g fo r adjus t me n t whe n n e ce s s ary. See Win t hro p S.
Huds o n , Re ligio n in Ame rica (Ne w Yo rk: C harle s
Scribn e r's So n s , 1965), pp. 269-74.
32. Black Bapt is t le ade r Mary C o o k als o e n co urage d the be -
lief in a livin g rat he r that s t at ic do ct rin e , and
argue d that wo man 's fre e do m wo uld gro w wit h the "vit al-
izing prin ciple s " o f the Bapt is t de n o min at io n .
Fran ce s Willard's po s it io n was mo re e xt re me than
C o o k's , ho we ve r. In o rde r to dis co urage lit e ralis m,
Willard pre s e n t e d a t wo -page chart graphically re ve al-
ing chan gin g, ambivale n t , and co n t radict o ry biblical
t e xt s re fe rrin g to wo me n . By the same t o ke n , Willard
als o re je ct e d lit e ralis m's o ppo s it e t e n de n cy, o r what
she termed "playing fast and loose." See ANBC,
Journal of Lectures, 1887, p. 49; Willard, Woman in
the Pul pi t , pp. 17-38, 50.
33. Speaking of Robert Ingersol l ' s and Elizabeth Cady Stan-
t on' s views toward women and rel i gi on, Willard wrote:
"Whether they perceive i t or not, i t is chiefly eccl es-
iasticism and not Christianity that Robert Ingersoll
and Elizabeth Cady Stanton have been fighting; i t is
the burdens grievous to be borne that men have laid up-
on weak shoulders, but which they themselves would not
touch with one of their fi ngers." Also for a l et t er
from T. DeWitt Talmage to Willard dated 2 March 1888,
along with the testimony of many other supporters of
woman's right to the clergy, see Willard, Woman in
the Pul pi t , pp. 9-15, 52, 73-112, 129-72; also see
Li l l i e Devereaux Blake, Woman's Place Today: Four
Lectures in Reply to the Lenten Lectures on "Women"
(New York: J.W. Lovell, 1883); Benjamin T. Roberts,
Ordaining Women (Rochester: Earnest Christian Pub-
lishing House, 1891), pp. 47, 49, 58, 115-19, 158-59;
for the antichurch position, see Matilda Jocelyn Gage,
Woman, Church and State, 2d ed. (New York: Truth
Seeker Co., 1893); and Welter, "Something Remains to
Dare," i nt r o. to Stanton, The Woman's Bible, pp.
xxv-xxxiv; Aileen S. Kraditor, ed., Up from the Pedes-
t al (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1968), pp. 108-21.
34. Augustus H. Strong, Philosophy and Religion (New York:
A. C. Armstrong & Son, 1888), p. 201.
35. Do uglas , The Fe min izat io n o f Ame rican C ult ure , pp. 9-
13; We lt e r, "The Fe min izat io n of Ame rican Re ligio n :
1800-1860," in C lio 's C o n s cio us n e s s Rais e d, e d. Mary
Hart man and Lo is Ban n e r (New Yo rk: Harpe r & Ro w,
1974), pp. 137-57.
36. Talmage 's s yn dicat e d s e rmo n s appe are d in Black re ligio us
and s e cular n e ws pape rs acro s s the co un t ry. The fo llo w-
ing appe are d in a To pe ka, Kan s as , Black Bapt is t pape r,
and while the e xt ract do e s n o t s pe cifically ut ilize
the phras e the "mo t he rho o d of Go d," it do e s make an an -
alo gy be t we e n God and mo t he r: "All o t he rs may cast
yo u o ff. Yo ur wife may seek divo rce and have no pa-
t ie n ce wit h yo u. Yo ur fat he r may dis in he rit yo u and
s ay, ' Let him n e ve r darke n the do o r of o ur ho us e . ' But
t he re are two pe rs o n s who do n o t give yo u upGo d and
mo t he r." See the Bapt is t He adlight , 25 Jan uary
1894, p. 2; Talmage and Oliphan t are quo t e d in C arl
De lo s C as e , The Mas culin e in Re ligio n (Philade lphia:
Ame rican Bapt is t So cie t y, 1906), p. 31.
37. Ge o rge Mat he s o n , "The Fe min in e Ideal of C hris t ian it y,"
pt . 1, Biblical Wo rld 12 (July 1898):29-36; and pt .
2 (August 1898):90-97.
38. Ibid., pp. 45-47, 72, 97.
39. Twenty years before Matheson, white Baptist minister Aug-
ustus Strong stated that Christ had brought new r e-
spect to passive virtues at a time when the world had
hitherto exalted only manly vi rt ues. Strong's writ-
ings nonetheless insist on Christ' s dominant masculini-
ty. Strong incurred the ire of suffragists, since he
opposed woman's suffrage and believed in woman's sub-
ordination to man in office based on biblical authori-
ty. See Strong, Philosophy and Religion, pp. 400-
416, 549-50; another white Baptist minister, Jesse
Hungate, denied woman's right to ordination, maintain-
ing that the ministry was the divine calling of men.
Hungate stressed the necessity of woman's subordina-
tion to her husband. Included in his book are the re-
sponses of seventy-two Baptist ministers who overwhelm-
ingly agreed with Hungate's opposition to women in the
clergy. See Jesse Hungate, The Ordination of Women
to the Pastorate in Baptist Churches (Hamilton, N.Y. :
James B. Grant, University Bookstore, 1899), pp. 4-5,
11, 13-14, 29-36, 46, 69-84, 101-2.
40. Case was pastor of the Hanson Place Baptist Church in
Brooklyn, New York. He praised the religious expres-
sion of the YMCA for being a style representative of
men and the work place. See Case, The Masculine in
Religion, pp. 9-11, 22-29, 46-51, 59-78, 84-88, 113-
20.
41. Such metaphors could present interesting consequences.
For Virginia Broughton, they seemed to offer unambigu-
ous masculine and feminine images: "By no t i t l e could
our risen Lord endear himself more to women than that
of bridegroom, and thus i t is he likens his return in
the parable of the 'Ten Virgins.
1
" For the sexist,
masculine bias of white Baptist Jesse Hungate, the com-
mon designation of the church as the "bride" of
Christ, led him to assert his demand for a manly Chris-
t i ani t y, st at i ng, "She is the church militant; who is
also the conquering one." See Broughton, Women's
Work, pp. 43-44; Hungate, Ordination of Women, p.
35.
42. The discussion of woman's status as evolving with Chris-
tianity was assumed by cri t i cs for and against woman's
ri ght s. It put religious emphasis on the general im-
petus of Social Darwinism. The anti-women's rights
group argued that Christianity' s civilizing influence
he ight e n e d diffe re n ce s be t we e n me n and wo me n . The
highe r the cult ure , the mo re wo me n we re re mo ve d from
the harde n in g co n t act wit h labor alo n gs ide me n . Wo me n
we re able to co n fin e their dut ie s to ho me and family
and thus be came mo re re fin e d and de licat e . The Black
Bapt is t writ e rs did not s t re s s this part icular t he me
as much as they argue d the dire ct re lat io n s hip be t we e n
C hris t ian it y and the s an ct it y of marriage and ho me
life . The y fo cus e d on wo man 's vict imizat io n in n o n -
C hris t ian cult ure s in an t iquit y and the pre s e n t . In
n o n -C hris t ian cult ure s , wo me n we re de s cribe d as me rch-
an dis e s ubje ct to bart e r, po lygamy, and marriage wit h-
out love or "de licacy." See ANBC , Min ut e s and Addre s -
s e s , 1886, p. 69; ANBC , Jo urn al and Le ct ure s , 1887,
pp. 45-46; ANBC , Jo urn al, Se rmo n s , and Le ct ure s ,
1888, pp. 89-90; als o see Ho fs t adt e r, So cial Darwin -
is m, pp. 24-29; St ro n g, Philo s o phy and Re ligio n ,
pp. 405-6; Hun gat e , Ordin at io n of Wo me n , pp. 41-42;
C as e , The Mas culin e in Re ligio n , pp. 5-8.
43. The ve ry t it le of Jo an n a Mo o re 's aut o bio graphy showed
that she vie we d he r o wn wo rk as s urro gat e to C hris t 's .
See Jo an n a P. Mo o re , In C hris t 's Stead (C hicago :
Wo me n 's Bapt is t Ho me Mis s io n So cie t y, 1895), pp. 131
33, 139-40, 146.
44. Whit e Bapt is t wo me n als o s po ke of the C hris t ian izat io n
of family life as the cure for racial s t rife . See ib-
id., p. 141; ANBC , Min ut e s and Addre s s e s , 1886, p.
70; ANBC , Jo urn al and Le ct ure s , 1887, pp. 52-53;
Bro ught o n , Wo me n 's Wo rk, pp. 21-23.
45. ANBC , Jo urn al and Le ct ure s , 1887, pp. 48-49.
46. Bro ught o n , Wo me n 's Wo rk, pp. 37-40, 43.
47. ANBC , Min ut e s and Addre s s e s , 1886, p. 69; ANBC , Jo ur-
n al and Le ct ure s , 1887, p. 48.
48. Pe n n , The Afro -Ame rican Pre s s , pp. 380-81.
49. ANBC , Jo urn al and Le ct ure s , 1887, p. 49.
50. Bro ught o n , Wo me n 's Wo rk, p. 32.
51. In t e re s t in gly, at the wo me n 's right s co n fe re n ce in Ro -
che s t e r, N.Y., in 1878, Elizabe t h C ady St an t o n advo cat -
ed that wo me n re lin quis h the at t it ude of s e lf-s acri-
fice and cult ivat e s e lf-de ve lo pme n t in s t e ad. Fre de rick
Do uglas s n o t e d at that t ime that s e lf-s acrifice and
s e lf-de ve lo pme n t we re not in co n s is t e n t wit h o n e an o t h-
e r. See Augus t us St ro n g's re fe re n ce to t his e xchan ge
in St ro n g, Philo s o phy and Re ligio n , p. 409; Brawle y,
The Ne gro Bapt is t Pulpit , pp. 278, 287, 290-95;
C harle s Oct avio us Bo o t he , The C yclo pe dia o f the C o l-
o re d Bapt is t s o f Alabama (Birmin gham: Alabama Pub-
lis hin g C o ., 1895), pp. 253, 255; An t ho n y Bin ga, Jr.,
Se rmo n s o n Se ve ral Occas io n s (n .p., 1889), pp.
121-23, 293.
52. ANBC , Jo urn al and Le ct ure s , 1887, pp. 46-47, 49-50,
54-55, 57; Brawle y, The Ne gro Bapt is t Pulpit , p.
285; Black Bapt is t min is t e r William Jo hn s o n used the
warfare mo t if whe n addre s s in g wo me n and challe n ge d
them to fulfill t he ir o bligat io n s to God "by go in g
forth into the highways and he dge s and co mpe llin g me n
to bo w alle gian ce to C alvary's cro s s ." Jo hn s o n ,
Sco urgin g o f a Race , pp. 78-79.
53. An t ho n y Bin ga do e s not de s cribe wo me n o ut s ide the ro le
of ho me make r; William Bis ho p Jo hn s o n co n t e n de d that
me n did not give wo me n t he ir pro pe r e s t imat io n in s o ci-
e t y, and yet he als o as s ign e d to man the qualit ie s of
"un de rs t an din g" and "min d," and to wo man "will" and
"s o ul." See Bin ga, Se rmo n s , p. 293; Jo hn s o n ,
Sco urgin g o f a Race , p. 76.
54. William J. Simmo n s was a le adin g force advo cat in g e duca-
t io n al and e co n o mic advan ce me n t for wo me n . Pre s ide n t
of the Ame rican Nat io n al Bapt is t C o n ve n t io n un t il his
de at h in 1890 and als o pre s ide n t of the State Un ive rs i-
ty at Lo uis ville , Simmo n s was dire ct ly re s po n s ible for
e xt e n din g e ducat io n al and jo b o ppo rt un it ie s to Mary
Cook and Lucy Smit h. A jo urn alis t and e dit o r, Simmo n s
was als o re s po n s ible for givin g Black jo urn alis t Ida
B. We lls he r start in n e ws pape r wo rk. C harle s
Parris h, an e ducat o r and le ade r in the Ame rican Nat io n -
al Bapt is t C o n ve n t io n , marrie d Mary C o o k in 1898.
Walt e r He n de rs o n Bro o ks and Harve y Jo hn s o n we re act ive
in the ANBC from its in ce pt io n in 1886 and we re s up-
po rt e rs of e ducat io n al o ppo rt un it ie s for wo me n , as
we ll as s po ke s me n for Black co n t ro l of s cho o ls fo un de d
for the race . See Pe n n , Afro -Ame rican Pre s s , pp.
370, 378; Brawle y, e d., Ne gro Bapt is t Pulpit , pp.
279-81; Simmo n s , Me n o f Mark, pp. 39-63, 729-32,
1059-63; Richin gs , Evide n ce s o f Pro gre s s , pp. 222-
24; Walt e r H. Bro o ks , "Wan t e dA Bapt is t C o lle ge for
C o lo re d Yo ut h in Virgin ia," Bapt is t Ho me Mis s io n
Mo n t hly 3 (Jan uary 1881):8-9; Jame s M. McPhe rs o n ,
"Whit e Libe rals and Black Po we r in Ne gro Educat io n ,
1865-1915," Ame rican His t o rical Re vie w 75 (June
1970):1357-86; Alfre da M. Dus t e r, e d., C rus ade fo r
Jus t ice : The Aut o bio graphy o f Ida B. We lls , Ne gro
Ame rican Bio graphie s an d Aut o bio graphie s s e rie s
(C hicago : Un ive rs it y of C hicago Pre s s , 1970), p. 32.
55. J. Fran cis Ro bin s o n , "The Impo rt an ce of Wo me n 's In flu-
e n ce in all Re ligio us and Be n e vo le n t So cie t ie s ," Na-
t io n al Bapt is t Magazin e (No ve mbe r-De ce mbe r 1899):117,
120-21.
56. Do uglas , The Fe min izat io n o f Ame rican C ult ure , pp. 3-
48, 130-39, 168-81.
57. The Quake rs are mo s t we ll-kn o wn for a t he o lo gy of
wo man 's e qualit y wit h man , but main lin e Pro t e s t an t
de n o min at io n s als o co n t ribut e d to this t radit io n . The
mo s t co mpre he n s ive wo rk e xpre s s in g a fe min is t t he o lo gy
and dire ct ly re lat in g this to wo man 's right s was
writ t e n by Elizabe t h Wils o n of C adiz, Ohio , soon aft e r
the Se n e ca Falls C o n ve n t io n in 1848. Wils o n n o t e s the
s ign ifican ce of the co n ve n t io n to wo me n , alt ho ugh she
did not at t e n d. See Elizabe t h Wils o n , A Script ural
Vie w o f Wo man 's Right s and Dut ie s , in all the
Impo rt an t Re lat io n s o f Life (Philade lphia: William
S. Yo un g, Prin t e r, 1849); one of the e arlie s t
fe min is t s to s pe ak publicly for wo man 's right s was a
Black wo man who als o in co rpo rat e d biblical pre ce de n t s
into he r argume n t . See Maria St e wart , "Fare we ll
Addre s s to He r Frie n ds in the City of Bo s t o n , 21
Se pt e mbe r 1833," in Black Wo me n in Nin e t e e n t h C e n t ury
Ame rican Life , e d. Bert Jame s Lo e we n be rg and Ruth
Bo gin (Un ive rs it y Park: Pe n n s ylvan ia State Un ive rs it y
Pre s s , 1976), pp. 197-200; Samue l J. May, The Right s
and C o n dit io n s of Wo me n : A Se rmo n Pre ache d in
Syracus e , No ve mbe r 1845, 3d e d. (Syracus e : Lo t hro p's
Prin t , 1853); Nan cy Harde s t y, Lucille Side r Dayt o n ,
and Do n ald W. Dayt o n , "Wo me n in the Ho lin e s s Mo ve me n t :
Fe min is m in the Evan ge lical Tradit io n ," in Wo me n o f
Spirit , e d. Rue t he r and McLaughlin , pp. 225-54.
58. Huds o n , Re ligio n in Ame rica, p. 270.
59. Bo o t he , C yclo pe dia o f the C o lo re d Bapt is t s , p. 252;
Simmo n s , Me n o f Mark, p. 730; R. De Bapt is t e , "Min is -
t e rial Educat io n ," Nat io n al Bapt is t Magazin e (Oct o -
be r 1896), pp. 243-44.
60. In 1889, Black Bapt is t min is t e r Walt e r H. Bro o ks re -
ve ale d the in t e n t io n s of Black Bapt is t le ade rs who e n -
de avo re d to un it e in a n at io n al o rgan izat io n al bas e ,
whe n he s t at e d, "Our po lit ical le ade rs are fe w, and
e ve n those we have can n o t reach the pe o ple ; t he re fo re
it be co me s o ur duty to s pe ak out upo n all que s t io n s
that affe ct o ur pe o ple , s o cially, e co n o mically, as
we ll as re ligio us ly." See ANBC , Jo urn al of the Ame ri-
can Nat io n al Bapt is t C o n ve n t io n , 1889, 1890, 1891
(Lo uis ville : Bradle y & Gilbe rt C o . Prin t e rs , 1892),
p. 19.
ATINA GROSSMANN
Crisis, Reaction, and Resistance: Women in
Germany in the 1920s and 1930s (1981)
Us in g my re s e arch o n wo me n , s e xual po lit ics , and po pulat io n
po licy in Ge rman y in the 1920s and 1930s as a bas e , I will
po in t o ut he re s o me po s s ible s o cialis t -fe min is t s t rat e gie s
for t o day in a t ime of po lit ical and e co n o mic cris is . In a
dis cus s io n of the Sex Re fo rm mo ve me n t in the We imar Re pub-
lic, I will look at the diffe re n t fo rms the co n t ro l of wo me n
t o o k. I als o e xamin e s o me fo rms of re s is t an ce to that co n -
t ro l, rais in g que s t io n s abo ut the co mple x re lat io n s hip, for
wo me n , be t we e n re s is t an ce and co n t ro l. I then e xt e n d the
dis cus s io n to a s e rie s of co n t e mpo rary que s t io n s that are al-
so re le van t to the We imar pe rio d:
1. What are the me chan is ms and dyn amics of co n t ro l o ve r
wo me n ?
2. What has be e n the ro le of the right win g in at t e mpt s
to co n t ro l wo me n ?
3. What are some of the co n t radict io n s amo n g right -win g
gro ups ?
4. To what e xt e n t is co n t ro l part of public po licy or
s o cial in s t it ut io n s , and to what e xt e n t do wo me n in -
t e rn alize and pe rpe t uat e t he ir o wn co n t ro l?
5. Ho w do diffe re n ce s of clas s , racial/e t hn ic ide n t it y,
and s e xual o rie n t at io n s amo n g wo me n affe ct the impo -
s it io n and e xpe rie n ce of co n t ro l?
6. Un de r what circums t an ce s do wo me n o rgan ize to re s is t
co n t ro l? Why, un de r s o me circums t an ce s , are they un -
able to re s i s t ?
Crisis
Po lit ical, s o cial, e co n o mic, and po pulat io n cris e s s ho o k Ge r-
man y aft e r its de fe at in the Firs t Wo rld War and pe ake d in
the De pre s s io n ye ars of 1929 to 1933. The cris is culmin at e d
in the co min g to po we r of the Nat io n al So cialis t s . As a re -
sult of the po pulat io n cris is , We imar Ge rman y e xpe rie n ce d
Wo me n in Germany 61
the de ve lo pme n t of what may be calle d a "n e w wo man " and a
"n e w family," part icularly a n e w pro le t arian family.
The s e phe n o me n a co rre s po n de d to the chan ge d e co n o mic and
po lit ical circums t an ce s of the re public. The "n e w wo man "
was the pro duct of the mo bilizat io n of female labor in Wo rld
War I. Accus t o me d to wage labor and man agin g a ho us e ho ld
wit ho ut a male pre s e n ce and re ce n t ly gran t e d s uffrage and an
in cre as e d role in public po lit ical life , she pre s e n t e d a
threat to an o fficial state po pulat io n po licy bas e d on de di-
cated and in fo rme d mo t he rho o d and dire ct e d toward re placin g
the man po we r lo s s e s of the war. She was e xpe ct e d to he al
the ravage s to he alt h and mo ralit y pre cipit at e d by war, re -
be llio n , and e co n o mic in s t abilit y. The fear was that the po -
larizat io n of wart ime e xpe rie n ce wit h wo me n o n the ho me
front and me n in the t re n che s alo n g wit h wo me n 's in cre as e d
po t e n t ial for e co n o mic in de pe n de n ce wo uld caus e a cris is of
marriage and pro cre at io n .
Alt ho ugh the birt hrat e in Ge rman y had be e n s t e adily de clin -
ing since the middle of the n in e t e e n t h ce n t ury, the de clin e
did not appe ar as a mas s phe n o me n o n amo n g the wo rkin g clas s
un t il aft e r the Firs t Wo rld War. On ly then did it be gin to
aro us e public and go ve rn me n t co n ce rn abo ut the s urvival of
the Ge rman Vo lk and the labor and milit ary capacit ie s of
the co min g ge n e rat io n s . The t radit io n ally large birt hrat e
diffe re n t ial be t we e n rich and po o r, whe re in the po o r pro -
duce d the mas s of wo rke rs and s o ldie rs , was be co min g o min o us -
ly n arro w. Alt ho ugh wo me n co n t in ue d to marryin de e d in
gre at e r n umbe rs than e ve r be fo re familie s be came dis t in ct ly
and in t e n t io n ally s malle r. Acco rdin g to the 1925 ce n s us ,
wo rkin g-clas s familie s ave rage d o n ly 3.9 pe rs o n s pe r ho us e -
ho ld. Dis t urbe d o bs e rve rs be gan to s pe ak of a "birt h
s t rike ."
The "n e w wo man " was not only the in t e lle ct ual wit h mas cu-
line haircut and un is e x suit or the yo un g whit e -co llar wo rk-
er in flappe r o ut fit so familiar to us from 1920s mo vie s .
She was also the yo un g marrie d fact o ry wo rke r who n o w co o ke d
only one me al a day, no lo n ge r bake d or can n e d, cut he r hair
short in t o a pract ical Bubiko pf, and tried by all availa-
ble me an s and at any price to ke e p he r family s mall. This
re pre s e n t e d a rat io n alize d re pro duct ive s urvival s t rat e gy
suited to an in cre as in gly urban ize d s o cie t y, which was e xpe r-
ie n cin g an acut e ho us in g s ho rt age and in which a s ign ifican t
pro po rt io n of marrie d wo me n e n gage d in wage labo r. All
these t re n ds o n ly in t e n s ifie d durin g the De pre s s io n wit h its
mas s ive un e mplo yme n t and dras t ic cut backs in public we lfare
s e rvice s .
The De pre s s io n part icularly affe ct e d wo me n who not only
fell vict im to un e mplo yme n t as me n did, but e n dure d an in -
t e n s ificat io n of ho us e ho ld labo r. On a mat e rial le ve l,
re s po n s ibilit y for s o cial n e e ds like he alt h care and food
pro duct io n was re ve rt in g to the in dividual ho us e ho ld. On an
e mo t io n al le ve l, wo me n we re calle d upo n to s t abilize and
n urt ure the family in a t urbule n t t ime , to soothe the t e n -
s io n s of un e mplo yme n t , and to me diat e the co n flict s s uppo s e d-
ly caus e d by in cre as e d co mpe t it io n for jobs be t we e n me n and
wo me n . By 1931, at the he ight of the De pre s s io n , wit h 6 mil-
lion o fficially co un t e d as jo b-s e e ke rs , it was e s t imat e d
that 1 millio n abo rt io n s o ccurre d an n ually wit h abo ut 10,000
to 12,000 fat alit ie s . That ave rage s out to at least two
abo rt io n s for e ve ry wo man in Ge rman y (1).
The de clin e in the birt h rate and the high abo rt io n s t at is -
tics we re pe rce ive d as a po pulat io n cris is and als o as a cri-
sis of po lit ical le git imacy. Wo me n 's lo yalt y to t radit io n al
ro le s and t he ir willin gn e s s to pro cre at e and s o cialize child-
re n and n urt ure the family un it we re co n s ide re d s ymbo lic of
a s o cie t y's abilit y to pro vide for familie s and the re pro duc-
tion of the n e xt ge n e rat io n . Abo rt io n , birt h co n t ro l, and
s e xualit y in ge n e ral we re e mo t io n ally e xplo s ive and ide o lo gi-
cally laden is s ue s (what Alan Hun t e r is n o w callin g in t e rms
of t o day's Ne w Right , "co mpre s s e d s ymbo ls " [2]) be caus e they
we re e mble mat ic of the s t abilit y and le git imacy of the e n -
tire s o cial fabric. It is cle ar that the wo rkin g clas s was
trying to cope wit h the cris is by family limit at io n pe rhaps
we can call it the o t he r side of trade un io n is m and clas s
s t ruggle on an in dividual family le ve l. They turned main ly
to abo rt io n and co it us in t e rrupt us , but in cre as in gly they
als o us e d me chan ical and che mical me an s of co n t race pt io n
pro pagan dize d and s upplie d by the loose co alit io n of o rgan i-
zat io n s and co un s e lin g ce n t e rs kn o wn as the Sex Re fo rm mo ve -
me n t .
Reaction to the Crisis
The role of public po licy and s o cial in s t it ut io n s in co n t ro l-
ling wo me n was co n t radict o ry and fre que n t ly caught be t we e n
o ppo s in g go als in what can be calle d a po we r s t ruggle for
co n t ro l of wo me n 's bo die s and re pro duct ive fun ct io n s . To
furt he r co mplicat e the an alys is , we can n o t as s ume that go v-
e rn me n t po licy was dire ct ly re fle ct e d in s o cial de ve lo p-
me n t s . We have to dis t in guis h care fully which s t at e and
s o cial in s t it ut io n s (the me dical and s o cial wo rk pro fe s -
s io n s , po lit ical part ie s , co un s e lin g ce n t e rs , and the me dia)
we re in vo lve d. We mus t e xamin e pro s cript io n and pre s crip-
t io n , and the re alit y of what wo me n we re do in g.
At the level of s t at e co n t ro l, t he re we re , first of all,
re pre s s ive sex laws that had be e n on the bo o ks s in ce the
e s t ablis hme n t of the Ge rman Empire in 1871. Paragraph 218
pro hibit e d an y abo rt io n s that we re not s t rict ly me dically in -
dicat e d. Paragraph 184.3 o ut lawe d the adve rt is in g and publi-
cizin g of birt h co n t ro l, alt ho ugh s e llin g co n t race pt ive s was
not fo rbidde n . This le gis lat io n re pre s e n t e d an un s ucce s s ful
at t e mpt to e n fo rce a po pulat io n po licy favo rin g large famil-
ie s . Po s it ive legal in duce me n t s we re als o co n s ide re d but
not le gis lat e d, such as t ax in ce n t ive s for large familie s
and in s uran ce for pare n t s or mo t he rs to be fin an ce d by a
levy o n s in gle pe o ple or childle s s co uple s . The s e in it ia-
tives we re t hwart e d by the pre cario us e co n o mic s it uat io n ;
the s t at e did not in fact have much room in which to man e u-
ve r.
Ot he r fo rms of s t at e co n t ro l, some le gis lat e d and some mat -
ters of public po licy, we re less dire ct . Ho us in g po licy,
for e xample , wo rke d in co n t radict o ry ways . Since much of
the dis t ribut io n of public ho us in g was s t at e co n t ro lle d,
there was an at t e mpt to give prio rit y to large familie s in
the e xt re me ly limit e d ho us in g marke t . On the o t he r han d,
n e w ho us in g pro je ct s built durin g the brie f s t abilizat io n
pe rio d fro m 1924 to 1928, fin an ce d by t rade un io n s and s o -
cialis t mun icipal go ve rn me n t s , we re de s ign e d for the n e w n u-
cle ar family of pare n t s and a maximum of two childre n , and
served as an e n co urage me n t to family limit at io n .
State he alt h po licy was als o co n t radict o ry, re fle ct in g the
t e n s io n s be t we e n a n at io n alis t co n s e rvat ive right and a po w-
e rful co mmun is t and s o cialis t wo rkin g-clas s mo ve me n t vo cal-
ly re pre s e n t e d in Parliame n t and local in s t it ut io n s . Ne ve r-
t he le s s , it mus t be s t re s s e d that bo t h right and left shared
a co mmit me n t to what I call a "mo t he rho o d-e uge n ics co n s e n -
s us " which e mphas ize d the impo rt an ce of pro t e ct e d mo t he rho o d
and he alt hy o ffs prin g. On the one han d, t he re was an at -
tempt to e n co urage childbe arin g t hro ugh s o cial in s t it ut io n s
by pro vidin g s o cialize d he alt h s e rvice s such as pre n at al,
mat e rn al, and infant he alt h clin ics and s cho o l he alt h pro -
grams . On a le gis lat ive le ve l, the 1927 Law for the Pro t e c-
t io n of Mo t he rs o ffe re d insured wo me n wo rke rs a mat e rn it y al-
lowance of t hre e -quart e rs of t he ir wage for four we e ks prio r
t o , and six we e ks aft e r, de live ry. Ot he r guaran t e e s such as
n urs in g paus e s and pro t e ct io n again s t dis mis s al made this
the mo s t advan ce d mat e rn al pro t e ct io n le gis lat io n in the
wo rld wit h the e xce pt io n of Bo ls he vik Rus s ia. Mo s t Ge rman
wo me n , ho we ve r, s imply co uld not affo rd to take advan t age of
the pro vis io n s , and they we re lo udly de n o un ce d as lackin g
he alt h co n s cio us n e s s and mat e rn al fe e lin g by the do ct o rs and
po lit ician s who had s po n s o re d the le gis lat io n . The Law for
the Pre ve n t io n of Ve n e re al Dis e as e , als o pas s e d in 1927, on
the o t he r han d, facilit at e d acce s s to birt h co n t ro l by pe r-
mit t in g the publicizin g of co n do ms as a me t ho d of pre ve n t in g
in fe ct io n . In fact co n do m aut o mat s we re in s t alle d in some
large cit ie s .
In 1926 the Prus s ian and Saxo n s t at e go ve rn me n t s issued de -
cre e s s e t t in g up o fficial marriage co un s e lin g clin ics .
The ir purpo s e was de fin it e ly not to pro vide birt h co n t ro l
but to o ffe r e uge n ic co un s e lin g for pro s pe ct ive mat e s and
pare n t s , advis in g t he m o n t he ir fit n e s s for pro cre at io n .
This was a pro gram that po t e n t ially wo rke d bo t h ways ; it
co uld dis co urage childbe arin g by un co ve rin g e uge n ic dis abili-
ties , but the ho pe was that the co un s e lin g wo uld ge n e rally
e n co urage pro cre at io n by alle viat in g pe o ple 's fe ars abo ut
he re dit ary dis e as e s and the hazards of pre gn an cy. In re ali-
t y, the ce n t e rs we re little us e d, be caus e pro s pe ct ive cli-
e n t s we re mo re in t e re s t e d in o bt ain in g safe in e xpe n s ive co n -
t race pt ive s that in t e s t in g t he ir phys ical fit n e s s for
marriage and pare n t ho o d.
The re fo re , Ge rman go ve rn me n t po licy was co n s t an t ly caught
in a s e rie s of dile mmas . It n e e de d to pro mo t e large fami-
lies but als o n e e de d to pro mo t e e uge n ic he alt h. It was fur-
ther t rappe d by the pract ical e xige n cie s o f an e co n o mic s it u-
at io n that co uldn 't carry the burde n of in cre as e d s o cial
we lfare co s t s or e ve n main t ain the man y s e rvice s that had
be e n e s t ablis he d by We imar So cial De mo cracy. This led fi-
n ally in the e arly 1930s , be fo re the Nazis act ually pas s e d
their s t e rilizat io n law in July 1933, to s e rio us co n s ide ra-
tion of mas s ive s o -calle d vo lun t ary s t e rilizat io n . St e rili-
zat io n was co n s ide re d to be a co s t -e fficie n t me t ho d of
cris is man age me n t and was in t e n de d to ease the burde n on
s o cial we lfare in s t it ut io n s . The s e plan s , act ive ly dis -
cussed in the Min is t ry of He alt h and s t at e le gis lat ure s as
we ll as in me dical and Sex Re fo rm lit e rat ure , in clude d t abu-
lations of ho w e xpe n s ive it was for the s t at e to s uppo rt
re t arde d, cripple d, or de lin que n t cit ize n s co mpare d to the
min imal e xpe n s e of s imply s t e rilizin g the s o cially or phys i-
cally un fit .
The n e ce s s it y and fe as ibilit y of e s t ablis hin g "s cie n t ific"
n o rms fo r what was he alt hy and what was un fit , what was de -
ge n e rat e and what was who le s o me , was co mmo n ly acce pt e d as
part of the mo t he rho o d-e uge n ics co n s e n s us which as alre ady
n o t e d, t ran s ce n de d the t radit io n al le ft /right , s o cialis t /co n -
s e rvat ive dis t in ct io n s . Human s o cie t y was dicho t o mize d in t o
two gro ups : t ho s e who we re po t e n t ially capable of le adin g
in dus t rio us and s o cially wo rt hwhile lives and those judge d
to be as o cial, a burde n and dan ge r to the ge n e ral we lfare .
This appro ach me an t urgin g a "diffe re n t iat e d we lfare po licy"
(diffe re n zie rt e Fue rs o rge ) that tried to serve and re ha-
Women in Germany 65
bi l i t at e those with a real i st i c possibility of achieving a
socially productive life while merely maintainingwarehous-
ingthose who would never be anything but ballast for the
st at e. The next generation would presumably be purged of
such undesirable elements. Trying to fert i l i ze the fit and
st eri l i ze the unfit was the basis for a highly selective pop-
ulation policy and an example of how class and/or racial/eth-
nic differences affect the imposition and experience of con-
t r ol . Such discussions graphically preshadowed National
Socialist population policy; indeed, one could argue that
the social and scientific acceptability of making such hier-
archical distinctions in "quality of human life" facilitated
i t s implementation.
Population experts and doctors who often served as consult-
ants to the government thus found themselves in a frustrat-
ing double bind. They were caught between the desire to
raise the birthrate to the level of three children per fami-
ly considered necessary for replenishing the population and
the opposed need to ensure eugenic and social hygiene. For
if the "new woman," with her smaller family and aura of sex-
ual freedom, was a sexual threat and population-political
danger, then the "old" proletarian family with many children
was a eugenic and social danger, particularly under the new
conditions of married women's wage labor and overcrowded ur-
ban housing. All too many of the supposedly desirable and
glorified large families (kinderreiche Familien) were in
fact perceived as degenerate and irresponsible by doctors,
social workers, and policy makers.
Therefore, we must move away from the level of direct
state intervention to examine another more sophisticated as-
pect of the reaction to the population cr i si s. This aspect
endeavored to take account of the need for family limitation
and women's double burden at home and in the work force. It
carried within i t some of the elements of resistance to
state policythere are no neat lines here. A broad Sex
Reform movement, claiming up to 150,000 members in i t s
various organizations, developed during the Weimar years.
Doctors, social workers, and lay people, many of them associ-
ated with working-class political parties (Communist and
Social Democratic) and independent Sex Reform leagues, were
involved in numerous groups espousing different political
goals and social visions. But whether they identified them-
selves as part of the soci al i st , communist, or women's move-
ment or the emerging specialty of sexology, the umbrella Sex
Reform movement implied a shared commitment to legalized
abortion, contraception, sex education, and women's right to
sexual satisfaction.
The medical and scientific wing of the movement often
fun ct io n e d in clo s e co n jun ct io n wit h local go ve rn me n t s , in s o -
far as they we re do min at e d by So cialis t or C o mmun is t o ffi-
cials . It s o ught to alle viat e the e co n o mic and s e xual
mis e ry of wo rkin g-clas s familie s and yo ut h. It in t e rve n e d
on the as s umpt io n that as long as the birt hrat e was alre ady
de clin in g and as long as it was in e vit able that marrie d
wo me n and mo t he rs e n gage d in wage labo r, then the s it uat io n
s ho uld at least be rat io n alize d by in cre as in g me dicalizat io n
of birt h co n t ro l. This in vo lve d at t e mpt s to re duce quack or
s e lf-in duce d abo rt io n s by the in t ro duct io n of mo re s o phis t i-
cated co n t race pt io n , such as the diaphragm, the ce rvical
cap, and e ve n in some cas e s the IUD, as we ll as po s s ible
s t e rilizat io n . All t he s e me t ho ds re quire d a do ct o r's pre -
s cript io n and s upe rvis io n . The guidin g idea was that if
t he re we re to be fe we r wo rke rs , they s ho uld at least be
s t ro n g, he alt hy, and of s t urdy phys ical and mo ral qualit y.
In co mpe t it io n wit h the s t at e -run marriage co un s e lin g ce n -
ters , me dical Sex Re fo rm set up birt h co n t ro l and sex co un -
s e lin g ce n t e rs run by mun icipal he alt h de part me n t s or he alt h
in s uran ce s e rvice s . In de pe n de n t Sex Re fo rm le ague s and the
s o cial we lfare o rgan izat io n s of the C o mmun is t and So cial De m-
o crat ic part ie s als o e s t ablis he d co un s e lin g ce n t e rs . Me d-
ical co n t race pt io n was pre s cribe d and dis t ribut e d and advice
on s e x t e chn ique s was o ffe re d.
Again t he re we re co n t radict o ry e ffe ct s . The s e in s t it u-
t io n s s ure ly re pre s e n t e d an advan ce in he alt h t e rms , but
they als o marke d a ce rt ain s e t back for wo me n 's aut o n o my in
co n t ro llin g fe rt ilit y. Man y of those much-malign e d back-
street abo rt io n is t s , again s t who m wo me n we re co n s t an t ly be -
ing warn e d, in bo t h the wo rkin g-clas s and the bo urge o is
pre s s e s , we re in fact fe male midwive s . The s e wo me n we re in -
cre as in gly losing the e co n o mic bas is for t he ir live liho o d
t hro ugh t ight e r lice n s in g pro ce dure s , the ge n e ral de clin e in
the n umbe r of de live rie s , and the t ake o ve r by phys ician s of
the limited amo un t of o bs t e t rics wo rk s t ill available . Wit h-
out s ugge s t in g that abo rt io n is a wo n de rful fe min is t e xpe ri-
e n ce , we mus t n o t e that the de cis io n to abo rt was a wo man 's
de cis io n made in the co n t e xt of a fe male n e t wo rk that s pre ad
in fo rmat io n abo ut "wis e wo me n " and abo rt io n me t ho ds . Abo r-
tion is , aft e r all, the one form of birt h co n t ro l that n e e d
not re quire the co o pe rat io n or appro val of e it he r male part -
n e r or do ct o r. This is s ure ly one re as o n why abo rt io n on
de man d is s t ill s e e n as such a t hre at t o day.
Even wit hin this in cre as e d me dicalizat io n t his at t e mpt to
dis ciplin e and rat io n alize pro cre at ive and s e xual act ivit y
by in t e n s ifie d go ve rn me n t and me dical in t e rve n t io n t he re
we re mult iple co n t radict io n s . It was n o t a po licy appro ve d
on the n at io n al level by e it he r the state or the me dical e s -
t ablis hme n t . In fact , the me dical e s t ablis hme n t re main e d
bit t e rly o ppo s e d to birt h co n t ro l as we ll as to le galize d
abo rt io n . It s aw the clin ics as pro fe s s io n al and e co n o mic
co mpe t it io n . The Sex Re fo rm clin ics we re ge n e rally run by
phys ician s co mmit t e d to the wo rkin g-clas s mo ve me n t in one
fo rm or an o t he r (in s harp co n t ras t to the s t at e -run ce n -
t e rs ). Such do ct o rs co n s t it ut e d the least pre s t igio us ran ks
of the pro fe s s io n ; they we re e mplo ye e s e n gage d n e it he r in
acade mic me dicin e n o r in full-t ime privat e pract ice . Fur-
t he rmo re , they in clude d a s ign ifican t n umbe r of wo me n do c-
t o rs , s in ce wo me n we re mo re likely to be found at the lower
level and to be act ive in pre gn an cy and mat e rn al care and
birt h co n t ro l clin ics . On e did not have to be a ce rt ifie d
gyn e co lo gical s pe cialis t to wo rk in a clin ic, so that
alt ho ugh the Sex Re fo rm mo ve me n t me an t in t e n s ifie d co n t ro l
o ve r wo me n 's live s , it als o o pe n e d up o ppo rt un it ie s for a
ce rt ain n umbe r of pro fe s s io n al wo me n .
The s e co un s e lin g ce n t e rs , and the n ume ro us jo urn als and il-
lus t rat e d pe rio dicals as s o ciat e d wit h t he m, pro vide d mat e ri-
al aid for wo me n in the fo rm of birt h co n t ro l, but they als o
pro pagat e d a n e w vis io n of s e xualit y. I call t his the "ra-
t io n alizat io n " of s e xualit y, paralle l to the rat io n alizat io n
of in dus t ry and ho us e wo rk be gin n in g in the 1920s . The ce n -
t e rs at t e mpt e d to in s t it ut io n alize ce rt ain co mmo n s t an dards
of "he alt hy" s o cially re s po n s ible s e xual be havio r. In de e d,
they mo un t e d an all-o ut at t ack on male s e xual in s e n s it ivit y
and fe male frigidit y, re ce n t ly dis co ve re d as wide s pre ad s o -
cial phe n o me n a. The n e w s o cial s e rvice in s t it ut io n s of the
We imar Re public, mat e rn al and in fan t care ce n t e rs , s cho o l
me dical pro grams , and marriage and s e x-co un s e lin g clin ics
we re in t e n de d to alle viat e co n dit io n s of e co n o mic de s pair.
Ne ve rt he le s s , t he ir ve ry e xis t e n ce and their n e wly s ys t e ma-
tized file s and re co rds served to do cume n t the e xis t e n ce of
a cult ure of po ve rt y that was not o n ly mat e rial but als o e mo -
t io n al and s e xual. Wo me n who came to the co un s e lin g ce n t e rs
for birt h co n t ro l de vice s and in fo rmat io n als o told of t he ir
lack of ple as ure in marriage and s e xual re lat io n s , he lpin g
to de fin e frigidit y as a majo r s o cial pro ble m that t hre at -
ened family s t abilit y.
The que s t io n aris e s he re of ho w co n t ro l by be n e vo le n t and
be n e ficial public po licy and s o cial in s t it ut io n s like the
co un s e lin g ce n t e rs was co n n e ct e d to the in t e rn alizat io n and
pe rpe t uat io n o f co n t ro l by wo me n t he ms e lve s . Jus t as the
Sex Re fo rm mo ve me n t in t e rve n e d to me dicalize and rat io n alize
an o n go in g birt hrat e de clin e , it als o in t e rve n e d to rat io n al-
ize , dis ciplin e , chan n e l, and co n t ro l chan ge s in s e xual mo r-
e s and be havio r that we re happe n in g an yway. The aim of Sex
Re fo rm was to impro ve bo t h the pro duct and the pro ce s s of
s e xual re lat io n s , not only the qualit y of the o ffs prin g but
als o the qualit y of the s e xual e xpe rie n ce . The e mphas is was
on impro vin g fe male s e xualit y o r, mo re pre cis e ly, the female
o rgas m.
The pe rio d was charact e rize d by the wide s pre ad pract ice of
family limit at io n wit h an in cre as e d availabilit y of birt h
co n t ro l and ris in g abo rt io n figure s . The re was a pe rce ive d
in cre as e in e co n o mic re s o urce s for bo t h s in gle and marrie d
wo me n , part icularly yo un g whit e -co llar wo rke rs in the cit -
ie s . The s e chan ge s we re acco mpan ie d by the lo o s e n in g of t ra-
dit io n al family s t ruct ure s and the blurrin g of t ime -ho n o re d
s e x-ro le dis t in ct io n s . The gro wt h of co e ducat io n and yo ut h
gro ups , a ge n e ral e ro t icizat io n of me dia and cult ure , and an
appare n t in cre as e in pre marit al and t e e n age s e xualit y we re
all seen as the legacy of war, re vo lut io n , and e co n o mic cri-
s is . In this milie u, it was crit ical that the fe male s e xual-
ity the Sex Re fo rm mo ve me n t wan t e d to awake n be dire ct e d in -
to the pro pe r he t e ro s e xual marit al pat hs . One sees the
t e rms of fe male s e xualit y be co min g de fin e d and t he re fo re n ar-
rowed jus t as it be co me s t e chn ically and e co n o mically po s s i-
ble to live o ut that s e xualit y.
The n e w Sex Re fo rm and s e xo lo gy s cie n t ifically chart e d the
ge o graphy of fe male de s ire and fulfillme n t . The Sex Re fo rm
mo ve me n t as s ume d that me n mus t awake n wo me n s e xually, that
fe male s e xualit y was fun dame n t ally and n at urally diffe re n t
from the male 's s lo we r to aro us e and co me , mo re pas s ive and
diffus e . It as s e rt e d that me n mus t be trained to co n s ide r
wo me n 's pe culiarit ie s , which me an t le arn in g abo ut the clit o -
ris as wo me n 's primary o rgan of s e xual s t imulat io n and fo re -
play. Fe male s e xualit y was s que e ze d into do t s on the ubiqui-
tous o rgas m curve s of Sex Re fo rm lit e rat ure , whe re wo me n 's
climax did or did not me e t that of me n .
The go al of this n o ve l fas cin at io n wit h t e chn ique was
cle ar and pre de t e rmin e d: s imult an e o us o rgas m durin g in t e r-
co urs e . If wo me n 's s e xualit y was judge d to be n at urally
mo re e mo t io n al and ge n e ralize d t hro ugho ut he r bo dy and ps y-
che in o t he r wo rds , less ge n it ally fixat e d than that of
me n t he n Se x Re fo rm aime d to chan ge all t hat . No t hin g less
than a re o rgan izat io n of wo me n 's s e xual impuls e was calle d
fo r. In de e d, it was only t hro ugh male man ipulat io n s fin ally
brin gin g he r to o rgas m durin g in t e rco urs e that a wo man co uld
be co me truly mat ure and s e xual in the n arro w Sex Re fo rm
de fin it io n of the t e rm.
Thus , s e xualit y was rat io n alize d and t e chn o lo gize d. C o m-
ing did not co me n at urally; it re quire d dis ciplin e and co n -
ce n t rat io n , bas ically the same s kills and charact e ris t ics n e -
ce s s ary to be a go o d wo rke r in a rat io n alize d fact o ry. The
same crit e ria set up for e ffe ct ive rat io n alizat io n in in dus -
try we re applie d to s e xualit y: un ifo rmit y, s t an dardizat io n ,
re liabilit y, re pro ducibilit y, and pre dict abilit y (3). C e r-
t ain de fin e d pro ce s s e s we re de e me d e fficacio us in le adin g to
a ce rt ain pro duct mut ual o rgas m an d, by e xt e n s io n , he alt hy
childre n . The in t ro duct io n of pre s cribe d me t ho ds of fo re -
play in t o the s e xual re gime n me an t the in s t it ut io n alizat io n
of the s t re amlin e d, s t e p-by-s t e p lo ve makin g s che dule mo s t of
us gre w up wit h: bo dy care s s e s and s t ro kin g, man ual an d/o r
o ral s t imulat io n of the clit o ris , an d, n e ce s s arily and in -
e vit ably, the s e rio us bus in e s s of fuckin g (4). The ple as ur-
ing of wo man 's who le bo dy and the clit o ris was n e ve r an end
in it s e lf, but o n ly the me an s to an end pre de fin e d for the
mo s t part by me n male e xpe rt s .
The re al is s ue was not de s ire or s e xual ple as ure pe r s e ,
but he t e ro s e xual, pre fe rably marit al "t o ge t he rn e s s ." Se xual
t e chn ique and wo me n 's right to o rgas m we re pro pagat e d as a
me an s of s t abilizin g and harmo n izin g the n ucle ar family; a
s t at e gy for what Rayn a Rapp and Elle n Ro s s call e ls e whe re in
this vo lume the "s o cial e n fo rce me n t of he t e ro s e xualit y." In
that s e n s e , Sex Re fo rm was cle arly an at t ack on the s in gle
an d/o r le s bian wo man . The fear was that wo me n who vo t e d and
wo rke d o ut s ide the ho me wo uld als o de man d o rgas ms . In de pe n -
de n t fin an cial re s o urce s and an in cre as e d public role t hre at -
ened to allo w mo re and mo re wo me n to opt out of marriage
alt o ge t he r. The ho pe was to at t ract wo me n to marriage and
mo t he rho o d by he ight e n in g the jo ys of s e xual s urre n de r. If
wo me n we re re co n cile d to happy marriage s , they wo uld als o be
mo re likely to pro duce phys ically and me n t ally he alt hy child-
re n . In o t he r wo rds , o rgas m had be co me an e uge n ic me as ure .
On ce again we see imme n s e co n t radict io n s . Fe male s e xuali-
ty was re co gn ize d and e n co urage d, but on male he t e ro s e xual
t e rms and in de fe n s e of the family. The Sex Re fo rm s lo gan ,.
"The re is no such thing as a frigid wo man , o n ly in co mpe t e n t
and in s e n s it ive me n ," may sound libe rat in g, but fe male o r-
gas m re main e d de pe n de n t on me n , its ve ry n at ure de fin e d by
male n e e ds and s o cie t al prio rit ie s . It is not s imple . It
do e s seem to be true that Ge rman wo me n in this pe rio d did
be n e fit from this n e w re co gn it io n of the n e e d for fe male s e x-
ual s at is fact io n and that co uple s ' s e x lives did impro ve .
But wo me n , at least he t e ro s e xual wo me n , we re n e ve r give n a
chan ce to try to de fin e , e n vis io n , e xpe rie n ce t he ir o wn wo m-
an -ide n t ifie d s e xualit y. They we re s uppo s e d to let go , s ub-
mit to me n 's n e wly t e n de r min is t rat io n s le t t he ms e lve s be
s killfully playe d like a vio lin rat he r than co n s t ruct their
o wn s e xual po s s ibilit ie s .
And wo me n had an addit io n al burde n me n we re to be e du-
cated to o ffe r wo me n a s hare of the s e xual e cs t as y that had
pre vio us ly be e n re s e rve d for male s , but wo me n we re n o w
expected not only to lose themselves in orgasm but also to
be on their guard, to remain responsible for contraception.
Sex Reform wanted to teach men techniques and teach women
birth control. The stress on women's sexual fulfillment and
the new comradeliness and partnership in relations between
the sexes did not alter the assumption that men's commitment
to birth control could not be trusted. Nor did it change
the prevailing belief that women's fundamental sexual passiv-
ity ensured that they would keep their heads even during the
satisfactions of "sex-reformed" intercourse. As a German
friend of mine, a Wages for Housework advocate, remarked,
not only were women s t i l l responsible for the family, but
now they also had to moan. Or as Michel Foucault has been
quoted as noting, "We must not think that by saying yes to
sex, one says no to power" (5). In that sense, certain as-
sumptions about sex roles and the sexual division of labor
were internalized and perpetuated among women themselves.
Furthermore, the rationalization of sexuality meant that
the right to contraception, abortion, and sexual pleasure
was couched not in' terms of a woman's individual right to
control her own body and life but rather in terms of general
social and state welfare. Social healththe Body Politic
was the crucial question. As the Weimar German Left saw i t ,
the working class needed to rest ri ct births during economic
crisis as a matter of class survival. As the Right saw i t ,
an economically and mi l i t ari l y strong state required a heal-
thy Volk. Eugenics questions were central to the politics
of reproduction and sexuality, not just for the Right but
across the entire spectrum of the Sex Reform movement. Here
again, as with state policy, we are struck by how much the
imposition of control, even benign control, can be affected
by differences in class, racial/ethnic group, and sexual or i -
entation.
The heterosexual bias of Sex Reform, i t s focus on the com-
panionate couple and potentially procreative sexuality, has
already been noted. The discourse also exhibited a cl ass-
specific differentiation. The bourgeoisie tended to be t ar-
geted for how-to sex information, whereas the working class
was offered more advice on birth control and health. One
imagines that it would have been very difficult for most
working or working-class women to find even the time and en-
ergy necessary for the new "progressive" domesticity and sex-
ual intimacy. The motherhood-eugenics consensus posited mo-
therhood as a natural desire for al l women, simply repressed
in some by economic necessity. The same consensus, however,
also made a pseudoscientific identification of certain peo-
ple as carriers of what was thought to be hereditary di s-
ease. People diagnosed as suffering from, for example, tu-
be rculo s is , ve n e re al dis e as e , or alco ho lis m (all "s o cial
dis e as e s " of the po o r) or e pile ps y and s chizo phre n ia we re
warn e d not to re pro duce . The y be came t arge t s for s t e riliza-
t io n . The s e cat e go rie s , bas e d on a me dical mo de l of de vi-
an ce , co uld (and e ve n t ually did) o ve rlap wit h dis t in ct io n s
bas e d on clas s and race or po lit ical and mo ral be havio rt he
murky cat e go ry of the "as o cial."
The re was a de fin it e o ve rlap in Sex Re fo rm dis co urs e be -
t we e n re pro duct ive right s n e ve r de fin e d as s uchan d po pula-
t io n co n t ro l. The majo r co n t radict io n , I wo uld argue , is
that wo me n t he ms e lve s we re n e ve r judge d co mpe t e n t to make
t he ir o wn s e xual and pro cre at ive de cis io n s . De cis io n s abo ut
birt h co n t ro l, abo rt io n , or s e xual ple as ure we re de e me d much
too impo rt an t to the ge n e ral we lfare to be de cide d by the un -
re liable whims of an in dividual wo man .
Resistance
Un de r what circums t an ce s is re s is t an ce to this kin d o f co n -
t ro l po s s ible or not po s s ible ? I have co n ce n t rat e d on me di-
cal and pro fe s s io n al Sex Re fo rm be caus e it came to do min at e
the mo ve me n t . Ho we ve r, in t e rms of n umbe rs and dire ct co n -
tact wit h the pro le t ariat , the wo rkin g-clas s po lit ical par-
ties and aut o n o mo us lay Sex Re fo rm le ague s we re ve ry impo r-
tant e le me n t s . But by the time of the De pre s s io n , t he s e had
in cre as in gly co me to s hare the me dicalize d and rat io n alize d
as s umpt io n s and pre judice s I've o ut lin e d abo ve . The mas s ive
lay mo ve me n t , alt ho ugh clo s e ly co n n e ct e d wit h s ympat he t ic
pro fe s s io n als , fun ct io n e d as a ge n uin e pro le t arian s e lf-he lp
s t ruct ure , o ffe rin g birt h co n t ro l re me die s , s e x e ducat io n ,
and ge n e ral he alt h advice to pe o ple who wo uld o t he rwis e have
no acce s s to t he m.
The vario us win gs of the mo ve me n t , bo t h lay and pro fe s s io n -
al, in t e ract e d wit h, in flue n ce d, and pre s s ure d e ach o t he r.
Again and again , the e xpe rt s we re s ho cke d and in s pire d to
fight for re fo rm by t he ir e xpe rie n ce s in the he alt h ce n t e rs
located in wo rkin g-clas s n e ighbo rho o ds , and by po lit ical
pre s s ure s e xe rt e d by the lay le ague s and the So cial De mo crat -
ic and C o mmun is t part ie s . Po pulat io n po licy and s e xual po li-
tics we re ce n t ral to the male -do min at e d po lit ical dis co urs e
of the We imar Re public in ge n e ral. It was part icularly cru-
cial to the po lit ical de man ds of the C o mmun is t part y, which
fo cus e d o n the high abo rt io n s t at is t ics as a s ymbo l of the
ban krupt cy, in human it y, and irrat io n alit y of the capit alis t
s ys t e m. The abo lit io n of Paragraph 218, which crimin alize d
abo rt io n , was the fulcrum of its campaign to o rgan ize wo me n ,
t radit io n ally one of the gro ups s e e n as mo s t re s is t an t to
the Left (6). The right to birth control and abortionthat
i s , the right to enjoy sex without the punitive consequences
of continual pregnanciesrepresented an attempt to unite
the issues of sex and class within the socialist and commu-
nist movements. Birth control and abortion were primarily
understood not as assertions of women's liberation but as
acts of self-defense in the context of a class struggle for
economic and political survival.
The fact that birth control, abortion, and sex education
were fi rst and foremost class and health issues, not women's
issues, constituted the simultaneous strength and weakness
of the Sex Reform movement for reproductive rights. This
circumstance defined the parameters of women's possibilities
for resistance to coerced motherhood and economic disaster.
The great advantage of the class emphasis was that it of-
fered the possibility of unity with men within a strong,
highly organized working-class movement with access to an
infrastructure of party apparatus, journals, propaganda, and
funds. It also allowed reproductive rights to be seen as
part of a general social analysis, ultimately pointing t o-
ward the necessity of revolutionary change. The glaring di s-
advantage, of course, was the lack of an authentic, powerful
feminist perspective, although there was certainly room for
women to organize and maneuver within the "social-sex-popula-
tion" space carved out for and by them within the working-
class part i es. Because the issue of abortion and Paragraph
218 was considered a major focus of general organizing rath-
er than a merely secondary contradiction, women and women's
organizations gained a certain vi si bi l i t y and legitimacy
within the working-class movement as a whole. But women
were never able to achieve a voice of their own within ei t h-
er the Sex Reform or the working-class movementsnot even
at the points so cri t i cal l y affecting their daily lives
where questions of class and sex coalesced.
Sex Reform undeniably spoke to women's needs, but women
were never able to define the issue in their own terms or to
seize control of the discourse so that they might deal with
the issues not only as functions of class or the st at e, but
for themselves, regardless of whether their goals and vision
included family, children, and relationships with men. As
Joan Kelly has so eloquently pointed out, "The tensions be-
tween the need for separation and the will to create social
change runs deep in the women's movement and in each of our
lives, as do the related tensions between the claims of
class, race and sex" (7). The historical lesson comes back
to the necessity of maintaining women's political autonomy
and Kelly's "unified 'doubled' view of the social order"
(8). To struggle for reproductive rights, we must under-
stand them in the context of what "is at once an economical-
ly and s e xually bas e d s o cial re alit y" (9). We need indeed
to "s e e do uble " and as s e rt fe min is m and re pro duct ive right s
as be in g s imult an e o us ly is s ue s bo t h of the s o cial good and
of in dividual right s . We are s t uck wit h the Marxis t /s o cial-
ist -fe min is t hyphe n .
Notes
This pape r was pre s e n t e d as part of a pan e l in which
Re n at e Bride n t hal and Marian Kaplan als o part icipat e d.
I am grat e ful for their s uppo rt and in s ight s .
1. For a mo re de t aile d dis cus s io n of abo rt io n as a s o cial
phe n o me n o n and po lit ical is s ue durin g the ye ars of the
We imar Re public, see At in a Gro s s man n , "Abo rt io n and
Eco n o mic C ris is : The 1931 C ampaign again s t Paragraph
218 in Ge rman y," Ne w Ge rman C rit ique 14 (Sprin g
1978):119-37. Fo r s t at is t ics , see e s pe cially pp.
121-22 and 125.
2. Alan Hun t e r, pre s e n t at io n on "Pro -Family Po lit ics " at
the Se min ar on the Ne w Right , Ne w Yo rk In s t it ut e for
the Human it ie s , 2 May 1981. See als o Lin da Go rdo n and
Alan Hun t e r, "Se x, Family and the Ne w Right , An t i-Fe m-
in is m as a Po lit ical Fo rce ," Radical Ame rica 11, n o .
6 (No ve mbe r 1977); 12, n o . 1 (Fe bruary 1978).
3. Fo r ge n e ral dis cus s io n s of rat io n alizat io n of wo rk that
have in fo rme d my t hin kin g on the rat io n alis m of s e xual-
it y, see Harry Brave rman , Labo r and Mo n o po ly C apit al,
the De gradat io n o f Wo rk in the Twe n t ie t h C e n t ury (Ne w
Yo rk: Mo n t hly Re vie w Pre s s , 1974) and David No ble ,
Ame rica by De s ign : Scie n ce , Te chn o lo gy and t he Ris e
of C o rpo rat e C apit alis m (Ne w Yo rk: Alfre d A. Kn o pf,
1977). See als o C hris t o phe r Las ch, Have n in a He art -
less Wo rld, the Family Be s ie ge d (Ne w Yo rk: Bas ic
Bo o ks , 1977), pp. 10-18 (from a diffe re n t po in t of
vie w!) and Michae l Go rdo n , "Fro m an Un fo rt un at e Ne ce s -
sity to a Cult of Mut ual Orgas m: Sex in Ame rican Mari-
tal Educat io n Lit e rat ure , 1830-1940," in The So cio lo -
gy o f Se x, an In t ro duct o ry Re ade r, e d. Jame s M. He n -
slin and Edward Sagarin (New Yo rk: Scho cke n , 1978),
pp. 41-83.
4. The clas s ic of this ge n re of s e x man ual was Th. Van de
Ve lde 's Ide al Marriage , first publis he d in 1926, in
Ge rman y in 1928, and in the Un it e d St at e s in 1930.
5. Quo t e d by Ale xan de r C o ckburn in a re vie w of Gay Tale s e 's
Thy Ne ighbo r's Wife in Ne w Yo rk Re vie w o f Bo o ks 27
(29 May 1980):12.
6. Fo r the role of the C o mmun is t part y in the abo rt io n
right s s t ruggle , part icularly durin g the De pre s s io n ,
see Gro s s man n , "Abo rt io n and Eco n o mic C ris is ."
7. Jo an Ke lly, "The Do uble d Vis io n of Fe min is t The o ry: A
Po s t s cript to the 'Women and Po we r
1
C o n fe re n ce ,"
Fe min is t St udie s 5, n o . 1 (Sprin g 1979):220.
8. Ibid., p. 216.
9. Ibid., p. 224. See als o Ro s alin d Po llack Pe t che s ky,
"Re pro duct ive Fre e do m: Be yo n d 'A Wo man 's Right to
C ho o s e ,
1
" Sign s 5, n o . 4 (Summe r 1980):666-85.
LISA DUGGAN
The Social Enforcement of Heterosexuality
and Lesbian Resistance in the 1920s (1981)
The pre s e n t e co n o mic and po lit ical cris is co n s t it ut e s a s e -
ve re test for all pro gre s s ive pe o ple . Po lit ical and e co n o m-
ic at t acks on po o r and wo rkin g-clas s pe o ple , wo me n , Blacks
and e t hn ic min o rit ie s , and gay me n and le s bian wo me n co n t in -
ue to gain mo me n t um; the pre s s ure is on to co un t e r these
at t acks wit h cle ar t he o ry, s t ro n g o rgan izat io n , and care ful
s t rat e gy. It is part icularly pre s s in g for le s bian s to think
hard and cle arly abo ut o ur s it uat io n , as we are met wit h
myriad fo rms of s cape go at in g fro m some of o ur pro gre s s ive
"allie s " as we ll as from o ur cle ar po lit ical adve rs arie s .
In o rde r to un de rs t an d o ur s it uat io n , it is n e ce s s ary that
we un de rs t an d s o me t hin g of o ur his t o ry. This e s s ay is de -
vo t e d to that t as k.
The 1920s was a pe rio d of backlas h again s t fe min is m and
the Left in Ame rican his t o ry. It fo llo we d de cade s of pro -
found s t ruct ural chan ge and ide o lo gical fe rme n t durin g which
the e co n o mic re lat io n s of in dus t rial capit alis m and the ge n -
de r re lat io n s of the pat riarchal family had be e n s e rio us ly
challe n ge d. Durin g the 1920s , t he s e challe n ge s we re quie t -
e d. C apit alis m and pat riarchy we re mo difie d but s t abilize d.
Fo r t he s e re as o n s , the 1920s and 1980s e xhibit some s t rik-
ing s imilarit ie s (t ho ugh t he re are impo rt an t diffe re n ce s ).
Fo r o ur purpo s e s , o n e of the mo s t impo rt an t s imilarit ie s is
that the 1920s was the first pe rio d in the his t o ry of s us -
t ain e d, mas s -bas e d at t acks again s t le s bian is m.
This e s s ay will (1) e xamin e the his t o rical backgro un d to
the e ve n t s of the 1920s s o me of the s t ruct ural and ide o lo gi-
cal chan ge s of the n in e t e e n t h ce n t ury, their me an in g in the
lives of wo me n , and t he ir e ffe ct on the he t e ro s e xual o rgan i-
zat io n of ge n de r re lat io n s ; (2) e xamin e e ffo rt s durin g the
1920s to co n t ain and limit chan ge , s pe cifically the at t e mpt s
of libe ral s e x t he o ris t s to "s ave " he t e ro s e xualit y by re de -
fin in g it , and the at t acks of t he s e same t he o ris t s on fe min -
is m and le s bian is m; (3) look at the gro wt h of le s bian co mmun -
it ie s and t he ir re s is t an ce to the pe rvas ive e n fo rce me n t of
he t e ro s e xualit y in the 1920s ; (4) co n s ide r the implicat io n s
of that e arlie r le s bian re s is t an ce for us in the 1980s .
The Historical B ack ground
The n in e t e e n t h ce n t ury was a pe rio d of e n o rmo us e xpan s io n o f
in dus t rial capit alis m in the Un it e d St at e s , in vo lvin g the
gro wt h of the wage labor fo rce , the rise of the fact o ry s ys -
tem of pro duct io n , the e xpan s io n of marke t s for the n e w
go o ds pro duce d, and the co n ce n t rat io n of o wn e rs hip of the
me an s of pro duct io n in fe we r and fewer han ds . The re s ult in g
gradual de clin e in the family e co n o my and the ho us e ho ld me t h-
od of pro duct io n had s e rio us co n s e que n ce s for the pre do min -
ant o rgan izat io n of ge n de r re lat io n s , though these co n s e que n -
ces diffe re d acco rdin g to clas s . Some po o r wo me n we re drawn
into the wage labor fo rce e arly, as fact o ry wo rke rs , ho me
wo rke rs , and do me s t ic and farm labo re rs . The s e wo me n als o
re t ain e d primary re s po n s ibilit y for child care and ho us e ho ld
main t e n an ce . Bo urge o is wo me n ge n e rally did not e n t e r the
wage labor fo rce , t ho ugh the e xpan s io n of fact o ry pro duct io n
and of marke t s for in dus t rially pro duce d go o ds re mo ve d from
the ho me much of t he ir "t radit io n al" labo r. As wo rkin g-
clas s wo me n s t re t che d t he ms e lve s be t we e n paid labor and "wo m-
e n 's wo rk" in the ho me in the in t e re s t s of s urvival, bo ur-
ge o is wo me n we re in cre as in gly co n fin e d wit hin the ho us e ho ld
in a wo rld s e parat e d from "public," "male " wage labo r. An
ide o lo gy of "s e parat e s phe re s " aro s e to e xplain and jus t ify
this s e parat io n and to bas e it in fe male n at ure and charac-
t e r.
Durin g the n in e t e e n t h ce n t ury, ge n de r re lat io n s re main e d
firmly de fin e d by he t e ro s e xual marriage , co mpuls o ry re pro duc-
t io n , a s e xual divis io n of labor bo t h wit hin the ho us e ho ld
and o ut s ide it , and male do min at io n . Fo r the vas t majo rit y,
he t e ro s e xual marriage was an e co n o mic n e ce s s it y, be caus e wo m-
en co uld rare ly s uppo rt t he ms e lve s o ut s ide of it and me n de -
pe n de d on the pro duct io n and re pro duct io n of wo me n . But
wit hin t he s e co n fin e s , some his t o rian s have argue d that
there was co n s ide rable lat it ude fo r lo vin g re lat io n s hips be -
t we e n wo me n (up to abo ut 1870). C arro ll Smit h-Ro s e n be rg,
Nan cy C o t t , and Lillian Fade rman have s ho wn the wide s pre ad
de vo t io n and s e n s ualit y that co uld e xis t be t we e n wo me n wit h-
in a un ive rs al s ys t e m of he t e ro s e xual mo n o gamy (1).
At the be gin n in g of the t we n t ie t h ce n t ury, as the s ize of
the wage labor fo rce co n t in ue d to gro w, the o ve rall pro po r-
tion of e mplo ye d wo me n jumpe d. The re was , durin g these same
ye ars , an e xpan s io n of e ducat io n al facilit ie s o pe n to wo me n ,
and they at t e n de d high s cho o ls , bus in e s s co urs e s , and
wo me n 's co lle ge s in e ve r large r n umbe rs . Fro m 1920 to 1930,
Le s bian Resistance 77
this e xpan s io n of the fe male wo rk force slowed to a n e ar
halt . The pro po rt io n of wo me n who he ld jo bs in cre as e d o n ly
1 pe rce n t durin g the de cade , while the pro po rt io n of wo me n
in co lle ge s and the pro fe s s io n s de clin e d.
The e xpan s io n of the fe male wage labor force up to 1920
was both a ble s s in g and a curs e . It pro vide d the po s s ibili-
ty of e co n o mic s e lf-s ufficie n cy for s ign ifican t n umbe rs of
wo me n . This po s s ibilit y was large ly un re alize d, ho we ve r.
The grim re alit y of wage labor for mo s t wo me n put t he m at
the me rcy of e mplo ye rs in the mo s t e xplo it e d s e ct o rs of the
job marke t . Wo me n wo rke d for lower wage s , in wo rs e co n di-
t io n s , and wit h less pro t e ct io n t han me n . Wo me n co mbin e d
their wo rk, if marrie d, wit h re s po n s ibilit y for childre n and
ho me as we ll. Wo rk did not pro vide in de pe n de n ce , s at is fac-
t io n , or libe rat io n for mo s t wo me n . The s mall gro up for
who m it did was highly vis ible , vo cal, and t hre at e n in g to de -
fe n de rs of pat riarchal ge n de r re lat io n s .
C han ge s in the o rgan izat io n of wo rk for wo me n we re acco mpa-
nied at the turn of the ce n t ury by chan ge s in the o rgan iza-
t io n of marriage , family, and s e xualit y. The e co n o mic
n e ce s s it y of mo n o gamo us he t e ro s e xual marriage and the
re pro duct ive family was re lie ve d by the ris e of wage labor
for some wo me n , and t his is re fle ct e d by the s t at is t ics for
the pe rio d. The divo rce rat e ro s e dramat ically; available
s t at is t ics for pre marit al pre gn an cy, ille git imacy, and
pre marit al s e xual act ivit y durin g the pe rio d 1880 to 1920
als o in dicat e in cre as e s amo n g the fe male po pulat io n . The re
are als o in dicat io n s of a gro wt h in the pro po rt io n of wo me n
us in g some me t ho d of birt h co n t ro l.
The po s s ibilit y that some wo me n co uld achie ve e co n o mic in -
de pe n de n ce from the family rais e d the furt he r po s s ibilit y
that lo vin g re lat io n s hips be t we e n wo me n , fo rme rly e xis t in g
side by side wit h he t e ro s e xual marriage , co uld be co me a s e ri-
o us alt e rn at ive to such marriage s . And t he re are , in fact ,
in dicat io n s that a gro win g n umbe r of wo me n did cho o s e to
live wit h o t he r wo me n rat he r t han marry. At le as t some of
t he s e be gan to de fin e t he ms e lve s as le s bian s and cho s e to as -
s o ciat e in in fo rmal gro upin gs wit h o t he r le s bian s . This
marke d the be gin n in g of s e lf-co n s cio us le s bian co mmun it ie s
in the t we n t ie t h ce n t ury.
To ge t he r t he s e de ve lo pme n t s po s e d the po s s ibilit y of in -
cre as e d fe male co n t ro l o ve r the fate of marriage and the co n -
dit io n s of re pro duct io n ; but wo me n we re n o t always able to
e xplo it t he s e po s s ibilit ie s . Es pe cially durin g the 1920s ,
the marriage rat e ro s e and the age at marriage dro ppe d. Un -
marrie d wo me n , childle s s wo me n , and le s bian s be came the t ar-
ge t s of ps ycho lo gical t he o rie s of in ade quacy and the s ubje ct
of po pular an xie t y and pit y. C e libacy, de fin e d as the re -
je ct io n of he t e ro s e xual in t e rco urs e wit hin marriage or o ut -
side it , was no lo n ge r co n s ide re d a cho ice abo ve s us picio n .
All of this chan ge , ho we ve r co n s t rain e d, did not go by un -
n o t ice d. Vario us as pe ct s of "t he wo man que s t io n " we re t o p-
ics of vigo ro us public de bat e . The fe min is t mo ve me n t was
n o uris he d and built part ly wit hin the s e parat e wo man 's
s phe re of the n in e t e e n t h-ce n t ury bo urge o is clas s and part ly
by the co n t radict io n s and e xplo it at io n in the lives of wo me n
wo rke rs . Fe min is m as an ide o lo gy and a po lit ical mo ve me n t
gre w s t e adily un t il it be came a majo r s o cial mo ve me n t durin g
the e arly t we n t ie t h ce n t ury, co mbin in g a bro ad ran ge of vi-
s io n s from radical to re fo rm.
The re act io n again s t the chan gin g lives of wo me n , and
again s t the fe min is t mo ve me n t part icularly, be gan in the
n in e t e e n t h ce n t ury. The me dical lit e rat ure on female s e xual-
ity that mus hro o me d late in the ce n t ury illus t rat e s this re -
act io n cle arly. Do ct o rs , ps ychiat ris t s , and "s e xo lo gis t s "
an alyze d the ps ycho lo gical and phys ical "pat ho lo gy" of the
in de pe n de n t wo man , fe min is t , an d/o r le s bian . The s e figure s
we re in fact o ve rlappin g in t he ir wo rk. We ll-kn o wn s e xo lo -
gis t s Richard Vo n Krafft -Ebin g and Have lo ck Ellis de s cribe d
the le s bian and the fe min is t as co n ge n it ally diffe re n t ,
mo re "mas culin e " t han o t he r "n o rmal" wo me n . Or, as Jame s
We ir, M.D., argue d in 1895,
Eve ry wo man who has be e n at all pro min e n t in advan cin g
the caus e of e qual right s in its e n t ire t y, has e it he r
give n e vide n ce s of mas culo -fe min in it y (viragin it y) o r
has s ho wn that she was a vict im of ps ycho s e xual abe rran -
cy. (2)
Iro n ically, the fe min is t mo ve me n t lost s t re n gt h aft e r wo m-
en wo n the vo t e in 1920. By the mid-1920s , the Le ague of
Wo me n Vo t e rs had dro ppe d o n e -t e n t h of its o rigin al me mbe r-
ship , the Wo me n 's Trade Un io n Le ague and the C o n s ume rs '
Le ague dis in t e grat e d, and the Ge n e ral Fe de rat io n of Wo me n 's
C lubs re t re n che d to privat ize d co n s e rvat ive po s it io n s . This
de clin e can be t race d to the dis in t e grat io n of the s uffrage
co alit io n ; the be lie f of some that wo me n 's fre e do m had be e n
wo n ; and the e ro s io n of wo me n 's s o lidarit y and frie n ds hips
wit h the pas s in g of s e parat e s phe re s of male and fe male act i-
vit y, wit h vicio us at t acks on fe min is m, fe male s o lidarit y,
and in de pe n de n ce by ps ycho lo gis t s and o t he r ide o lo gue s , and
wit h the re in t e rpre t at io n o f the me an in g o f fe male fre e do m
by adve rt is e rs and co mme rcial in t e re s t s .
Enforcing Heterosex uality in the 1920s
The t re me n do us e xpan s io n of the pro duct ive capacit ie s of
Ame rican in dus t rial capit alis m led to a cris is of dis t ribu-
tion in the 1920s . Durin g this pe rio d, n e w mas s pro duct io n
in dus t rie s we re e n lis t e d to cre at e co n s ume r de man d for n e w
pro duct s , and the adve rt is in g in dus t ry e n lis t e d ps ycho lo gic-
al t he o rie s as marke t in g aids . Wo me n we re t arge t e d as the
primary co n s ume rs of ho us e ho ld go o ds , who s e ps ycho lo gy could
be man ipulat e d to s e ll e ve ryt hin g from re frige rat o rs to co s -
me t ics . Fo r in s t an ce , the co n s ume r-o rie n t e d in dus t rie s ,
abe t t e d by the me dia, cre at e d a n e w icon of wo man ho o d to e m-
bo dy their ide als t he Flappe r. The Flappe r was yo un g, ple as -
ure -o rie n t e d, and "fre e "fre e to e xpre s s he rs e lf, to s mo ke
cigare t t e s , and to purchas e all the co n ve n ie n ce s and be aut y
aids that the co n s ume r marke t o ffe re d.
The Flappe r image was not de s ign e d to e n lis t the imagin a-
t io n s o f all wo me n o n ly the wo me n who co uld affo rd what the
marke t had to o ffe r. To mo s t wo me n she was a crue l jo ke , a
mo cke ry of the hards hip and de privat io n s in t he ir live s . To
the s mall n umbe r of wo me n who might have lived o ut the im-
age , the Flappe r re pre s e n t e d a dis t o rt io n of the fe min is t
ide al of fre e do m. She als o re pre s e n t e d an e me rgin g re de fin i-
tion of he t e ro s e xual ge n de r re lat io n s . She e n gage d in he t e ro -
s e xual co urt s hip and purs ue d he t e ro s e xual marriage , n o t be -
caus e it was he r "dut y" o r e ve n be caus e she "had" t o , but
rat he r be caus e he t e ro s e xualit y was fun , fulfillin g, the mo s t
me an in gful and abs o rbin g as pe ct of he r life . The 1920s Flap-
pe r e s che we d s e rio us po lit ical in vo lve me n t , fe male co mpan y,
and "o ld maids ," while she dat e d, "pe t t e d," marrie d, and
bo ught he r way to happin e s s .
This re de fin it io n of he t e ro s e xualit y was art iculat e d mo s t
cle arly in the mas s o f lit e rat ure o n s e x and marriage writ -
ten durin g the 1920s by ps ycho lo gis t s , do ct o rs , co un s e lo rs ,
s o cio lo gis t s , and libe ral re fo rme rs for a po pular middle -
clas s audie n ce . This mas s ive lit e rat ure s t ro ve to acco mmo -
dat e the chan ge s in wo me n 's lives o ccurrin g o ve r the pre ce d-
ing de cade s . Its writ e rs ackn o wle dge d that wo me n o ft e n
wo rke d, e s pe cially whe n s in gle , and for the mo s t part , these
writ e rs advo cat e d divo rce and birt h co n t ro l. The y be lie ve d
that s e x for ple as ure (wit hin marriage ) was good and pro vid-
e d, rat he r than drain e d, e n e rgy. They t ho ught that wive s
o ught to have right s in marriage ; they be lie ve d in ro man t ic
love and the wife 's right to s e xual fulfillme n t . Some e ve n
advo cat e d pre - and e xt ramarit al s e xualit y for wo me n as we ll
as me n . They be lie ve d that me n and wo me n s ho uld be co mrade s
and frie n ds in marriage and that childre n , t ho ugh de s ire d,
might be po s t po n e d (3). The s e writ e rs advo cat e d re fo rm o f
marriage to re fle ct the chan ge s in wo me n 's live s , and they
re garde d this advo cacy as darin g and ris ky.
The re was an e dge to this re fo rmis t e lan , ho we ve r. The
libe ral sex re fo rme rs , ge n e rally writ in g for a middle -clas s ,
or "re s pe ct able ," audie n ce , fre que n t ly co mbin e d t he ir re fo rm-
ing vie ws wit h some fo rmulat io n of e uge n ic do ct rin e s : the
be lie f that the "lo we r" o rde rs we re un fit bio lo gical mat e ri-
al and s ho uld be pre ve n t e d fro m re pro ducin g. This gave
their writ in g a part icular clas s bias . The s e re fo rme rs als o
at t acke d "e xt re me " pre -Wo rld War I fe min is t vie ws of fe male
in de pe n de n ce , while judgin g in dividual fe min is t s , fe male
frie n ds hips , ce libacy or "s pin s t e rho o d," "le s bian is m," and
"frigidit y" as de vian t , pat ho lo gical, mis guide d, an d/o r pat h-
e t ic. The y re de fin e d fe male fre e do m wit hin the co n t e xt of
he t e ro s e xual "fulfillme n t " and male co n t ro l, givin g t he ir
writ in g a ge n de r bias as we ll. C han ge was to be curt aile d
just s ho rt of any re al t hre at to the s t at us quo .
The s e writ e rs re de fin e d and libe ralize d he t e ro s e xualit y in
o rde r to save it . To make love and co mpan io n s hip rat he r
t han e co n o mic n e ce s s it y the bas is of marriage , the writ e rs
un de rt o o k two re lat e d pro je ct s : firs t , they ce le brat e d the
jo ys of he t e ro s e xualit y and advo cat e d its libe ralizat io n , o f-
ten bo rro win g the ide as of e arlie r "s e x radicals " such as Em-
ma Go ldman , F.W. St e lla Bro wn e , and Edward C arpe n t e r; and
s e co n d, they at t acke d e ve ry co n ce ivable alt e rn at ive to mar-
riage and family life for wo me n . Tho ugh they touted he t e ro -
s e xualit y as n at ural and wo n de rful, they als o e xpre s s e d a
gre at de al of an xie t y abo ut the co mpat ibilit y of wo me n and
me n , and they ide n t ifie d fe min is m as a part icular t hre at .
The s e t he me s are cle arly illus t rat e d in C o mpan io n at e Mar-
riage , publis he d in 1927 by Judge Be n Lin ds e y and Wain -
wright Evan s . This bo o k, which advo cat e d marriage re fo rm
and re co un t e d the e xpe rie n ce s of the judge in the De n ve r juv-
e n ile and family co urt s , had a wide re ade rs hip, e s pe cially
aft e r it was s e rialize d in Re dbo o k. As Lin ds e y and Evan s
de fin e d it ,
C o mpan io n at e Marriage is legal marriage , wit h le galize d
Birt h C o n t ro l, and wit h the right to divo rce by mut ual
co n s e n t for childle s s co uple s , us ually wit ho ut payme n t
of alimo n y. (4)
The aut ho rs be lie ve d that the "e ducat e d clas s e s " alre ady
pract ice d a fo rm of co mpan io n at e marriage , alt ho ugh the le -
gal s t ruct ure s had not be e n alt e re d to acco mmo dat e it . The
aut ho rs at t ribut e d the n e w pract ice s to the adve n t of birt h
co n t ro l, a be n e ficial s cie n t ific advan ce wit h po we rful po t e n -
t ial for s o cial impro ve me n t :
Scie n t ific co n t race pt io n pro mis e s what may de ve lo p into
the mo s t re vo lut io n ary chan ge in human affairs that
his t o ry has e ve r re co rde d. (5)
Typically, Lin ds e y and Evan s we re afraid that s o me of the
s o cial chan ge s they o bs e rve d we re ge t t in g o ut of han d. They
advo cat e d co mpan io n at e marriage to co n t ain chan ge wit hin the
bo un ds of the s o cial o rde r:
The n o n -pro cre at ive marriage , t he n , wo uld be at least a
part ial s o lut io n of o ur pre s e n t s e x pro ble m, and wo uld
re s t o re s e x in this co un t ry to who le s o me sense and
s an it y. It wo uld re duce to a min imum illicit s e x re la-
t io n s hips , pro mis cuit y, de mo ralizat io n , and lack of
e ffe ct ive legal and s o cial guidan ce and co n t ro l in a
de part me n t of life whe re such guidan ce and co n t ro l, at
the pre s e n t s t age o f s o cial e vo lut io n , are impe rat ive ly
n e e de dan d, I t hin k I have s ho wn , co n s picuo us ly lack-
in g. (6)
If s an it y could be re s t o re d to the curre n t s it uat io n of s e xu-
al "lawle s s n e s s " and a t e n de n cy to e xce s s by the in t ro duc-
tion of le galize d co mpan io n at e marriage , Lin ds e y and Evan s
be lie ve d that mo s t pe o ple wo uld s e t t le into a mo n o gamo us and
loving marriage (with divo rce as a co rre ct ive for mis t ake s ):
Mo n o gamy is the pre fe re n ce of all who do not co n s ide r
t he ms e lve s at libe rt y un in t e llige n t ly to fo llo w t he ir
pas s in g and badly gro un de d impuls e s . (7)
The co mpan io n at e marriage wo uld be s upplan t e d, in Lin ds e y
and Evan s 's s che me , by a mo re pe rman e n t family marriage ,
once childre n arrive d o n the s ce n e .
Un de rlyin g the aut ho rs ' s uppo rt for a re fo rme d, happy, and
fle xible he t e ro s e xual marriage s ys t e m we re t he ir be lie fs in
e uge n ic po licie s and an t ife min is m. They ho pe d that birt h
co n t ro l and divo rce wo uld be made available to the "po o r and
the s o cially un fit , who need it mo s t ," and they e xpre s s e d
ho pe for a s o cie t y "t hat so re co gn ize d the n e e d for le ade r-
ship and light , the need of the wo rld for ge n ius e s to lead
it , that it wo uld bre e d its ge n ius e s in t e n s ive ly" (8). The
aut ho rs als o argue d, in a co n t radict o ry fas hio n , that me n
and wo me n we re so diffe re n t they could n o t un de rs t an d each
o t he r, but that t his diffe re n ce was the bas is of a s ucce s s -
ful marriage :
What give s marriage its pe culiar po we r as a de ve lo pe r of
human life is the e n o rmo us diffe re n ce of po t e n t ial, bo t h
ps ycho lo gical and phys io lo gical, that n at urally e xis t s
be t we e n man and wo man . In de e d, one might say that the
fun dame n t al and impo rt an t fact in marriage is that me n
and wo me n can n o t fully un de rs t an d e ach o t he r, and yet
are impe lle d always to make an e ffo rt toward such un de r-
s t an din g. Marriage fo cus e s on that e ffo rt . (9)
Some pe o ple , it s e e ms , pre fe rre d to fo re go the at t ract io n -
re puls io n of marriage . The ir re s is t an ce , acco rdin g to t he s e
and man y o t he r aut ho rs of this pe rio d, was highly s us pe ct
and t hre at e n in g. Lin ds e y and Evan s quo t e a "re s pe ct e d
churchman " of t he ir acquain t an ce who advo cat e d mo re s e xual
fre e do m for his daught e r than he co uld admit to in public.
Alt ho ugh t his churchman e xpre s s e d fear o f s e xual e xce s s , he
e xpre s s e d an e ve n gre at e r fear of e xce s s "s ublimat io n ."
Drawin g from po pularize d ve rs io n s of Fre udian ps ycho lo gical
t he o rie s , this churchman was quo t e d as s ayin g,
I kn o w wo me n who have n e ve r marrie d, and who o ught to
who need marriage badly. They have the n o t io n that they
have s ublimat e d all the s e x t he y've got in fe min is t ca-
re e rs . But I've co n clude d wit h re s pe ct to such pe o ple
that they e it he r have n 't got much, o r else there is an
un us e d s urplus of bo t t le d-up s e x in s ide of t he m that
much mo re than acco un t s for their n e rve s and t he ir "pe cu-
liarit ie s ." In addit io n , of co urs e , they mis s the co m-
pan io n s hip, the human e le me n t s , of marriage ; and they
lose he avily by t hat .
Mo re than t hat , I've co n clude d that man y of t he s e pe o -
ple who think that they have s ublimat e d t he ir sex impul-
ses into s o me t hin g they call "highe r" have re ally t ran s -
lated them in t o pe rve rs io n s and dis o rde rs and a ge n e ral
in abilit y to lo ve , t hin k, and feel right . The ps ycho -
an alys t s call t hat "in t ro ve rs io n ," I be lie ve . (10)
This implied as s o ciat io n be t we e n fe min is m, "s pin s t e rho o d,"
and le s bian is m, or s e xual "pat ho lo gy," n o t n e w in the 1920s ,
be came a pe rvas ive and re pe t it ive theme in the po pular s e x
lit e rat ure of that de cade .
Thus , le galizat io n of co mpan io n at e marriage in vo lve d not
o n ly "fre e do m" and libe ralizat io n of re pre s s ive s e xual mo re s
but an e n fo rce me n t of a n e w pat t e rn of ge n de r hie rarchy
based on lo ve , he t e ro s e xual marriage , and re pro duct io n (for
the e uge n ically "fit ").
The majo r t he me s of Lin ds e y and Evan s we re als o re fle ct e d
in the wo rk of Dr. Th. H. Van de Ve lde , a ve ry diffe re n t
sort of writ e r than the De n ve r judge . A Dut ch phys ician and
dire ct o r of a gyn e co lo gical clin ic, he publis he d a t rilo gy
of bo o ks on marriage that we re t ran s lat e d in t o En glis h and
wide ly dis t ribut e d in the Un it e d St at e s . The s e bo o ks
Ide al Marriage : Its Phys io lo gy and Te chn ique , Se xual
Le s bian Re s is t an ce 83
Te n s io n s in Marriage : The ir Origin , Pre ve n t io n and Tre at -
me n t , and Fe rt ilit y and St e rilit y in Marriage : The ir Vo l-
un t ary Pro mo t io n and Limit at io n e mphas ize d phys io lo gy and
we re de vo t e d to de s cribin g bio lo gical fun ct io n s and s e xual
t e chn ique s . But Dr. Van de Ve lde als o had a re fo rm age n da.
He be lie ve d that "s e x is the fo un dat io n of marriage " and
that kn o wle dge of s e xualit y co uld re s t o re marriage to a mo re
s t able bas is . He saw hims e lf as arguin g again s t the main -
s t re am, as fulfillin g an almo s t me s s ian ic mis s io n .
In the first bo o k of the t rilo gy, Ide al Marriage (t ran s -
lated into En glis h by the we ll-kn o wn fe min is t and s e x radi-
cal St e lla Bro wn e ), Dr. Van de Ve lde addre s s e d an audie n ce
of "t he me dical pro fe s s io n , and . . . marrie d me n ." He e x-
pre s s e d a co n ce rn that mo de rn marriage was caus in g much pain
and s uffe rin g, but felt t hat , co n t rary to the man y vo ice s
callin g for its abo lit io n , marriage had to be s ave d. In his
in t ro duct io n , the aut ho r e xplain e d,
Marriage in C hris t ian civilizat io n at le as t is o ft e n a
failure . On t hat po in t t he re can be no man n e r of do ubt .
It can be the gat e of an e art hly Ede n , but it ^s _, in
act ual fact , o ft e n a he ll of t o rme n t .
It s ho uld be , in the true s e n s e of the wo rd, a Purgat o -
ry, that is , a s t at e of purificat io n ; but ho w rare ly is
that o bt ain e d!
The n , s ho uld we abo lis h marriage ?
Man y vo ice s have clamo ure d for its de s t ruct io n , but
they have not s ho wn a mo re e xce lle n t way.
And a far gre at e r n umbe r have de fe n de d this imme mo rial
in s t it ut io n t he mo s t dis t in guis he d t hin ke rs amo n g t he m.
Marriage is s acre d to the be lie vin g C hris t ian .
In dis pe n s able to the So cial Orde r.
Abs o lut e ly n e ce s s ary to the in t e re s t s of the childre n .
It o ffe rs the o n lye ve n t ho ugh re lat ive s e curit y to
the wo man 's love of lo ve , and of givin g in lo ve .
And me n , t o o , on the who le , find in the pe rman e n t re c-
o gn it io n and re s po n s ibilit y o f marriage , the be s t back-
gro un d for us e ful and e fficie n t wo rk. (11)
In Ide al Marriage , Van de Ve lde o ffe re d fo ur co rn e rs t o n e s
of the "t e mple of love and happin e s s in marriage ": the
right cho ice of part n e r, go o d phys io lo gical at t it ude s of the
part n e rs , a s o lut io n to the pro ble m of pare n t age , and a vig-
o ro us and harmo n io us s e x life . Ide al Marriage de vo t e d it -
self to de s cribin g ho w the lat t e r go al might be achie ve d.
Se xual Te n s io n s in Marriage was less t e chn ically o rie n t -
e d. He re Dr. Van de Ve lde s ummarize d vario us ps ycho lo gical
t he o rie s to s ho w that ho s t ilit y is e n de mic to marriage (the
bo o k was o rigin ally titled Se x Ho s t ilit y in Marriage ), but
that this ho s t ilit y co uld be co n t ro lle d and happin e s s
achie ve d. Van de Ve lde de s cribe d two fo rms of s e xual an t ag-
o n is m the first he de s ign at e d "primary" and used e xample s
from the an imal wo rld to s ho w that ho s t ilit y be t we e n the s e x-
es is to some e xt e n t bio lo gically in n at e ; the second he de s -
ign at e d as "s e co n dary" and e xplain e d it as a re ve rs al or in -
ve rs io n of the impuls e of s e xual at t ract io n . (His de bt to
Fre udian t he o ry is cle ar he re .) C hapt e rs 3 t hro ugh 7 of the
bo o k we re de vo t e d to e s t ablis hin g "The C o n t ras t be t we e n Mas -
culin e and Fe min in e ." Van de Ve lde o bs e rve d the iro n y that
s e xual diffe re n t iat io n is the bas is o f marriage , but that it
at the same time un de rcut s its happin e s s and s t abilit y. In
this s e ct io n , the aut ho r e n gage d in the two majo r an t ife min -
ist t act ics e mplo ye d by libe ral s e x re fo rme rs he re fut e d
fe min is t t he o rie s and impugn e d the ps ycho lo gical he alt h of
wo me n who re s is t marriage and "fe min in e fulfillme n t ":
Man y at t e mpt s have be e n made in re ce n t ye ars to pro ve
t hat , ps ycho lo gically, man re main s man only in a s o cie t y
ruled o ve r by me n and that o n ly in such a s o cie t y do e s
wo man s ho w those "fe min in e " charact e ris t ics that we co n -
sider t ypical of he r s e x. Aft e r all is said and do n e ,
the bio lo gical diffe re n ce be t we e n mas culin e and fe min in e
can n o t be e xplain e d away; n e it he r can the phys ical and
me n t al co n t ras t s be t we e n man and wo man pro ce e din g from
t his . . . .
And the wo man ? Is there re ally o n e , e ve n amo n g the
fan at ical me n -wo me n who (un le s s there is a ho mo s e xual
dis po s it io n , or dis t urban ce of the in n e r s e cre t io n ) if
ho n e s t , will n o t admit that she wo uld like to be fe min -
ine and e xclus ive ly fe min in e (or at one time wis he d to
be ) and wo uld have be e n o n ly t o o glad to have s e e n a
"re al" man e n t e r he r life ? (12)
Van de Ve lde was cle ar abo ut the n at ure of the dife re n ce s
be t we e n me n and wo me n and the "n at ural" bas is of male do min -
an ce . He titled s e ve ral s ubchapt e rs "A Marrie d Re lat io n -
s hip, in which the Wo man Allo ws He rs e lf to be Guide d by he r
Hus ban d, Is in Harmo n y Bo t h wit h the Nat ure of the Man and
of the Wo man ," "The Wo man Is Fo rt un at e Who C an Be lie ve in
He r Hus ban d," and "If the Man Lacks the Ne ce s s ary Qualit ie s
for This , the Wo man 's 'Be havio ur-as -if' May Wo rk Wo n de rs
So me t ime s ." Van de Ve lde fo llo we d this dis cus s io n up wit h a
dire ct co mme n t on fe min is m:
Eve n though t his mo ve me n t has aris e n for the mo s t o bvi-
Le s bian Re s is t an ce 85
ous and jus t ifiable re as o n s ; e ve n if it has bro ught , o r
ho pe s to brin g, an impro ve me n t in o r co mple t e re mo val
o f, in t o le rable co n dit io n s and laws affe ct in g n ume ro us
un marrie d wo me n , the divo rce d, the re ally un happily mar-
rie d, wido ws , an d, to a ce rt ain e xt e n t , t ho s e marrie d
wo me n who s e marrie d life is un happy for re as o n s of a s pe -
cial n at ure ; e ve n if Fe min is m has made it po s s ible for
these wo me n to find s at is fact io n in life o ut s ide mar-
riage n e ve rt he le s s , it pro duce s , o win g to man y of its
fun dame n t al ide as and s lo gan s , and its pro pagat o rs , a
state of min d, bo t h in un marrie d wo me n and in marrie d
wo me n s us ce pt ible to its in flue n ce , which is de fin it e ly
o ppo s e d to the o ut lo o k de alt wit h abo ve . I am, t he re -
fore , co n vin ce d that Fe min is m has a mo re or less un favo r-
able in flue n ce o n the fo un dat io n s of marriage , and on
the me n t al dis po s it io n in man y marriage s . (13)
In s avin g marriage , Van de Ve lde wan t e d to bas e marriage
on s e xual love and s e xual love on ge n de r diffe re n ce s (t ho ugh
t ho s e same diffe re n ce s als o caus e d s e xual an t ago n is m). Ge n -
de r diffe re n ce s we re in t e rpre t e d wit hin the co n t e xt of male
do min an ce .
Flo yd De ll was a ve ry diffe re n t sort of writ e r who s e wo rk
re fle ct e d the s ame re curre n t t he me s . A n o ve lis t act ive in
lit e rary circle s in Gre e n wich Village in the 1920s , he is
ide n t ifie d by some as a radical, e ve n a fe min is t . His Lo ve
in the Machin e Age , publis he d in 1930, is the mo s t highly
s e lf-co n s cio us of the bo o ks dis cus s e d he re . De ll s aw him-
self as in the mids t of gre at e co n o mic, in dus t rial, and s ci-
e n t ific chan ge s that wo uld pe rmit a gre at e r de gre e of human
de ve lo pme n t than had he re t o fo re be e n achie ve d. He co mbin e d
his ide as abo ut e co n o mic de ve lo pme n t wit h ps ycho lo gical
ide as abo ut in dividual human de ve lo pme n t and hypo t he s ize d
that each e po ch in his t o ry had allo we d human s to de ve lo p ps y-
cho lo gically o n ly so far. He be lie ve d that the mo de rn age ,
which was rapidly e ro din g "pat riarchal" co n ve n t io n s , wo uld
fin ally allo w for full ps ycho lo gical de ve lo pme n t and bio lo gi-
cal fulfillme n t . Acco rdin g to De ll, human his t o ry had
pas s e d fro m s avage ry, whe n s e x was bas e d on pro pe rt y co n -
t ro ls , to the mo de rn age in which s e x co uld be based on love
and re s po n s ible adult ho o d. For De ll, re s po n s ible adult ho o d
in clude d e man cipat io n from the pare n t al family, the achie ve -
me n t of he t e ro s e xualit y, e arn in g a livin g and achie vin g a
philo s o phy of life .
De ll advo cat e d divo rce , birt h co n t ro l, s e xual e xpre s s io n
and kn o wle dge , and a marriage in which bo t h part n e rs wo rke d
in the e arly ye ars be fo re the birt h of childre n . Ot he rs ,
who had go n e furt he r than this in t he ir advo cacy of chan ge ,
stood in n e e d of co rre ct io n , De ll t ho ught . In his chapt e rs
on "s o me ide o lo gical o ve rco mpe n s at io n s ," De ll at t acke d state
s po n s o rs hip of child care , t he o rie s of fe male in de pe n de n ce
of me n , "fre e mo t he rho o d" o r the de s ire of wo me n to have
childre n wit ho ut hus ban ds , and t he o rie s of sex as amus e me n t .
Again s t t he s e t he o rie s (most wit h s o me sort of fe min is t o ri-
gin ), he hurle d the us ual ps ycho lo gical at t acks :
The ple a of pre fe rrin g n o t to e n jo y a mat e d lo ve -life
wit h the man de libe rat e ly cho s e n as the fat he r of o n e 's
child, if t rue , wo uld amo un t to a co n fe s s io n of some
sort of s e xual in fan t ilis m. (14)
Tho ugh De ll be lie ve d in he t e ro s e xual love and marriage as
the apo t he o s is of human de ve lo pme n t , he als o be lie ve d that
n ume ro us o bs t acle s stood in the way of this go al. His chap-
ter and s ubchapt e r t it le s re ve al a good de al of an xie t y: "De -
lay and Failure in Re achin g the He t e ro s e xual Go al" and "Ob-
s t acle s to He t e ro s e xual De ve lo pme n t ." Alt ho ugh n at ural,
he t e ro s e xualit y als o had to be "achie ve d." In fact , the
yo un g n e e de d to be t rain e d for it :
The que s t io n is : do we wan t to t rain yo un g pe o ple fo r
we n e e d not he s it at e to us e the phras e living happily
e ve r aft e r in he t e ro s e xual mat e ho o d, or for livin g t o r-
me n t e d and frus t rat e d lives of ho mo s e xualit y, impo t e n ce ,
frigidit y and purpo s e le s s pro mis cuit y? We have o ur
cho ice . (15)
lut io n " he advo cat e d was an admit t e dly middle -clas s re vo lt .
And in ke e pin g wit h the e mphas is of adve rt is e rs and co n s um-
e r-o rie n t e d in dus t rie s , De ll pro mo t e d marrie d love and s e xu-
al ple as ure o ve r the po t e n t ial s at is fact io n s of wo rk:
Our civilizat io n will have to re alize that wo rk is not
the in s t in ct ive ce n t e r of o ur human lives and that love
is ; that wo rk gain s its chie f e mo t io n al and pract ical im-
po rt an ce as a me an s , n o t of s e lf-s uppo rt , but of mut u-
al s uppo rt of t ho s e who are jo in e d t o ge t he r in mat e -
love and family-lo ve . (16)
This e mphas is o n s e xual fulfillme n t in marriage as a primary
life go al, part icularly fo r wo me n , was a do uble -e dge d s wo rd.
It un de rcut fe min is t de man ds for fe male aut o n o my as in fan -
tile or un fulfille d, and it un de rcut radical de man ds for
me an in gful wo rk and co n t ro l of the pro duct io n pro ce s s . In
De ll's vie w, wo rk was n o t me an t to be the ce n t e r of life
n o r to be re wardin g.
Thus , the libe ral sex re fo rme rs can be seen advo cat in g a
re co n s t ruct io n of ge n de r re lat io n s in the 1920s . This re co n -
s t ruct io n in vo lve d the s o cial e n fo rce me n t of he t e ro s e xualit y
t hro ugh a glo rificat io n of he t e ro s e xual fulfillme n t in mar-
riage and an as s ault on all alt e rn at ive s to this mo de l.
But ho w in flue n t ial we re t he s e libe ral s e x re fo rme rs ? Did
they have a s ign ifican t e ffe ct in limit in g the pro s pe ct s for
s o cial chan ge in the 1920s ? Que s t io n s like t he s e are ve ry
difficult to an s we r ade quat e ly. The y we re o n e co mpo n e n t
of a ge n e ral t re n d. Acco rdin g to s urve ys of Ame rican maga-
zin e s , appro val of e xt ramarit al re lat io n s , divo rce , and
birt h co n t ro l gre w quickly aft e r 1918 and re ache d a pe ak be -
t we e n 1925 and 1929, e s pe cially amo n g the "in t e lle ct uals ."
By 1918 some 23 pe rce n t of all in t e lle ct ual magazin e s fa-
vo re d "s e x fre e do m," and the pro po rt io n had gro wn to 56 pe r-
cent by 1928. The co rre s po n din g pro po rt io n s for mas s maga-
zin e s we re 13 pe rce n t in 1918 and 40 pe rce n t in 1928 (17).
The t he me of an t ife min is m and the re pre s e n t at io n of "care e r
wo me n ," "s pin s t e rs ," clo s e fe male frie n ds , and le s bian s as
sick and pat he t ic als o be came wide s pre ad in po pular fict io n
durin g the 1920s (18). The re are in dicat io n s that man y wo m-
en in t e rn alize d t he s e me s s age s , s pre ad by e lit e and po pular
lit e rat ure , adve rt is e rs , the mo vie s , and n e ws pape rs (19).
Lesbian Resistance in the 1920s
The s e at t e mpt s to e n fo rce he t e ro s e xualit y as n o rm and prac-
tice we re not who lly s ucce s s ful. Alt ho ugh acco un t s of act u-
al s e xual be havio r, or e ve n de s cript io n s of the re s po n s e s of
wo me n to the ide o lo gical as s ault s of the libe ral s e x re fo rm-
e rs , are difficult for the re s e arche r to lo cat e , t he re is e v-
ide n ce that alt e rn at ive s to the male -do min at e d he t e ro s e xual
family did e xis t in the 1920s . This e vide n ce is at be s t
fragme n t ary and can be pre s e n t e d o n ly in ro ugh o ut lin e he re .
Furt he r re s e arch will un do ubt e dly fill the gaps in the
fut ure .
The bio graphie s of in dividual "n o t able " wo me n are a rich
s o urce of in fo rmat io n abo ut wo me n -lo vin g-wo me n in this pe ri-
o d. Re s e arch by Blan che C o o k, Judit h Schwarz, Fran ce s
Do ught y, Tee C o rin n e , and o t he rs is co n t in uin g to re ve al
wide s pre ad fe male s uppo rt n e t wo rks and co mmun it ie s of loving
frie n ds e xis t in g as alt e rn at ive s to the e n fo rce d mo de l of
the he t e ro s e xual co uple . Such bio graphie s in dicat e the di-
me n s io n s of the s t ruggle for s urvival at the margin s of co n -
ve n t io n . The y als o pro vide a glimps e of the po we r such as -
s o ciat io n s co uld o ft e n ge n e rat e t he po we r to re s is t the im-
po s it io n of a he t e ro s e xual n o rm and the po we r to s t ruggle
po lit ically in a varie t y of ways (20).
The lit e rat ure of the 1920s is an o t he r o ve rwhe lmin g s o urce
o f in fo rmat io n abo ut the re s is t an ce of wo me n to the he t e ro -
s e xual n o rm. Wo rks by Virgin ia Wo o lf, Vit a Sackvilie -We s t ,
Djun a Barn e s , Radclyffe Hall, Ge rt rude St e in , Re n e e Vivie n ,
C o le t t e , and man y o t he rs pro vide art iculat e vis io n s of alt e r-
n at ive re alit ie s . Tho ugh mo s t of t he s e writ e rs we re Euro pe -
ans or Ame rican e xpat riat e s , man y of t he ir wo rks had wide
circulat io n in the Un it e d St at e s (21).
Acco un t s of the lives of o rdin ary le s bian s are , for o bvi-
o us re as o n s , rare . But a un ique s t udy of a le s bian co mmun i-
ty in Salt Lake C it y, Ut ah, dis co ve re d by Ve rn and Bo n n ie
Bullo ugh, in dicat e s that o t he r s imilar co mmun it ie s pro bably
e xis t e d in man y majo r cit ie s at least by the 1920s . And a
s t udy of the s e x live s of 2,200 wo me n co n duct e d by Kat he rin e
B. Davis , un de rt ake n durin g the t we n t ie s , yie lde d the s t art -
ling co n clus io n that as man y as 50 pe rce n t of the wo me n in -
t e rvie we d re po rt e d ho mo e ro t ic fe e lin gs and 25 pe rce n t had
had some ho mo s e xual e xpe rie n ce . The re is s pars e in fo rmat io n
in these s urve ys abo ut the re s po n s e of these wo me n to e it he r
the libe ral s e x re fo rm lit e rat ure or the le s bian lit e rat ure
available in the 1920s . The wo me n in the Bullo ughs
1
s t udy
did re po rt kn o wle dge of Radclyffe Hall's n o ve l, We ll o f
Lo n e lin e s s , ho we ve r, and the bo o k was appare n t ly a ho t ly de -
bat e d topic in the Salt Lake City co mmun it y (22).
All this e vide n ce is s e ve re ly limit e d; it is , for in -
s t an ce , co n fin e d to in fo rmat io n abo ut whit e middle - and up-
pe r-clas s wo me n . But it do e s make it cle ar that le s bian co m-
mun it ie s e xis t e d in the 1920s , fro m co s mo po lit an Paris to
pro vin cial Salt Lake C it y. C e rt ain ly, le s bian re lat io n s hips
had e xis t e d e arlie r and pro bably have e xis t e d in e ve ry human
s o cie t y. The s e re alt io n s hips have be e n co n t ain e d, ho we ve r,
by the e co n o mic n e ce s s it y of marriage for mo s t wo me n in mo s t
times and place s . Love be t we e n wo me n e xis t e d, ce rt ain ly,
but it e xis t e d alo n gs ide marriage for mo s t wo me n . What is
un ique abo ut the 1920s is that large r n umbe rs of wo me n be gan
to re place he t e ro s e xual marriage wit h le s bian re lat io n s hips .
The s t ruct ural chan ge s in the lives of wo me n that had o c-
curre d in e arlie r de cade s , while brin gin g on re pre s s io n and
re act io n to limit t he m, did make fe male e xis t e n ce o ut s ide
male co n t ro l mo re po s s ible for mo re wo me n .
In the face of mas s ive e ffo rt s to e radicat e it , e ve n the
e xis t e n ce of le s bian is m in the 1920s co n s t it ut e s a fo rm of
re s is t an ce . In some cas e s , we kn o w that mo re art iculat e and
e ve n po lit ical fo rms of re s is t an ce we re ge n e rat e d as we ll
(Radclyffe Hall in t e n de d he r n o ve l to be a form of po lit ical
re s is t an ce ). But from a 1980s
1
pe rs pe ct ive , this re s is t an ce
appe ars limit e d and in e ffe ct ive . Its limit at io n s fe ll into
Lesbian Resistance 89
five major categories: (1) some lesbians internalized the
deprecating theories of lesbian congenital inferiority, such
as that embodied in Radclyffe Hall' s Well of Loneliness;
(2) most lesbians, like those in the Bulloughs
1
study, hid
themselves from necessity, limiting their ability to alter
popular ideology; (3) some privileged lesbians, such as
those frequenting Natalie Barney's Paris salon, developed a
life-style that was a purely personal solution for the excep-
tional; (4) some lesbians became obsessively self-destruc-
t i ve, as in the case of Renee Vivien; and (5) some women-lov-
ing-women, such as Virginia Woolf, found their power and
their vision contained and crippled by the men in their
lives. The good news, then, is that even in the face of a
massive campaign to enforce heterosexual conformity, mar-
riage, limited childbearing, and "woman's place," many women
refused i t , often at great cost to themselves. (There may
be more good news once more research is done on the ways of
survival of working-class, Black, and ethnic lesbians.) The
bad news is that the forms of resistance to the dominant ide-
ology women could muster in the 1920s were not strong enough
to stem the tide of negativity against nonconforming women.
The "liberal" discourse, with i t s profoundly conservative im-
plications, won the day; our side, although not van-
quished, was crippled and contained.
Lesbian Resistance in the 1980s
Today, we need to fashion theory and build strategy in order
to resist the current attacks on us by the right and to stem
the probable defection of many of our al l i es. We need to de-
velop our strengths, while avoiding the limitations of our
predecessors. Unlike the 1920s, this is a period of econom-
ic contraction rather than an investment boom for capi t al -
i s t s . We are witnessing a resurgence of religious conservat-
ism rather than an emergence of secular liberalism. But like
the 1920s, this is a period of great change, in which a l es-
bian renaissance is being followed by a reaction meant to
check the change and consolidate capitalism and patriarchy
in the face of the challenges of recent decades. Lesbians
and gay men are s t i l l being judged as deviants from a hetero-
sexual norman ideological trap that lesbians themselves
must s t i l l struggle to avoid.
Thus far, the lesbian-feminist community has produced two
major theory/strategy combinations. The fi rst and earl i est ,
emerging in the late sixties and early seventies, was ar t i c-
ulated in the Radicalesbians' "Woman Identified Woman" pa-
pe r, de ve lo pe d by the Furie s , ce le brat e d in the mus ic of
Alix Do bkin , and mo s t re ce n t ly art iculat e d in the wo rk of
Adrie n n e Rich. This is the "an y wo man can be a le s bian " t he -
ory which argue s that he t e ro s e xual ide n t it y is a s o cial co n -
ve n t io n (23). He t e ro s e xual be havio r or a he t e ro s e xual ide n -
tity is not s e e n as us ual, n at ural, n o rmal, or in e vit able
for any wo man . Like fe min in it y, he t e ro s e xualit y is pe r-
ceived as a s o cial in ve n t io n me an t to co n t ain the po s s ibili-
ty of fe male aut o n o my. This truly radical po s it io n re pre -
s e n t s the mo s t po we rful in s ight that le s bian -fe min is m has to
o ffe r us t o day; it is als o the po s it io n be s t s uppo rt e d by
his t o rical e vide n ce .
The s e co n d po s it io n is a mo re de fe n s ive o n e , used primari-
ly by le s bian s wo rkin g wit hin libe ral fe min is t or gay o rgan i-
zat io n s or wo rkin g in campaign s for gay and le s bian civil
right s . The s e le s bian -fe min is t s acce pt some ve rs io n or
o t he r of re wo rke d co n ge n it al or ps ycho lo gical t he o rie s .
They argue that le s bian s are e it he r bo rn that way (as
Krafft -Ebin g be lie ve d) o r made that way (as Freud t ho ught ),
though they als o argue that t he re is n o t hin g wro n g wit h
be in g "t hat way." The virt ue of this t he o ry for de fe n s ive
purpo s e s is that it pre s e n t s le s bian is m as in n at e ly fixed at
a re lat ive ly e arly age . Le s bian s t he re fo re po s e no threat
to t ho s e he t e ro s e xuals who are wary of o ur "in flue n ce " o n
t he ms e lve s or their childre n .
In a pe rio d of re pre s s io n , whe n the le s bian -fe min is t co mmu-
nity and the pro gre s s ive Left in ge n e ral are un de r at t ack,
the t e mpt at io n will be to ado pt the lat t e r appro ach be caus e
it s e e ms mo re e xpe die n t in the s ho rt run . But we be co me o ur
o wn e n e mie s if we do s o . Our o n ly re al ho pe is to e xpan d
the radical vis io n of o ur e arly ye ars . This is the o n ly way
we can avo id the failure s of the cripple d and de fe n s ive le s -
bian re s is t an ce of the 1920s . We n e e d to ho ld on to re ali-
t y, to see he t e ro s e xualit y as s o cially e n fo rce d and as a
main s t ay in the o ppre s s io n of wo me n . We mus t de man d that
the fe min is t mo ve me n t n o t o n ly fight e co n o mic dis crimin a-
t io n , po lit ical re pre s s io n , and phys ical abus e , but als o
challe n ge he t e ro s e xualit y as an in s t it ut io n , as an impo s e d
form of be havio r. The e n t ire fe min is t mo ve me n t , in o rde r
not to be trapped and co n t ain e d by the Right in its at t e mpt
to che ck s o cial chan ge , can n o t aban do n the e arly radical in -
s ight s . We mus t fight for the civil right s of the le s bian
and gay min o rit y (that task re main s o f paramo un t impo rt an ce )
and again s t the idea that he t e ro s e xualit y is n at ural, in e vi-
t able , or fixed for an ybo dy. To be fre e , all wo me n mus t
be free to love and make co mmit me n t s to o t he r wo me n wit ho ut
ce n s ure .
Lesbian Resistance 91
Notes
This e s s ay is a wo rk-in -pro gre s s . Much re main s to be re -
vis e d and impro ve d. I wo uld like to thank Nan cy C in n at e r,
Paraella Farle y, and Jo n at han Kat z for their re s po n s e s at the
wo rks ho p the e s s ay e me rge d fro m, and Kay Whit lo ck, C arro ll
Smit h-Ro s e n be rg, and e s pe cially, Han n a Le s s in ge r for their
co mme n t s on vario us draft s . I was not able to make all the
re vis io n s they s ugge s t e d, but future e ffo rt s of min e will be
gre at ly e n han ce d by t he ir co n t ribut io n s .
1. See C arro ll Smit h-Ro s e n be rg, "The Fe male Wo rld of Love
and Rit ual: Re lat io n s be t we e n Wo me n in Nin e t e e n t h C e n -
tury Ame rica," Sign s 1, n o . 1 (Aut umn 1975); Nan cy
C o t t , The Bo n ds o f Wo man ho o d: 'Wo man 's Sphe re ' in
Ne w En glan d 1790-1835 (Ne w Have n : Yale Un ive rs it y
Pre s s , 1977); Lillian Fade rman , Surpas s in g the Lo ve
of Me n : Ro man t ic Frie n ds hip an d Lo ve be t we e n Wo me n
fro m the Re n ais s an ce to the Pre s e n t (Ne w Yo rk:
William Mo rro w & C o ., 1981).
2. Dr. Jame s We ir, "The Effe ct s of Fe male Suffrage on Po s -
t e rit y," Ame rican Nat uralis t 29 (1895):819, quoted
in an o ut s t an din g and pe rs uas ive pape r by Po lly Be als
and C in dy Hime s , "Varie t ie s of Dis co urs e on Le s bian is m
in En glan d and Ame rica, 1880-1925," un publis he d, 1980.
Be als and Hime s s urve y the me dical lit e rat ure on the
s ubje ct and the fe min is t and s o cialis t re s po n s e s to
it .
3. This e s s ay is gre at ly in flue n ce d by the wo rk of C hris -
tina Simmo n s . See e s pe cially he r "C o mpan io n at e Mar-
riage and the Le s bian Thre at ," Fro n t ie rs 4, n o . 3
(Fall 1979).
4. Judge Be n Lin ds e y and Wain right Evan s , The C o mpan io n at e
Marriage (Ne w Yo rk: Bo n i & Live right , 1927), p. v.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid., p. 154.
7. Ibid., p. 269.
8. Ibid., pp. v and 394-95.
9. Ibid., p. 273.
10. Ibid., p. 311.
11. Th. H. Van de Ve lde , Ide al Marriage : Its Phys io lo gy
and Te chn ique (Ne w Yo rk: Ran do m Ho us e , 1926), pp.
2-3.
12. Th. H. Van de Ve lde , Se xual Te n s io n s in Marriage :
The ir Origin s , Pre ve n t io n and Tre at me n t (Ne w Yo rk:
Ran do m Ho us e , 1928), pp. 34, 117.
13. Ibid., pp. 288-89.
14. Flo yd De ll, Lo ve in the Machin e Age : A Ps ycho lo gi-
cal St udy o f the Tran s it io n fro m Pat riarchal So cie t y
(1930; re prin t e d., Ne w Yo rk: Oct ago n Bo o ks , 1973),
p. 152.
15. Ibid., p. 364.
16. Ibid., p. 350.
17. Nat han Hale , Jr., Fre ud and the Ame rican s : The Be gin -
n in gs o f Ps ycho an alys is in the Un it e d St at e s , 1876-
1917 (New Yo rk: Oxfo rd Un ive rs it y Pre s s , 1921), p.
276.
18. See Je an e t t e H. Fo s t e r, Sex Varian t Wo me n in Lit e ra-
t ure (New Yo rk: Van t age Pre s s , 1956), ch. 9; and
Lillian Fade rman , "Le s bian Magazin e Fict io n in the
Early Twe n t ie t h C e n t ury," Jo urn al of Po pular C ult ure
11, n o . 4 (Sprin g 1978).
19. Se e , for illus t rat io n , Rut h Picke rin g, "A De flat e d Re b-
e l," writ t e n in 1926-27 for a s e rie s in the Nat io n ,
and re prin t e d in Elain e Sho walt e r, e d., The s e Mo de rn
Wo me n : Aut o bio graphical Es s ays fro m the Twe n t ie s
(Old We s t bury, N.Y.: Fe min is t Pre s s , 1978).
20. See Blan che C o o k, "Fe male Suppo rt Ne t wo rks and Po lit ical
Act ivis m: Lillian Wald, C rys t al Eas t man , Emma Go ld-
man ," C hrys alis , n o . 3 (1977); Judit h Schwarz, "Di-
re ct o ry of Ame rican Le s bian s in His t o ry," Le s bian C o n -
n e ct io n s 4, n o . 3 (Augus t 1978); "Ye llo w C lo ve r:
Kat harin e Lee Bat e s and Kat harin e C o man ," Fro n t ie rs
4, n o . 1 (Sprin g 1979); Fran ce s Do ught y, "Le s bian Bio -
graphy, Bio graphy of Le s bian s ," Fro n t ie rs 4, n o . 3
(Fall 1979).
21. See Je an e t t e Fo s t e r, Sex Varian t Wo me n in Lit e rat ure ,
and Lillian Fade rman , "Le s bian Magazin e Fict io n ." See
also Blan che C o o k, "Wo me n Alo n e Stir My Imagin at io n :
Le s bian is m and the C ult ural Tradit io n ," Sign s 4, n o .
4 (Summe r 1979).
22. See Ve rn Bullo ugh and Bo n n ie Bullo ugh, "Le s bian is m in
the 1920s and 1930s : A Ne wfo un d St udy," Sign s 2,
n o . 4 (Summe r 1977); and Kat he rin e B. Davis , Fact o rs
in the Sex Live s o f 2200 Wo me n (Ne w Yo rk: Harpe r &
Ro w, 1929).
23. See Radicale s bian s , "The Wo man Ide n t ifie d Wo man ," re -
prin t e d in An n e Ko e dt , Elle n Le vin e , and An it a Rapo n e ,
e ds ., Radical Fe min is m (Ne w Yo rk: Quadran gle Bo o ks ,
1973); C harlo t t e Bun ch and Nan cy Myro n , e ds ., Le s bian -
ism and the Wo me n 's Mo ve me n t (Balt imo re : Dian a
Pre s s , 1974); Alix Do bkin 's lyrics on he r album
"Lave n de r Jan e Lo ve s Wo me n "; Adrie n n e Rich, "C o mpuls o -
ry He t e ro s e xualit y and Le s bian Exis t e n ce ," Sign s 5,
n o . 4 (Summe r 1980).
RAYNA RAPP and ELLEN ROSS
The Twenties' Backlash: Compulsory
Heterosexuality, the Consumer Family, and
the Waning of Feminism (1981)
In the 1920s, governments openly hostile to liberal reforms
in general and to feminism in particular came to power in
Washington and in many state legislatures. The country's
serious economic problems were in part resolved over the
next decade by restructuring the family as a consumption
unit. That process may be underway again in the 1980s.
A great deal separates the 1920s and the 1980sour econo-
my is contracting while theirs was expanding, for example
but there are lessons to be learned from the earlier back-
lash against feminism. Like present-day feminists, our move-
ment foremothers stayed mobilized and active in the face of
growing harassment and repression. But their social pro-
grams and act i vi t i es were blocked in the courts and Con-
gress, and their pol i t i cal enemies used Red-baiting language
to scare away popular support: feminism and socialism were
labeled "anti-American" and "anti-family." Internal spl i t s,
crystallizing around the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), di -
vided the feminist movement, and slowly, dissension and
burn-out took their t ol l . At the same time, a dramatic
transformation of American culture, fusing sex, love, and
consumerism, made the all-female organizations of the femin-
i st s seem stuffy and outmoded.
By the end of the twenties, the movement was nearly
st i l l ed, torn apart by forces that have some parallels t o-
day. Red-baiting, and something we today would call lesbi-
an-baiting, divided feminists from one another. Activists
failed to recruit younger women who were sold on the new
"heterosexual revolution" and out of touch with their femin-
ist heritage. And professional women increasingly defined
their own feminism as a l i fe-st yl e, not a political move-
ment. They opted for individual careers and personal devel-
opment over the often tough and thankless work of organizing
when government, social policy, and cultural values were
turning against feminism.
Although we alone cannot control the large-scale changes
that American pol i t i cs, economics, and culture are now going
t hro ugh, we can be ale rt to the pro ble ms of s care t act ics ,
re cruit me n t , and life -s t yle de mo bilizat io n . Fe min is t "s urvi-
valis m" in the e ight ie s n e e ds to face these is s ue s as we de -
fend the mo ve me n t we have built .
The 1923 e le ct io n of C alvin C o o lidge , Ro n ald Re agan 's fa-
vo rit e amo n g pre s ide n t s and a s t aun ch advo cat e of lais s e z-
faire capit alis m, was warmly gre e t e d by bus in e s s me n . The
Wall St re e t Jo urn al pro claime d e n t hus ias t ically, "Ne ve r be -
fore . . . has a go ve rn me n t be e n so co mple t e ly fused wit h
bus in e s s " (1). C o o lidge and his pre de ce s s o r, Warre n Hard-
in g, set abo ut un do in g the e n o rmo us acco mplis hme n t s of the
Pro gre s s ive e ra, wo rk in which millio n s of wo me n had part ici-
pated and had a s t ake .
Left po lit ics had flo uris he d in the Pro gre s s ive e ra. The
So cialis t Part y of Ame rica, fo un de d in 1901, we n t on to ac-
cumulat e e le ct o ral s ucce s s e s all o ve r the co un t ry in the
n e xt two de cade s . The In dus t rial Wo rke rs of the Wo rld,
fo un de d a fe w ye ars lat e r, advo cat e d milit an t dire ct act io n
and wo rke d to un io n ize un o rgan ize d in dus t rial wo rke rs . Pro -
gre s s ivis m met the challe n ge by in co rpo rat in g some of the s o -
cialis t and labor de man ds and fo re s t allin g o t he rs .
The Pro gre s s ive mo ve me n t pro vide d an umbre lla fo r, and was
shaped by, the po lit ical act ivis m of wo me n , e s pe cially that
of the s mall but gro win g gro up of fe male pro fe s s io n als . By
1900, abo ut 85,000 wo me n we re e n ro lle d in co lle ge s ; in 1920,
t he ir n umbe r was 250,000. Fo r t he s e wo me n , the e xpan din g s o -
cial s e rvice s e ct o r that acco mpan ie d the re fo rm mo ve me n t pro -
vided in cre as e d jo b po s s ibilit ie s . By 1910, for e xample , 80
pe rce n t of s cho o lt e ache rs we re wo me n , as we re the vas t majo r-
ity of s e t t le me n t ho us e wo rke rs (2).
The s e wo me n graduat e s marrie d at much lo we r rat e s than did
o t he r Ame rican wo me n . Amo n g the t urn -o f-t he -ce n t ury ge n e ra-
t io n , o n ly 28 to 40 pe rce n t of female co lle ge graduat e s mar-
rie d, and in 1920, 75 pe rce n t of female pro fe s s io n als we re
single (3). The s e figure s s ugge s t that e ducat e d e lit e wo me n
had be e n makin g a cho ice be t we e n "s o cial ho us e ke e pin g"a
co mmit me n t to life -lo n g pro fe s s io n al wo rk bas e d on wo me n 's
un ique co n t ribut io n to s o cial s e rvice an d the purs uit of
privat e ho us e ke e pin g wit hin the in s t it ut io n of marriage .
In the s cho o ls and s e t t le me n t ho us e s whe re they wo rke d,
whit e s in gle pro fe s s io n al wo me n had o ft e n formed e n durin g
s o cial n e t wo rks , fe male -ce n t e re d "s o cial familie s ." The y
taught "s o cial ho us e ke e pin g" to the immigran t wo me n and
urban familie s they wo rke d amo n g. As the He n ry Street Se t -
t le me n t Ho us e Bulle t in s t at e d it , "Run n in g Ne w Yo rk is
just a big ho us e ke e pin g jo b, just like yo ur o wn ho me , o n ly
on a large r s cale . The re fo re , yo u s ho uld be in t e re s t e d in
The Waning of Feminism 95
city-wide affai rs" (4). Many reform-minded women were also
what William O'Neill has called "social feminists." This
tendency in the feminist movement linked women's rights and
needs with a commitment to a whole set of social reformsin
municipal government, child and women's labor regulation,
health and safety measures. The link was often, though not
always, the belief that women were uniquely suited to put-
ting society' s house in order (5).
This "social motherhood" was inspired by the vision of an
alliance of women across class lines to reform the evils of
the masculine world. Without benefit of the vote and work-
ing in mothers' clubs, consumer groups, industrial reform co-
al i t i ons, and suffrage organizations, women had pressed Con-
gress and the state legislatures to enact l i t er al l y hundreds
of child labor, women's equity, and social hygiene laws be-
fore the Progressive era drew to a close. Middle-class
Black women formed an active settlement house and rescue-
mission movement out of their women's club base. Black
women's pol i t i cal and community work, however, so much of
which focused on providing basic necessities like education,
ci vi l ri ght s, and municipal services in Black neighborhoods,
was both less class-segregated and less sex-segregated than
that of white women (6).
The left-wing movement was nearly obliterated during the
pol i t i cal repression of World War I and in the Red scare
that followed the success of the second Russian Revolution.
Members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), of
immigrant pol i t i cal clubs, and l at er , of the newly formed
Communist party were harassed and many were deported. The
Socialist party and the IWW were decimated, and union organ-
izing, membership, and militancy were at a low point during
the twenties (7). Sheltered by conservatives and reaction-
aries in government positions, groups like the Sentinels of
the Republic operated confidently on the local and national
levels. Others like the American Medical Association (AMA)
and the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) became
more conservative during this period. In right-wing groups
like the Woman Patriots (formerly, the National Association
Opposed to Woman Suffrage), the National Association of
Manufacturers and i t s state branches, and the Ku Klux Klan,
any government protection of women, immigrants, workers, or
consumers was opposed as an "imported soci al i st i c scheme."
At the height of i t s power in the early 1920s, the Klan prob-
ably had millions of members and had had st art l i ng electoral
successes in several st at es. Although aimed mostly at
Blacks, other targets of Klan violence, especially in the
midwest and west, included Catholics, immigrants, and "bad"
("loose" or "divorced") women (8).
The co alit io n of wo me n 's and fe min is t o rgan izat io n s , which
had so re ce n t ly t riumphe d wit h the Nin e t e e n t h Ame n dme n t
gran t in g wo me n 's s uffrage , found it s e lf in s t ran ge po lit ical
t e rrit o ry un de r Hardin g and C o o lidge . But it wo uld be wro n g
to as s ume that the win n in g of s uffrage dis me mbe re d the co ali-
tion or de s t ro ye d its e ffe ct ive n e s s . Millio n s re main e d mo -
bilize d, at least in the firs t half of the de cade .
A gro up of the old o rgan izat io n s s o me wit h n e w n ame s co -
o pe rat e d to pus h t hro ugh s o cial fe min is t pro grams in Was hin g-
t o n and in the s t at e s : the pro hibit io n of child labor
t hro ugh a co n s t it ut io n al ame n dme n t , mat e rn al and infant pro -
t e ct io n , and e xpan s io n of such civic right s for wo me n as
s e rvin g on jurie s or ho ldin g o ffice . The Nat io n al Le ague of
Wo me n Vo t e rs , n e wly set up by the Nat io n al Ame rican Wo me n
Suffrage As s o ciat io n ; the Nat io n al C o n s ume rs Le ague ; the Na-
t io n al Wo me n 's Trade Un io n Le ague (NWTUL); the Ame rican As s o -
ciat io n of Un ive rs it y Wo me n ; the Ge n e ral Fe de rat io n of Wo m-
e n 's C lubs ; the Wo me n 's C hris t ian Te mpe ran ce Un io n ; the
YWC A; and e ve n , t e mpo rarily, the DAR came t o ge t he r in the
Wo me n 's Jo in t C o n gre s s io n al C o mmit t e e (WJC C ) to lo bby for
t he s e pro grams in Was hin gt o n . One of its first s ucce s s e s ,
The She ppard-To wn e r Bill of 1921, was pus he d t hro ugh bo t h
ho us e s of C o n gre s s by the t hre at of n e wly e n fran chis e d wo me n
us in g their un t rie d vo t e . The law pro vide d a ve ry mo de s t
amo un t of mo n e y admin is t e re d t hro ugh the s t at e s for in s t ruc-
tion in mat e rn al and infant he alt h by vis it in g n urs e s in
clin ics and ce n t e rs , and t hro ugh co n fe re n ce s and the dis -
t ribut io n of lit e rat ure . The AMA, which o ppo s e d the bill,
t ho ught wo me n had be co me "one of the s t ro n ge s t lo bbie s that
has ever be e n s e e n in Was hin gt o n " (9).
But by mid-de cade , the co alit io n 's pro grams me t a s e rie s
of ro adblo cks that we re not re mo ve d un t il the Ro o s e ve lt ad-
min is t rat io n . The Supre me C o urt in 1923 ruled again s t the
co n ce pt of a min imum wage pro t e ct in g wo me n but not me n .
Man y s t at e s that had alre ady pas s e d such laws be gan to re -
pe al t he m. Ge o rge Sut he rlan d, a re ce n t Hardin g appo in t e e to
the C o urt , argue d that the Nin e t e e n t h Ame n dme n t had give n
wo me n e qualit y wit h me n and so s pe cial pro t e ct io n for them
was no lo n ge r n e ce s s ary. Like o ur o wn ERA, the child labor
ame n dme n t to the C o n s t it ut io n was e as ily us he re d t hro ugh C o n -
gre s s and the Whit e Ho us e in 1922. But it was blo cke d in
ke y s t at e s in an t irat ificat io n campaign s o rgan ize d by the
C at ho lic C hurch de fe n din g the "t radit io n al" family again s t
go ve rn me n t "in t rus io n ," and by the s t at e man ufact ure rs ' as s o -
ciat io n s (10).
In 1921, the Wo man 's part y, the mo s t milit an t of the pro -
s uffrage gro ups , re o rgan ize d aro un d a plat fo rm of total
legal e quit y wit h me n . This po s it io n be came a light n in g rod
for bi t t er spl i t s and controversies among feminist groups.
The conflict centered on the Equal Rights Amendment which
the new party proposed. The amendment was fi rst introduced
in Congress in 1923 by Representative Daniel Anthony, Susan
B. Anthony's nephew. In the early twenties, the ERA was not
viewed as a far-off dream, for such an amendment had handily
passed in Wisconsin in 1921 (with wording protecting what-
ever special protection women had already won). The passage
was supported by a powerful coalition of women's groups
ranging from the DAR to the Polish Housewives League. Many
social feminists opposed the ERA, however, because they
believed that the courts would surely interpret the measure
so as to leave women workers more vulnerable than their male
peers (11).
The social feminists and the Women's party were on oppo-
si t e sides in st at e-l evel campaigns for such protective laws
as the eight-hour-day bi l l introduced in New York in the ear-
ly twenties, in California in 1927 and, l at er , in Indiana.
The ERA issue was introduced repeatedly by the Women's party
and could be very disruptive. Adept at publicity techniques
from suffrage days, the Women's party representatives
grabbed the news spotlight at many drabber women's events,
acting as the guerrilla theater of their day.
By the early t hi r t i es , social feminist groups like the
NWTUL were severely weakened in finances and membership;
those groups that remained of the original suffrage coal i -
tion were operating on a shoestring (12). Yet some women's
organizations were undiminished in strength or purpose; most
of these did not define themselves as feminist. The Nation-
al Association of Colored Women (NACW), founded in 1896,
united a network of Black women's clubs and service groups
which were extremely active at the municipal and state
levels in conducting antilynching campaigns, running s et t l e-
ment houses and shel t ers, and agitating for decent school
and municipal services in southern and northern ci t i es .
Mary Talbert, the NACW's president, was also head of a wom-
en' s group formed through the NAACP in the early twenties to
support antilynching legislation in Washington (13).
In addition to internal spl i t s and recruitment problems,
feminist groups and causes were harmed by labels like "sub-
versive, " "Bolshevik," or "antifamily." The NWTUL was
called a communist organization, and the U.S. Women's Bureau
was charged with trying to Bolshevize America by destroying
the family through i t s support of federal legislation like
the Sheppard-Towner Act. Feminist organizations were espe-
ci al l y active during and after World War I in i nt ernat i onal -
ist and pe ace gro ups . Fe min is m was thus part icularly s us -
pe ct in the War De part me n t , he ade d in the e arly t we n t ie s by
the n o t o rio us an t is uffragis t Jo hn We e ks . In his de part me n t ,
a huge chart was co mpile d in 1922, kn o wn as the "s pide r we b"
chart , lin kin g fe min is t and wo me n 's o rgan izat io n s wit h
Bo ls he vis m and de mo n s t rat in g the immin e n ce of a Bo ls he vik
t ake o ve r, wit h Flo re n ce Wat kin s , he ad of the Pare n t Te ache rs
As s o ciat io n , as the co n n e ct in g link (14).
Re adin g acco un t s of the e le ct o ral bat t le s of the t we n t ie s ,
one s e n s e s that t he s e co n ce rn s wit h s ubve rs io n fro m abro ad
or wit h un de rmin in g "the family"we re cyn ically mus t e re d by
in t e re s t gro ups wit h s e lfis h fe ars abo ut such mat t e rs as fe d-
e ral in t e rfe re n ce wit h the me dical pro fe s s io n 's pre ro gat ive s
or abo lit io n o f the child labor on which the U.S. t e xt ile in -
dus t ry s t ill re lie d. Act ivis t s be lie ve d, ho we ve r, that such
charge s we re ce n t ral to the ult imat e de fe at of the child
labor ame n dme n t .
Fe min is t act ivis t s re co gn ize d ho w de s t ruct ive this Re d-
bait in g was . It not o n ly de fe at e d the le gis lat io n they
fought for but dive rt e d t he ir much-n e e de d e n e rgy into e n d-
less re but t als and de fe n s ive campaign s . Furt he rmo re , it
un de rmin e d the fe min is m and Pro gre s s ivis m of man y me mbe rs ,
s ucce s s fully de t achin g a n umbe r of o rgan izat io n s from the
o rigin al co alit io n . Fo r in s t an ce , some de le gat e s to the
Le ague of Wo me n Vo t e rs ' 1921 co n ve n t io n be lie ve d that the
C o mmun is t In t e rn at io n al was be hin d the She ppard-To wn e r Act .
Me mbe rs of the Nat io n al Fe de rat io n of Bus in e s s and Pro fe s -
s io n al Wo me n 's C lubs tried to pre ve n t the fe de rat io n fro m
wo rkin g wit h the NWTUL in 1923 be caus e it was s uppo s e dly co m-
mun is t -run . Man y pro fe s s io n al wo me n 's gro ups be came right
win g or apo lit ical. By the s e co n d half of the t we n t ie s , the
Fe de rat io n of Wo me n 's C lubs was pro s e lyt izin g abo ut the
value of ho us e ho ld applian ce s and fe rre t in g out co mmun is t
s cho o lt e ache rs . It wit hdre w from the Wo me n 's Jo in t C o n gre s -
s io n al C o mmit t e e in 1928. Eve n the Le ague of Wo me n Vo t e rs
ado pt e d a mo re co mplicat e d and timid me t ho d of t akin g s t an ds
on n at io n al is s ue s . In s um, the po lit ical co n t e xt had s hift -
e d, and the at t acks on fe min is m, the bro ke n co alit io n s , and
the gro win g co n s e rvat is m of man y e arlie r allie s left the
wo me n 's mo ve me n t wit ho ut e n e rgy or n e w re cruit s (15).
The failure of fe male s o cial act ivis m on the Pro gre s s ive
mo de l to e xt e n d it s e lf into the n e xt ge n e rat io n is illus t rat -
ed in the his t o ry of the As s o ciat io n of Wo me n for the Pre ve n -
t io n of Lyn chin g. A large and e ffe ct ive o rgan izat io n of
whit e wo me n , bas e d o n the huge s o ut he rn me mbe rs hip of the
Me t ho dis t Wo me n 's Mis s io n ary C o un cil, it was fo un de d in
1930. The le ade rs hip of the as s o ciat io n was made up of wo m-
en who had led the s uffrage mo ve me n t a do ze n ye ars be fo re .
The Wan in g of Feminism 99
The ir ave rage age was fo rt y-e ight . The Le ague of Wo me n Vo t -
e rs als o co mplain e d of difficult y re cruit in g yo un ge r me m-
be rs , and t hro ugho ut the ran ks of o rgan ize d pro gre s s ive wo m-
an ho o d in the t we n t ie s and t hirt ie s , t he re was a de art h of
yo un g wo me n (16).
The dis man t lin g of o rgan ize d s o cial fe min is m o ccurre d in
the co n t e xt of a mas s ive re o rgan izat io n in the U.S. e co n o my.
Be t we e n 1922 and 1929, co rpo rat e fin an cial gro wt h was abo ut
300 pe rce n t , and in dus t rial pro duct io n n e arly do uble d. Ne w
t e chn o lo gyt he e le ct rificat io n of pro duct io n and the as s e m-
bly lin e , for e xample un de rlay this gro wt h in the majo r in -
dus t rie s of the e ra; aut o s , co n s t ruct io n , co n s ume r pro duct s
for the ho me , and pe t ro che micals . In 1914, aft e r the as s e m-
bly line had be e n in t ro duce d at Fo rd's Highlan d Park plan t ,
it took only 93 min ut e s to as s e mble an aut o that had re -
quired 12.5 ho urs to build four ye ars e arlie r (17). The
t e chn ique s o f mas s pro duct io n we re t hus mas t e re d in t his pe r-
io d. What re main e d was dis t ribut io n , an e s pe cially t ricky
pro ble m s in ce re al in co me s did not ke e p up wit h the gro wt h
of co rpo rat e we alt h. Fo re ign marke t s , in s t allme n t buyin g,
and adve rt is in g we re all calle d in to cre at e n e w buye rs . By
the end of the de cade , t he re we re 25 millio n cars re gis t e re d
in Ame rica, 70 pe rce n t of t he m bo ught on cre dit . A n e w s ys -
tem of cre dit -fixe d mo n t hly mo rt gage payme n t s he lpe d spur
the ho me -buildin g in dus t ry. Ho me o wn in g, so e s s e n t ial to
the pro fit s of ban ks and in dus t ry, was lauded in pat rio t ic
t e rms . Adve rt is in g be came a majo r bus in e s s e xpe n s e in the
t we n t ie s , wit h magazin e re ve n ue s alo n e gro win g from $59 mil-
lion to $196 millio n be t we e n 1918 and 1929. In this co n -
t e xt , a gro win g adve rt is in g in dus t ry set abo ut "e ffe ct in g a
s e lf-co n s cio us chan ge in the ps ychic e co n o my," as his t o rian
St uart Ewe n put s it , cre at in g n e w n e e ds for "pre s t ige ,"
"glamo ur," or "s e x appe al," n e w fe ars of lo o kin g old or of
havin g "halit o s is " (18), and n e w pre s s ure s on familie s .
Mo de rn familie s e n gage d in n e w kin ds of co n s umpt io n . Dur-
ing the t we n t ie s , the majo rit y of Ame rican ho me s got e le c-
t ricit y, and s ale s of do me s t ic applian ce s bo o me d. Po we r
co mpan ie s n o t o n ly adve rt is e d applian ce s , they als o e xt e n de d
co n s ume r cre dit and re paire d what they sold for fre e . Se ve n -
ty pe rce n t of gas s t o ve s and 90 pe rce n t of was hin g machin e s
and s e win g machin e s we re purchas e d on cre dit (19). The pack-
aged food in dus t ry als o flo uris he d; durin g the de cade ,
C ampbe ll, Ke llo gg, and Quake r Oat s be came ho us e ho ld wo rds .
Mo s t Ame rican s als o s wit che d to s t o re -bo ught , re ady-made
clo t hin g purchas e d from mail-o rde r ho us e s and de part me n t
s t o re s . Ame rican bus in e s s e s soon learned that 80 pe rce n t of
do me s t ic fun ds we re s pe n t by wo me n . The n e w marke t re s e arch-
e rs argue d that familie s wo uld be s t re n gt he n e d by le arn in g
to s pe n d, not to s ave . In ho me e co n o mics co urs e s , buyin g,
not frugalit y, was de fin e d as the civic dut y of yo un g girls
(20).
Whe n , in the 1920s , the Ge n e ral C o n fe de rat io n of Wo me n 's
C lubs o ffe re d their me mbe rs hip lists for use in bo t h co n s um-
er and s e xual s urve ys , the fus io n of the two t o pics was an y-
thing but accide n t al. Ladie s Ho me Jo urn al had labeled the
t we n t ie s the de cade not of the s e xual re vo lut io n but of the
"co s me t ics re vo lut io n ." Mas s circulat io n pulp jo urn als full
of Avo n , Po n d's , and Wo o dbury ads cre at e d ho me marke t s for
pro duct s that dis s e min at e d image s of fe min in e at t ract ive -
n e s s . By the late 1920s , True Ro man ce had a circulat io n
of two millio n , and like Ladie s ' Ho me Jo urn al and Go o d
Ho us e ke e pin g, it min gle d s e x and s ale s . What Mary Ryan has
de s cribe d as the "s e xy s ale s lady" be came a s t an dard cult ural
image : e n e rgy, yo ut h, and be aut y in the s e rvice of co n s ump-
t io n (21). By the end of the de cade , be aut y page an t s had
t ake n on a s t an dardize d, po pular fo rmat : wo me n had be e n
t rain e d not only to do the co n s umin g but to be co n s ume d as
we ll.
Pro mo t e d by ps ycho lo gis t s and o t he r s o cial s e rvice pro fe s -
s io n als , what we have co me to t hin k of as the "he t e ro s e xual
re vo lut io n " was indeed an impo rt an t e le me n t of the co n s ume r
cult ure of the t we n t ie s . The rise of "co mpan io n at e mar-
riage " as an ide al and the labe lin g of fe male -ce n t e re d s o -
ciabilit y as "le s bian " and de vian t t wo main t he me s in the
he t e ro s e xual re vo lut io n in dire ct ly un de rmin e d o rgan ize d
fe min is m by labe lin g the in t e n s e frie n ds hip n e t wo rks o n
which fe min is t o rgan izat io n s we re bas e d as s t o dgy and o ld-
fas hio n e d .
Earlie r ge n e rat io n s of wo me n had in t e rn alize d n o t io n s of
s e xual diffe re n ce s and dis t an ce be t we e n wo me n and me n , and
pre s cript ive lit e rat ure vie we d s e x as a wife 's dut y. But
the writ in gs of the n e w s e xual mo de rn is t s Have lo ck Ellis ,
G. St an le y Hall, an d, lat e r, Fre ud and such dis ciple s as
He le n e De ut s ch and Marie Bo n apart e t ran s fo rme d the image of
the fe male . In the n e w ps ycho lo gical dis co urs e , wo me n we re
co n s t ruct e d as s e xual be in gs , and o rgas m was de fin e d as a
n at ural impe rat ive for bo t h s e xe s . Vict o rian marriage , re -
pre s s ive and fo rmal, was crit icize d by mo de rn is t s in favo r
of a un io n in which part n e rs might fun ct io n as frie n ds and
lo ve rs . He t e ro s e xualit y, its pro ble ms and pit falls , be came
a topic of co n ce rn amo n g a bro ad s pe ct rum of s o cial re fo rm-
e rs , he alt h act ivis t s , and e ducat o rs . Ne w marit al and s e xu-
al pract ice s we re de bat e d and publicize d, and mo ve me n t s for
t rial marriage , s e rial marriage , and divo rce as s o lut io n s to
s e xual in co mpat ibilit y gain e d po pularit y. The t we n t ie s
marke d the he ight of the s t ruggle for birt h co n t ro l, and by
The Wan in g of Feminism 101
t his time a large majo rit y of middle -clas s wo me n used co n t ra-
ce pt io n . By the t hirt ie s a gro win g pro po rt io n of wo rkin g-
clas s wo me n used it as we ll. The Vict o rian image de fin in g
mat e rn it y as wo me n 's ult imat e fulfillme n t was be in g re place d
by at t e n t io n to their s e xual part n e rs hip wit h me n .
Man y of the s e xual mo de rn is t s and ps ycho lo gis t s who e x-
pre s s e d such s ympat he t ic in t e re s t in wo me n 's he t e ro s e xual
libe rat io n als o pin n e d pun it ive labe ls on t ho s e who co uld
not or wo uld not co n fo rm to the n e w pro s cript io n s . Wo me n 's
lack of o rgas m wit h male s was at t ribut e d to t he ir re s is t an ce
to "fully adult " s e xualit y; "frigid" wo me n we re labeled
immat ure j e ve n mas culin e . Ps ycho lo gis t s ro ut in e ly labeled
fe min is t s as n e uro t ic, s ublimat in g s adis t s and s aw t he ir
ho mo s o cial liais o n s as "co mpe n s at io n s " for their lack of
he t e ro e ro t ic s ucce s s (22).
The he t e ro s e xual re vo lut io n was thus a do uble -e dge d s wo rd.
Wo me n un do ubt e dly be n e fit e d fro m the mo re o pe n dis cus s io n of
fe male -male s e xualit y and its frus t rat io n s . But they als o
lost the diffus e ho mo s o cial and ho mo s e xual milie us wit hin
which e arlie r ge n e rat io n s of wo me n had o pe rat e d, for s e xual
s urve ys re ve ale d that co lle ge -e ducat e d wo me n had had rich
e xpe rie n ce s in ho mo e ro t icis m. And t ho s e wo me n who co n t in ue d
to ke e p their s o cial dis t an ce from me n who lived in what
was po pularly kn o wn as the "Bo s t o n marriage "we re s e e n as
o bs t acle s to the gro wt h of co mpan io n at e marriage . Le s bian s
we re cas t igat e d for t he ir re je ct io n of male -ce n t e re d co it us
and t he ir lack of in t e re s t in marriage and mat e rn it y; le s -
bian is m be came a highly charge d s o cial and s cie n t ific cat e go -
ry. As his t o rian C hris t in a Simmo n s has po in t e d o ut :
In cult ural t e rms le s bian is m re pre s e n t e d wo me n 's aut o n o -
my in vario us fo rms fe min is m, care e rs , re fus al to mar-
ry, failure to adjus t to marit al s e xualit y. (23)
The n e gat ive image of le s bian s that appe are d in s e xo lo -
gis t s ' writ in gs ce n t e re d on t he ir dan ge ro us , "in t e rme diat e "
s e xualit y, and le s bian is m served as a fo cus for a cult ural
dis co urs e co n ce rn in g pro pe r de gre e s of ge n de r dicho t o miza-
t io n in a pe rio d whe n wo man ho o d and man ho o d we re be in g
re de fin e d. Fe min is t s cho lars C arro ll Smit h-Ro s e n be rg and
Es t he r Ne wt o n have an alyze d the e vo lut io n of "man n is h wo me n "
in the 1920s and the image s ' implicat io n s for le s bian s '
s e lf-de fin it io n . Tho ugh le s bian is m as a cat e go ry was part ly
cre at e d by s e xo lo gis t s , some wo me n e age rly claime d it as
t he ir o wn , for it pro vide d a s phe re in which wo me n co uld
bo t h as s e rt t he ir s o cial in de pe n de n ce from me n and de ve lo p a
wo man -ce n t e re d e ro t icis m. Thus the cre at io n of a s pe cifical-
ly le s bian s ubcult ure , built o ut of the dis man t lin g of a
formerly diffuse, homosocial sphere, was intensified in this
era (24).
Simultaneously, prior homosocial i nst i t ut i ons, so impor-
tant to feminist organizing and consciousness, came to be
viewed as old-fashioned and lost much of their legitimacy.
The proportion of single-sex colleges declined continuously
from the 1870s on as coeducation became more and more popu-
lar (25). Settlement houses declined in social and finan-
cial importance for white women, as social work became a pro-
fession rather than a live-in vocation and restrictive
immigration quotas diminished the pool of prospective c l i -
ents (26). Settlement work by Black women, however, did not
diminish in this period, nor did the antilynching campaigns
in which so many participated.
Above al l , the focus on companionate marriage and the "con-
sumer revolution" reorganized the most prevalent of al l homo-
social institutionsthe family i t sel f. Generations of Amer-
icans had relied on close ties among same-sexed kin and
kin-like friendships to transmit a variety of skills and cul-
tural practices. But the rise of domestic science in set t l e-
ment houses and public schools provided a compelling version
of family life which competed with the knowledge immigrant
mothers could pass on to their Americanizing daughters. As
Jane Addams wrote, "An Italian gi rl who had had lessons in
cooking at the public school will help her mother to connect
the entire family with American food and household habits"
(27). The rise of boys' clubs, sports clubs, and the Boy
Scouts can also be viewed as replacements for skills no long-
er transmitted from father to son under conditions of expand-
ing urban capitalism. As the power of parent-to-child net-
works decreased, adolescent peer culture grew with i t s
emphasis on preparation for heterosexuality. The public
schools, settlement houses, dance hal l s, and street life
made claims on immigrant daughters and sons that separated
them from the worlds of their parents (28).
The rise of an adolescent peer culture occurred as public
education expanded dramatically. By the end of the twen-
t i es, half the nation' s youth were attending high school.
The schools spread not only technical ski l l s and training
but what the Lynds, studying Middletown, trenchantly re-
ferred to as "social i l l i t er acy, " a kind of uncritical con-
sumerism and individualism. High school was the environment
in which heterosexual youth culture really flourished: in
Middletown, a city of 35,000, there were fourteen gi r l s'
clubs to sponsor dances around high school events and dozens
of boys' clubs promoting at hl et i cs. Mass mobilization and
hysteria surrounded the endless cycle of basketball, foot-
bal l , and baseball games, accompanied by cheerleading and
boosterism. Car ownership also came to play a role in ado-
lescent cul t ure. "If you want to know al l t hat ' s changing
in Middletown, i t ' s spelled A-U-T-O," one local commented.
Motoring by youth replaced porch-si t t i ng and family picnics
as auto ownership became widespread. By 1923, 4 million
cars were being manufactured in America, and there were two
of them for every three families in Middletown. The autono-
my youth achieved through the auto created a social upheav-
al . Use of the car was l i st ed as one of the most serious
causes of family disputes among Middletown
1
s teenagers, and
the majority of what juvenile courts handled as gi r l s ' "sex
crimes" in 1924 took place in automobiles (29).
In the same period, the growth of the movie industry pro-
duced a mass culture consumed across the continent. In Mid-
dletown, programs changed frequentlythree hundred di f f er -
ent screenings could be viewed in a single year, and teens
reported attending up to three times a week. Although "Wild
West" films were popular, by far the most admired films were
"society romances." With t i t l e s like "Married Fl i r t s , " "The
Daring Years," "Flaming Youth," "Old Wives for New," "Why
Change Your Wife," the movies presented a revised social ana-
tomy of romantic het erosexual i t y. Girls reported to survey
researchers that they learned the det ai l s of making love in
movies, such as what to do with both pairs of arms while em-
bracing. As one seventeen-year-old put i t , "No wonder gi r l s
of the older days, before movies , were so modest and bash-
ful . They never saw Clara Bow and William Haines . . . If
we did not see such examples . . . where would we get the
idea of being ' hot ' ? We wouldn' t." As Elizabeth Ewen
points out, such films had a major impact on the Americaniza-
tion of urban immigrant gi r l s , whose assimilation linked
bourgeois fantasy, consumption, and heterosexual romance,
al l experiences to be had outside of t hei r families (30).
In Middletown, movies advertised, "gi r l s ! . . . if you want
to know what love real l y means, i t s exquisite t or t ur e, i t s
overwhelming rapt ures, see. . . . "
Peer cul t ure, shaped by the spread of consumerism in autos
and movie houses, was a powerful force in demobilizing the
homosocial, intergenerational world within which social fem-
inism had flourished. As one thoughtful exsuffragist r e-
marked in 1928, "The feministic movement just i s n' t al l that
smart among the juni ors" (31). Sold on cel l ul oi d and male-
oriented images of glamour, young women were no longer r e-
cruitable to what appeared as outmoded "causes."
The new commercial culture of the twenties was not so much
di rect l y antifeminist as i t was co-optive of feminist issues
and concerns. By the late twenties, much that passed for
feminist thought dealt with individual choices and personal
fulfillment l i fe-st yl e feminism supplanted i t s activist pre-
decessor. Ruth Pickering, one of "those modern women" whose
stories were printed in the Nation in the twenties, wrote,
"I have traded my sense of exhilarating defiance (shall we
call it feminism?) for an assurance of free and unimpeded
self-expression (or shall we call that feminism?). In other
words I have grown up." Confessions from "FeministsNew
Style" who had given up employment for domestic life ex-
pressed their choices in art i cl es like "I Gave Up My Law
Books for a Cook Book" or "You May Have My Job, a Feminist
Discovers Her Home." Such art i cl es focused on individual
choices and their rewards, but never analyzed the enormous
difficulties involved in women's double shift at home and at
work or the obstacles even professional women faced on the
job. Female self-assertivenesswhere it existedtook unpo-
l i t i cal forms. "We're not out to benefit society," a young
woman told an interviewer in 1928. "We're out for Mary's
job and Luella' s ar t , and Barbara's independence and the
rest of our individual careers and desires" (32). Themes of
female independence, even militancy, were thoroughly co-opt-
ed, resurfacing in advertising, the most impressive example
of which was staged in 1929 by advertising consultant Edward
Bernays, Freud's nephew. In that year' s Easter Parade, ac-
companied by enormous publicity, Bernays organized a contin-
gent of smoking women in formation aping the suffrage demon-
strations of an earlier decade. "Why not a parade of women
lighting torches of freedomsmoking cigarettes?" he had sug-
gested to George W. Will, owner of the American Tobacco Com-
pany (33). We had indeed come a "long way."
Delving into the pol i t i cal and cultural backlash that took
place two generations ago al ert s us to mistakes we can avoid
this time around and opportunities we ought to pursue.
Right now, we need to become self-conscious about defend-
ing al l groups that support feminist issues, despite our dif-
ferences. Sacrificing the less "respectable" groups and i s -
sues from coalitions is fut i l e, surely a mistake to avoid.
In a right-wing era, feminism cannot be respectable without
abandoning i t s real content. Scare tactics like those of
Jeremiah Denton's Senate Committee on Internal Terrorism and
Subversion may try to encourage the separation of respecta-
ble from unrespectable opposition groups, but history shows
us the importance of defending al l our own.
We are entering this period of backlash with some
strengths that our foremothers lacked. The institutions fem-
i ni st s established in the seventiesfeminist health cen-
t er s, women's centers, rape cri si s groups, battered women's
shel t ers, and especially women's studies programshave es-
tablished a network perhaps wider than the one that won the
vote, and i t s pol i t i cal scope is broader and more varied.
These institutions need our zealous defense, not only for
their crucial services, but as our lifeline to the genera-
tion who follows us into feminism.
Today, too, a far larger and more representative propor-
tion of women are in the paid work, force than during the
twenties, and although labor unions in general have faced
massive losses, their "female sector" is growing fast. Organ-
ized female labor is an enormous asset for our movement and
a sign of real hope for weathering the Reagan years. In-
deed, as powerful members of the l eft -t o-l i beral coalitions
that are beginning to form now, we feminists have it in our
power to make the depths of the twenties' backlash impossi-
ble to re-create today.
Notes
We would like to thank Elsa Dixler for her help on the hi s-
tory of the 1920s, and the members of our workshop at Bar-
nard' s Scholar and Feminist Conference in April 1981. Ellen
DuBois and Alice Kessler-Harris also provided thoughtful and
thorough criticisms of this paper.
1. William E. Le ucht e n burg, The Pe rils o f Pro s pe rit y,
1914-1932 (C hicago : Un ive rs it y of C hicago Pre s s ,
1958), p. 103.
2. She ila M. Ro t hman , Wo man 's Pro pe r Place (New Yo rk:
Bas ic Bo o ks , 1978), p. 106; Mary P. Ryan , Wo man ho o d
in Ame rica: Fro m C o lo n ial Time s to the Pre s e n t , 2d
e d. (Ne w Yo rk: Fran klin Wat t s , 1979), p. 138.
3. Ro t hman , Wo man 's Pro pe r Place , pp. 46-47; Ryan , Wo man -
ho o d in Ame rica, p. 152; C hris t in a Simmo n s , "C o mpan -
ionate Marriage and the Le s bian Thre at ," Fro n t ie rs
4, n o . 3 (Fall 1979):59, n .33.
4. Ro t hman , Wo man 's Pro pe r Place , pp. 3, 117 cit in g the
He n ry St re e t Mo t he rs C lub, pape rs of Lillian Wald.
5. We are us in g the t e rms s ugge s t e d by William L. O'Ne ill
in Eve ryo n e Was Brave (Ne w Yo rk: Quadran gle Bo o ks ,
1971), p. x. The s o cial and e mo t io n al live s of wo me n
s e t t le me n t ho us e wo rke rs are dis cus s e d in Blan che Wie -
sen C o o k, Wo me n and Suppo rt Ne t wo rks (New Yo rk: Out
& Out Bo o ks , 1979).
6. The re is a gre at de al of e xcit in g n e w his t o rical wo rk on
the civic and n e ighbo rho o d act ivit ie s of Black wo me n ,
much of it n o t e d in a us e ful biblio graphical e s s ay by
Ro s alyn Te rbo rg-Pe n n (His t o ry Te ache r 13 [Fe bruary
1980]; re prin t e d in Wo me n 's St udie s Quart e rly 9, n o .
2 [Summe r 1981]). Se e , part icularly, Alfre da M.
Dus t e r, e d., C rus ade fo r Jus t ice : The Aut o bio graphy
of Ida B. We lls (C hicago : Un ive rs it y of C hicago
Pre s s , 1970); Sharo n Harle y and Ro s alyn Te rbo rg-Pe n n ,
e ds ., The Afro -Ame rican Wo man ; St ruggle s and Image s
(Port Was hin gt o n , N.Y.: Ke n n ikat Pre s s , 1978); and
Ge rda Le rn e r, "C o mmun it y Wo rk of Black Club Wo me n ," in
The Majo rit y Fin ds Its Pas t (New Yo rk: Oxfo rd Un i-
ve rs it y Pre s s , 1979), pp. 83-93.
7. Julian F. Jaffe , C rus ade again s t Radicalis m: Ne w Yo rk
durin g the Red Scare , 1914-1924 (Port Was hin gt o n ,
N.Y.: Ke n n ikat Pre s s , 1972), pp. 81-82.
8. J. St an le y Le mo n s , The Wo man C it ize n : So cial Fe min is m
in the 1920's (Urban a: Un ive rs it y of Illin o is Pre s s ,
1975), pp. 143-63; Le ucht e n burg, Pe rils o f Pro s pe ri-
ty_, pp. 209-10.
9. William H. C hafe , The Ame rican Wo man . He r C han gin g So -
cial, Eco n o mic, and Po lit ical Ro le , 1920-1970 (Lo n do n
and Ne w Yo rk: Oxfo rd Un ive rs it y Pre s s , 1972), p. 28.
10. On Adkin s v. C hildre n 's Ho s pit al, see C larke A. C ham-
be rs , "The C ampaign for Wo me n 's Right s in the 1920's ,"
in Our Ame rican Sis t e rs : Wo me n in Ame rican Life and
Tho ught , e d. Je an E. Frie dman and William G. Shade ,
2d e d. (Bo s t o n : Allyn & Baco n , 1976), pp. 323-44, 330.
A good acco un t of the de fe at of the C hild Labo r Ame n d-
me n t is found in Le mo n s , Wo man C it ize n , pp. 219-33.
11. O'Ne ill, Eve ryo n e Was Brave , pp. 277-78; Le mo n s , Wo m-
an C it ize n , p. 87.
12. Le mo n s , Wo man C it ize n , pp. 200, 200-203, 192-93.
13. Le rn e r, "C o mmun it y Wo rk of Black Club Wo me n ."
14. Le mo n s , Wo man C it ize n , pp. 214, 210, 214-17, 218.
15. Ibid., pp. 213-14, 222-23.
16. Jacque lyn Do wd Hall, "'A Truly Subve rs ive Affair
1
: Wo m-
en again s t Lyn chin g in the Twe n t ie t h-C e n t ury So ut h,"
in Wo me n o f Ame rica: A His t o ry, e d. C aro l R. Be rkin
and Mary Be t h No rt o n (Bo s t o n : Ho ught o n Mifflin ,
1979), pp. 360-88; O'Ne ill, Eve ryo n e Was Brave , p.
307.
17. Le ucht e n burg, Pe rils o f Pro s pe rit y, p. 179.
18. St uart Ewe n , C apt ain s o f C o n s cio us n e s s : Adve rt is in g
and the So cial Ro o t s o f the C o n s ume r C ult ure (Ne w
Yo rk: McGraw-Hill, 1976), pp. 32, 167.
19. Jo an Gre e n baum, "Out of the Fryin g Pan : The Kit che n as
C o mmo dit y and C ult ure ," un publis he d ms ., 1981, p. 6.
20. Ryan , Wo man ho o d in Ame rica, p. 180; He idi I. Hart man n ,
"C apit alis m and Wo me n 's Wo rk in the Ho me 1900-1930"
(Ph.D. dis s ., Yale Un ive rs it y, 1974).
21. Ryan , Wo man ho o d in Ame rica, pp. 177-82.
22. Ibid., pp. 153-77, 159; Simmo n s , "C o mpan io n at e
Marriage ."
23. Simmo n s , "C o mpan io n at e Marriage ," p. 58.
24. C arro ll Smit h-Ro s e n be rg and Es t he r Ne wt o n , "The Myt hic
Le s bian and the Ne w Wo man : Po we r, Se xualit y and Le git -
imacy," pape r de live re d at the Be rks hire C o n fe re n ce of
Wo me n His t o rian s , Vas s ar C o lle ge , 16 Jun e 1981.
25. Ro t hman , Wo man 's Pro pe r Place , p. 181.
26. The de clin e of the s e t t le me n t mo ve me n t aft e r Wo rld War I
is n o t e d by Alle n F. Davis , in Spe arhe ads fo r Re fo rm:
The So cial Se t t le me n t s and t he Pro gre s s ive Mo ve me n t
1890-1914 (Ne w Yo rk: Oxfo rd Un ive rs it y Pre s s , 1967),
pp. 228-35.
27. Quo t e d in Barbara Ehre n re ich and De irdre En glis h, "The
Man ufact ure of Ho us e wo rk," So cialis t Re vo lut io n 5,
n o . 4 (Oct o be r-De ce mbe r 1975):5-40, 30.
28. Elizabe t h Ewe n , "C it y Light s : Immigran t Wo me n and the
Ris e of the Mo vie s ," Sign s 5, n o . 3 s uppl. (Sprin g
1980):S45-S65.
29. Ro be rt S. Lynd and He le n Me rre ll Lyn d, Middle t o wn , pa-
pe rback e d. (New Yo rk: Harve s t Bo o ks , 1956). Two o t h-
er good s t udie s of yo ut h cult ure in the Ame rican t we n -
ties are Paula S. Fas s , The Damn e d an d the Be aut iful:
Ame rican Yo ut h in the 1920's (Oxfo rd and Ne w Yo rk:
Oxfo rd Un ive s it y Pre s s , 1972); and Le wis Ehre n be rg,
St e ppin ' Out : Ne w Yo rk Night life and the Tran s fo rma-
t io n of Ame rican C ult ure , 1890-1930 (We s t po rt , C o n n .:
Gre e n wo o d Pre s s , 1981).
30. Mary P. Ryan , "The Pro je ct io n of a Ne w Wo man ho o d: The
Mo vie Mo de rn s in the 1920's ," in Our Ame rican Sis -
t e rs , pp. 366-84; Ewe n , "C it y Light s ," pp. S55-S58.
31. Quoted in O'Ne ill, Eve ryo n e Was Brave , p. 307.
32. Elain e Sho walt e r, e d., The s e Mo de rn Wo me n : Aut o bio -
graphical Es s ays fro m the Twe n t ie s , p. 16; Fran k
St rie ke r, "C o o kbo o ks and Law Bo o ks : The Hidde n His t o -
ry of C are e r Wo me n in Twe n t ie t h-C e n t ury Ame rica," in
A He rit age o f He r Own , e d. Nan cy F. C o t t and Eliza-
be t h H. Ple ck (New Yo rk: Simo n & Schus t e r, 1979), pp.
476-98, 491.
33. Ewe n , C apt ain s of C o n s cio us n e s s , p. 160.
Part II
The New Antifeminism
ZILLAH EISENSTEIN
Antifeminism and the New Right (1981)
The fe min is t mo ve me n t is o n the de fe n s ive in 1981 be caus e of
the highly mo bilize d as s ault again s t it by Ne w Right and n e o -
co n s e rvat ive fo rce s . The s e in clude the Nat io n al C o n s e rva-
tive Po lit ical Act io n C o mmit t e e (NC PAC ), Ne w Right o rgan iz-
e rs and fund rais e rs like Paul We yrich and Richard Vigue rie ,
the s o -calle d pro life mo ve me n t , the e van ge lical right he ade d
by a gro up callin g it s e lf the Mo ral Majo rit y (which is not a
majo rit y), n e o co n s e rvat ive po licy make rs like Se n at o r Pat -
rick Mo yn ihan , and fact io n s of the Re publican part y that in -
clude Se n at o rs Je s s e He lms and Paul Laxalt (1). It is impo r-
tant to re me mbe r that the an t ife min is t fo cus of the Ne w
Right is a re act io n to the po we r e xe rcis e d by the wo me n 's
mo ve me n t t hro ugh the 1970s , a re act io n to marrie d wo me n 's e n -
try into t he wage labo r fo rce , and a re act io n to the chan g-
ing n at ure of the family. It is wo me n 's po t e n t ial po we r to
t ran s fo rm t his s o cie t y t hat the right fe ars . Pro o f of this
po we r is the fact that bo t h the Ne w Right and the ce n t e r fac-
t io n s t hin k t he y n e e d to mo bilize again s t the fe min is t
mo ve me n t and that t he y have made it a ce n t ral fo cus of t he ir
po lit ics , alt ho ugh t he y have diffe re n t co n ce pt io n s of ho w to
do th i s .
The re act io n ary fo rce s in t his co un t ry re je ct t he libe ral
s t at e , which t he y de fin e as the we lfare s t at e . Ne o co n s e rva-
t ive s (2) ho ld the we lfare s t at e re s po n s ible for the in cre as -
ing de man ds for e qualit y, which t he y call an "e xce s s of de mo -
cracy." He n ce , t he y argue , the cris is of the s t at e is a
pro ble m o f too high e xpe ct at io n s . In addit io n , Ne w Right
fo rce s in dict the we lfare s t at e be caus e it has re de fin e d the
t radit io n al pat riarchal family and t he re fo re the re lat io n -
s hip of me n and wo me n to the s t at e and to e ach o t he r; the
cris is , for the Right , is that me n have lost t he ir aut ho ri-
t y. I will argue that the cris is o f the we lfare s t at e in -
s t e ad re fle ct s the co n flict s amo n g libe ralis m (the ide o lo gy
and co n s cio us n e s s of t he majo rit y of Ame rican s ) (3), the
n e e ds of an advan ce d capit alis t marke t , t he re quire me n t s of
t radit io n al familial pat riarchy, and s t ruct ural racis m. The
112 The Ne w Antifeminism
s t at e e mbo die s these co n flict s at the same time it t rie s to
re s o lve t he m. Alt ho ugh the Ne w Right has made majo r in ro ads
in t o the re alms of s t at e po we r, it has not achie ve d he ge m-
o n y. It s t ill mus t vie for po we r again s t ce n t e r fact io n s
wit hin the De mo crat ic and Re publican part ie s . Alt ho ugh I
think the top prio rit y of these diffe re n t fact io n s is to s t a-
bilize the pat riarchal un de rpin n in gs of capit alis m, they dif-
fe r on ho w to do t his .
This dis cus s io n will s ho w that t he re is a s ys t e mat ic at -
tempt by the diffe re n t fact io n s of the s t at e to de radicalize
the wo me n 's mo ve me n t by dis man t lin g the gain s made by gro ups
wo rkin g for re pro duct ive right s and the right to abo rt io n .
The s e gro ups are the target be caus e they are the mo s t fo rce -
ful arm of the fe min is t mo ve me n t as we ll as the mo s t o rgan -
ized force for pro gre s s ive chan ge t o day. Abo rt io n has be -
come the ce n t ral is s ue for the state be caus e wo me n 's co n t ro l
of t he ir re pro duct ive fre e do m is dire ct ly at o dds wit h pat ri-
archal co n t ro l, a co n t ro l that is pre s e n t ly be in g un de rmin e d
by the t ran s fo rmat io n of the t radit io n al pat riarchal family.
It is impo rt an t to un de rs t an d that t he re is a s ign ifican t
diffe re n ce be t we e n the pat riarchal, an t ife min is t prio rit ie s
of the s t at e and the Ne w Right fo rce s wit hin it , on the one
han d, and the Ame rican public, on the o t he r. The public has
not mo ve d to the Right but in s t e ad has wit hdrawn fro m main -
s t re am e le ct o ral po lit ics .
The Married Wage-Earning Woman and the Patriarchal State
Firs t of all, it is impo rt an t to de fin e the s t at e . I un de r-
stand it to be an act ive part of the s t ruggle wit hin s o ci-
e t y. The act ivis m of the state act ually gro ws o ut of the at -
tempt to re co n cile co n flict . The s t at e mus t cre at e s o cial
o rde r and po lit ical co he s io n by me diat in g the co n flict s that
aris e amo n g capit alis m, pat riarchy, racis m, and the ide o lo gy
of libe ralis m. In this s e n s e , the s t at e is s imult an e o us ly
s t ruct ure d by its co mmit me n t s to pat riarchy, capit alis m, and
racis m. I will fo cus he re on the part icular re lat io n be -
t we e n pat riarchy and the s t at e be caus e it is this pro ble m
that pre s e n t ly pre o ccupie s the s t at e . My majo r po in t is
t his : ce n t ral to the po lit ics of the 1980s is the fo rmula-
t io n of a family po licy that will addre s s the pre s e n t co n -
flict be t we e n the n e e ds of advan ce d capit alis m (for marrie d
wo me n wo rke rs ) an d the n e e ds of pat riarchal aut ho rit y.
St ruct ural chan ge s in the e co n o my, chan ge s in the wage
s t ruct ure , and in flat io n have pulle d whit e marrie d wo me n in -
to the labor fo rce (4). As a re s ult , the do min an t fo rm of
family life has be co me the dual-wage -e arn in g family (5).
Anti feminism and the New Right 113
However, this advanced capi t al i st patriarchal family form
particularly the married wage-earning womenis under attack
by the New Right. The New Right presents as the preferred
model the traditional patriarchal family, defined as a heter-
osexual married couple with the husband in the labor force
and the wife responsible for the rearing of children and the
care of the household. This model, however, applies to only
14 percent of families today (6). Conflict exi st s, as we
shall see, within the state over which family form should un-
derpin state policy in the hopes of mediating conflict be-
tween capitalism and patriarchy.
What remains a question for the politics of the 1980s is
whether the conflict between advanced capitalism and the
patriarchal family can be resolved. It may appear that the
needs of the capi t al i st market for women workers has devel-
oped within a system of patriarchal hierarchy (7). Women
have been segregated in the low-productivity sector of the
market, and their pay is unequal to men's even when the work
is the same or of comparable worth. But women as workers
come to expect equal treatment in the market, whether or not
they expect i t in their familial rel at i ons. The relations
of the home are supposedly regulated by love and devotion.
The work in the market for a majority of women is done be-
cause they need the wages. Thus, the wage is what regulates
woman's relations at the work place. In this sense, her
boss is not her husband. In this sense, women wage earn-
ers think they deserve equality as wage earners.
Some women workers may accept the patriarchal organization
of their family life in that they think it is acceptable
that they cook the meals or do the laundry (although many do
not), but I have yet to hear one woman say that she does not
have the right to earn the same wages as a man. In other
words, the capi t al i st marketplace has reproduced a patriarch-
al structure within the market, but the ideology of the bour-
geois marketplaceequality of opportunity, equality before
the law, individual aggressiveness, and independencere-
mains. As women internalize and apply these values to them-
selves and, at the same time, operate within the patriarchal
structure of the market, a consciousness develops that is
cr i t i cal of their dead-end work l i ves. In the market, one's
sex is supposed to be irrelevant. People are supposedly in-
dividuals, not members of a sexual cl ass. Whoever works
hard is supposed to be rewarded. To the extent that one in-
ternalizes these values when one enters the market, the mar-
ried wage-earning woman becomes a contradiction in terms.
This highlighting of women's differentiation from men in
the marketplace begins to develop a consciousness one can
term feminist. With a majority of the married women work-
114 The New Antifeminism
ing in the labor force today and expecting equalityeven if
it is only equality in the work placethe promises of liber-
alism are being challenged. The issue here is not merely
the cost to the capitalist or profit maintenance, although
these are always at issue. (To equalize pay between men and
women would cost billions of dollars.) More important is
that equality in the work place would erode a major form of
patriarchal control that is presently maintained as much in
the market as it is in the home.
Here then is the contradiction: advanced capitalism, giv-
en structural changes and inflation, has required married
women to enter the labor force. Although the capitalist mar-
ket is patriarchally structured, i t s ideology is l i beral .
The consciousness of married wage-earning women reflects the
conflict between liberalism as an ideology and patriarchy as
a structural requisite of the capitalist market. Women's
discontent, however limited, recognizes and rejects this pat-
riarchal structuring of their opportunities in the market.
When this is combined with married women's double work day
the work of the home and children as well as the outside job
the possibility of a feminist consciousness heightens.
The New Right's attack on married wage-earning women lies in
this reality: that wage-earning women, in beginning to de-
mand equality (before the law and in wages), have begun a
challenge to the patriarchal organization of the market.
This challenge constitutes a cri si s for the state because of
i t s patriarchal foundation.
What do we mean when we say that the state is patriarchal
or that patriarchy operates on the state level (8)? For
one, it means that the distinction between public (male) and
private (female) life underlies the formation of the st at e,
thus reifying the division between public and private life
as one of sexual difference. The separation of male and fe-
male, or public and private, life upon which patriarchy is
premised is undermined by married women's entry into the la-
bor force. Patriarchy, therefore, must be redefined to en-
compass woman's activity in the market as she becomes the
"working mother."
As patriarchal authority is redefined, it must be extended
to the market in the hopes of bolstering i t in the family
while the patriarchal institution of motherhood (9) comes to
include the public space of the market. The New Right's re-
action to women's challenge is to try to remove women from
the labor force, thereby reinforcing patriarchal authority
in the family. Center factions within the st at e, however,
acknowledge the changes in both the family and the market
and wish to establish a policy that recognizes the fact that
a majority of mothers are presently in the labor force.
Antifeminism and the New Right 115
Their hope is to establish a family policy that can success-
fully transfer the patriarchal authority of the father to
the advanced capitalist market, and as a result restabiliz-
ing the patriarchal underpinnings of capitalism. This issue
of family policy is what presently defines the antifeminist
stance of the state. The 1980 presidential election and the
Reagan-Stockman budget are two examples that reflect the
state' s antifeminist priorities.
The Sexual Politics of the 1980 Election
The theme of the 1980 election was the need to make America
strong through strengthening the family, the economy, and
the military. The neoconservative and New Right answer to
the cri si s of American democracy as one of reconstituting
the traditional patriarchal family and constructing an auth-
oritarian democracy was what Bertram Gross calls "friendly
fascism" (10). Profamily pol i t i cs, which are antifeminist,
antidetente, anticommunist, and antiaffirmative action, pro-
vided the ideological language for arguing for a strong Amer-
ica, A presently unstable society must be reconstructed,
they fel t , by rebuilding the authority of the family and the
state at home and abroad. Sexual politics did not serve
merely as a gloss in the 1980 election for the real politics
of the unstable economy. Rather, the authority of the fami-
ly was seen as central to reconstituting and restrengthening
America.
Antifeminism is central to the politics of the eighties,
because the prolife sector of the New Right is using the
abortion issue to gain control of the issues of good and
evi l , morality and self-indulgence. Given the role sexual
politics played in the past election, i t is important to rec-
ognize the New Right's continued double-edged use of those
pol i t i cs. Antifeminism is being used simultaneously as a
rallying cry and as a tool to create a morally strong socie-
ty. Exactly what the new "moral" family will look like is
unclear. What is clear is that the traditional patriarchal
institution of motherhood, which confines woman to the home,
will remain central to the family if the New Right has any-
thing to say about i t . They wish to re-create an honored
status for the institution of motherhood and with i t , the
honor of the st at e.
The promotherhood stance implicit in the antiabortion move-
ment seeks to posit the rights of the unborn in opposition
to the rights of women. The antiabortion movement sees the
concerns with reproductive freedom as being self-indulgent
and narci ssi st i c. Women are said to take their own needs
too seriously and have supposedly forgotten about their com-
mitments to othershusband, children, aged parents, and so
on. They pose narcissistic woman (the feminist) against the
moral woman who puts others before herself, particularly in
reference to motherhood. The antiabortion campaign high-
lights this struggle for a morally ordered society requiring
the reconstitution of the traditional patriarchal family and
the contradictory nature of that family form.
The New Right does not recognize this contradiction, how-
ever. Former President Carter did, and this is why he did
not invoke images of a nuclear family constructed around the
traditional patriarchal institution of motherhood but rather
recognized and praised "working mothers" (11) who constitute
more than 50 percent of al l married women. This difference
in the viewpoints of two succeeding administrations simply
emphasizes the fact that there have been, and s t i l l are, dif-
ferent views within the state on how to save the patriarchal
institution of motherhood. Reagan and the Right speak of re-
establishing the traditional model. Carter recognized that a
new version of patriarchal motherhood and the family was
needed for advanced capitalist society. But it is also
clear that neither recognizes the equality of women within
the home or market. The woman as a mother, whether she is
relegated to the home or is active in the market, is pol i t i -
cally differentiated from man and denied equality.
The important point here is that in reality undeniable con-
fl i ct s existbetween patriarchy' s need for woman as mother
in the family to care for children and men and capitalism' s
need for the married woman wage-earner, given structural
changes in the labor force and inflation. These conflicts
will act as constraints as Reagan and the faction of the
state he supports continue to contend with the center-liber-
als whom Carter represented. There is l i t t l e agreement be-
tween these two factions on how to deal with abortion policy
and legislation affecting the family or how to deradicalize
feminism. Within Reagan's own party, he will have to try to
create a cohesive policy that spans the differences among
Paul Laxalt, the Moral Majority, and the centrists of the
party. Already, members of the New Right are asking, "Is
Reagan really a Reaganite?" I would say he probably is not
a Reaganite or, if he i s , he will not be so for long. He
will be unable to mediate successfully the conflicts within
the family and hence the state while saluting the tradition-
al nuclear family.
The 1980 presidential campaign did expose the New Right's
commitment to the traditional patriarchal family. But i t
also exposed the fact that this hardly represents a majority
position in America. It is true that the state is moving to
the right under pressure from a well-mobilized, focused, and
disciplined New Right. But it would be a mistake to think
that this right wing is a majority of the American public
or that it is a hegemonic pol i t i cal force (12). In the 1980
election, only 53 percent of the eligible electorate voted
to begin with. Of this group, Reagan polled 27 percent of
the vote, and of these voters, only 11 percent said that
they voted for Reagan primarily as a conservative, whereas
38 percent said their vote for Reagan was really a vote
against Carter. The so-called Reagan mandate was actually
made up of approximately 10 percent of the population.
The people who voted for Reagan reflect the backlash
effect of a society in t ransi t i on. Fifty-two percent of
housewives and retired women voted for Reagan and 41 percent
for Carter. In a society in which a majority of married wom-
en are in the labor force, i t is interesting to note that it
is these women who made the significant difference in male-
female voting patterns in the 1980 election. Wage-earning
women were the main source of the difference; they spl i t 49
percent for Reagan and 45 percent for Carter. Men backed
Reagan by 56 percent to 36 percent (13).
A February 1981 Newsday national poll found that approxi-
mately 72 percent of respondents opposed a constitutional
amendment that would make abortion i l l egal . And although
the Moral Majority launched an intense lobbying campaign to
defeat a Maryland bi l l allowing school counselors to give VD
and pregnancy information to students, the bi l l passed (14).
Nancy Stevenson, South Carolina's fi rst woman lieutenant
governor, refused to reappoint two anti-ERA senators to a
study committee on state employees, because she thought that
senators serving on the committee should be sensitive to di s-
crimination in hiring and promotion practices. Stevenson as-
sumed their anti-ERA stance would inhibit such sensi t i vi t y.
She was deluged by mail running three to one in favor of her
action (15).
By pointing out these trends, I do not mean to say that
the st at e' s move to the right is insignificant. The New
Right may represent only a minority of the public, but it is
an enormous danger because i t is mobilized and has an ag-
gressive organized approach to electoral pol i t i cs. It i s ,
however, important to recognize that another publica real
majorityalso exi st s, and it remains to be organized and
mobilized. I would describe this other public as feminist
if feminism were defined as the mainstream pol i t i cs of
liberal feminism that recognizes the importance of women's
equal rights before the law. This group supports the ERA
and women's individual right to the freedom of choice in
abortion. What is interesting to note about the 1980 elec-
tion is that these are precisely the demands that Reagan
challengedthose emanating from the mainstream of the
women's movement. Was this his attempt at demobilizing the
women's movement for the 1980s?
The assault against feminism has taken on the women's move-
ment at i t s most popularly supported point, and I think this
has been done because the liberal feminist movement has been
radicalizing i t s demands. By doing so, i t has begun to un-
cover the real conflicts within the state over how to restab-
i l i ze the family (16). This attack on the mainstream femin-
ist movement was actually launched by Carter; he just had
different t act i cs. It was after Bella Abzug enlarged her
definition of women's issues to encompass the impact of in-
flation and the economy on women's lives that Carter di s-
missed her as head of the Presidential Advisory Commission
on Women.
Given the present attack, feminists must develop a poli-
tics that recognizes their defensive posture within the
realm of electoral pol i t i cs. Yet the movement must not lim-
i t i t s politics to countering the New Right assault against
i t . It must continue to radicalize i t s earlier demands
while fighting hard against New Right t act i cs. In order to
do t hi s, feminists must understand how Reagan's economic pol-
icies are an integral part of his sexual pol i t i cs. The two
cannot be separated. We must also recognize that other fac-
tions within the state seek to restabilize patriarchy in oth-
er ways. The Laxalt Family Protection Bill and the Economic
Equity Act, as we shall see, reflect the different options
the state is offering women. Neither is interested in creat-
ing a nonpatriarchal form of the family.
The Sexual Pol i t i cs of the Reagan-Stockman Budget
Reagan's budget is based on implicit sexual pol i t i cs. This
means more than that budget cuts affect women particularly,
which they do. It means that the economic policy of the pro-
posed budget seeks to realign the relationship between the
state and the family, men and women, and public and private
l i fe, as much as it seeks to deal with inflation.
One can argue that the reaction against state policies
that developed through the 1960s and 1970s was in part a re-
action against the need for them, partially reflecting the
redefined responsibilities of the family and the state as
married white women entered the labor force. Seen as such,
the reaction against state involvement in social services is
a statement against the transformations taking place in the
family and the relationship between the state and the fami-
ly. The budget seeks to limit and curtail the responsibili-
ties of the state and to increase the responsibilities (and
supposed freedom) of the family.
In essence, then, the Reagan-Stockman budget is as much
about the family as i t is about the economy. It is strug-
gling to restabilize patriarchy as much as i t is fighting in-
flation in order to stabilize advanced capitalism. The gov-
ernment budget cuts in social services (while the military
budget grows) mean that individuals, and hence the family,
are supposed to be responsible for their own health and wel-
fare. The state will be responsible for defense.
Neoconservatives want people to understand that the state
cannot and should not create equality of conditions for
them. Patrick Moynihan, the neoconservative senator from
New York, clarifies this point with his distinction between
liberty (which is equality of opportunity) and equality
(meaning equality of conditions): "Liberty does, of course,
demand that everyone be free to try his luck, or test his
ski l l in such matters. But these opportunities do not neces-
sarily produce equality: on the contrary, to the extent
that winners imply losers, equality of opportunity almost in-
sures inequality of results" (17).
However, the familyor the various forms of the family
that exist todaydo need aid from the st at e. In a report
to President Carter t i t l ed "Critical Choices for the 80s,"
female poverty is examined as one of the cri t i cal issues of
the next decade. "Almost one female-headed family in three
is poor; about one in 18 families by a man is poor" (18).
And the number of families headed by a single parent is grow-
ing. "In 1978, one in five families in the United States
was headed by a single parent, versus one in nine in 1980"
(19). Most single parents are women and their risk of find-
ing themselves in poverty is almost three times that of sin-
gle fathers. "The median income in 1977 of single-mother
families was only $340 above the poverty level for a nonfarm
family of four; among Black and Hispanic single mothers,
about $1000 below i t " (20). The single-parent family headed
by a woman is growing in number, and more than a third of
these women who worked full time and had children under six
years of age were defined as poor in 1977.
What is i t that the Reagan administration expects these
women to do? It assumes that the cutbacks in social welfare
benefits will make the poor work harder. But what does work-
ing harder mean when your are already part of the working
poor? It makes life in the woman-headed single-parent impos-
si bl e. And this may be what the Reagan budget intends to do
to force a different set of choices on these women and on
any woman who is not part of a traditional patriarchal
family.
By asserting the role and purposes of the family against
the s t at e , as the n e w budge t do e s , the Ne w Right ho pe s to re -
e s t ablis h the po we r of the fat he r in the family. Acco rdin g
to Je rry Falwe ll, go ve rn me n t has de ve lo pe d at the e xpe n s e of
the fat he r's aut ho rit y. "The pro gre s s io n of big go ve rn me n t
is amazin g. A fat he r's aut ho rit y was lost first to the vil-
lage , then to the cit y, n e xt to the St at e , and fin ally to
the e mpire " (21). I t hin k the s t at e will have to look be -
yo n d the t radit io n al pat riarchal family to re s o lve the co n -
t radict io n s be t we e n it and advan ce d capit alis m. Tho s e re pre -
s e n t in g ce n t e r in t e re s t s in the s t at e t he re fo re co n t in ue to
seek a mo de l that can cre at e co he s io n for the capit alis t
pat riarchal s t at e .
The Antifeminist State
The co n flict wit hin the s t at e o ve r the chan gin g n at ure of
the family and the is s ue s of fe min is m are quit e re al. One
saw in t ras t at e co n flict durin g the C art e r admin is t rat io n
o ve r the is s ue s of the wo rkin g mo t he r, the Equal Right s
Ame n dme n t , the threat to draft wo me n , abo rt io n le gis lat io n ,
and pre gn an cy dis abilit y payme n t s . The s e is s ue s co n t in ue to
be s ign ifican t are as of co n t ro ve rs y un de r the Re agan admin is -
t rat io n ; pre s e n t at t e n t io n in the Senate is fo cus e d on a hu-
man life s t at ut e and the Laxalt Family Pro t e ct io n Bill. The
human life s t at ut e de fin e s the pe rs o n ho o d of the fe t us as be -
gin n in g at the po in t of co n ce pt io n and make s abo rt io n an act
of murde r. It re fle ct s the pat riarchal n e e d of the s t at e to
co n t ro l wo man 's o pt io n s and alt e rn at ive s to mo t he rho o d.
The Laxalt Family Pro t e ct io n Bill"t o s t re n gt he n the Ame r-
ican family and pro mo t e the virt ue s of family life t hro ugh
e ducat io n , t ax as s is t an ce and re lat e d me as ure s " is an o t he r
at t e mpt by the Right to e n fo rce t he ir vis io n of the pat riar-
chal family. It s e e ks to re s t re n gt he n t radit io n al s e x ro le s
in the family t hro ugh mo n it o rin g and co n t ro llin g the e duca-
t io n al and tax s ys t e m. Un de r this bill, e ducat io n al in s t it u-
t io n s that allo w the que s t io n in g of t radit io n al s e x ro le s ,
for in s t an ce , wo me n 's s t udie s pro grams , wo uld be de n ie d fe d-
e ral fun din g. It s e e ks to limit s e x e ducat io n in the
s cho o ls and to give t ax cre dit s to familie s for childre n ,
vo lun t e e r wo rk, and ho us e wo rk; it re quire s that pare n t s be
in fo rme d of VD, abo rt io n , and co n t race pt io n co un s e lin g for
t he ir childre n . Its majo r purpo s e is to re in fo rce the t radi-
t io n al pat riarchal he t e ro s e xual family by as s e rt in g the po w-
e r of the family again s t the s t at e and its in t e rve n t io n is t
po licie s .
Alt ho ugh it may appe ar that the s t at e is he ge mo n ic, it is
by no me an s un ifie d on this right is t po s it io n . Thre e Re pub-
Antifeminism and the Ne w Right 121
lican s e n at o rs David Dure n be rge r, Mark Hat fie ld, and Bob
Packwo o dhave s po n s o re d the Eco n o mic Equit y Act , and Pat -
rick Mo yn ihan has e n do rs e d it . It ho pe s to co un t e r "po li-
cie s in the public and privat e s e ct o r that are co mple t e ly at
o dds wit h wo rk pat t e rn s de t e rmin e d by the re alit ie s of wo m-
e n 's dual wage -e arn in g and pare n t in g." The s e n at o rs ho pe to
(1) give tax cre dit s to e mplo ye rs who hire wo me n e n t e rin g
the wo rk fo rce aft e r divo rce or de at h of a s po us e ; (2) give
the same tax s t at us to he ads of ho us e ho lds that is n o w give n
to marrie d co uple s ; (3) allo w e mplo ye rs to pro vide child
care as a t ax-fre e fringe be n e fit s imilar to he alt h in s ur-
an ce ; and (4) in cre as e tax cre dit s to o ffs e t the cost of
child care . The vis io n of the family pro po s e d he re is cle ar-
ly diffe re n t from the vis io n pre s e n t e d in the Family Pro t e c-
t io n Act . The t radit io n al pat riarchal family is juxt apo s e d
again s t the advan ce d capit alis t pat riarchal family; the "mo r-
al mo t he r" is co n t ras t e d wit h the "wo rkin g mo t he r." The co n -
flict s re fle ct diffe re n t vis io n s of ho w be s t to re vit alize
pat riarchal s o cie t y an d, wit h it , capit alis m.
The is s ue of pro t e ct in g pat riarchy fro m the de man ds of the
capit alis t e co n o my is what ult imat e ly co n ce rn s the Ne w
Right . Je rry Falwe ll, leader of the e van ge lical right and
the Mo ral Majo rit y, do cume n t s this co n ce rn in Lis t e n Ame ri-
ca. Whe n writ in g abo ut the right s of childre n , he s t at e s
that they s ho uld have the right "to have the love of a mo t h-
er and a fat he r who un de rs t an d t he ir diffe re n t ro le s and ful-
fill t he ir diffe re n t re s po n s ibilit ie s . . . . To live in an
e co n o mic s ys t e m t hat make s it po s s ible fo r hus ban ds to s up-
po rt t he ir wive s as full t ime mo t he rs in the ho me and t hat
e n able s familie s to s urvive o n o n e in co me in s t e ad o f t wo "
(22). He is an gry and crit ical of the e co n o my and in flat io n
be caus e it has e ro de d the aut ho rit at ive place of the fat he r
in the family. He wan t s to cre at e a he alt hy e co n o my, limit
in flat io n , and then re e s t ablis h the s in gle -wage -e arn e r fami-
ly. "The family is the fun dame n t al buildin g blo ck and the
bas ic un it of o ur s o cie t y, and its co n t in ue d he alt h is a pre -
re quis it e for a he alt hy and pro s pe ro us n at io n . No n at io n
has e ve r be e n s t ro n ge r than the familie s wit hin he r" (23).
Acco rdin g to Falwe ll, the fat he r's aut ho rit y mus t be re e s t ab-
lished and wit h it the o rde r of s o cie t y.
It is in t e re s t in g to n o t e that the crit icis m of fe male
wage -e arn in g's e ffe ct on family life first e me rge d in Pat -
rick Mo yn ihan 's 1965 re po rt , "The Ne gro Family, the Case for
Nat io n al Act io n ," alt ho ugh in s o me what mas ke d fo rm. Mo yn i-
han argue d there that "at the he art of the de t e rio rat io n of
the fabric of Ne gro s o cie t y is the de t e rio rat io n of the Ne -
gro family" (24). The caus e of the de t e rio rat io n of the
Black family was s e e n as be in g due in part to the e mas cula-
tion of the Black male by his female counterpart Who was
working in the labor force and/or heading a household. Moy-
nihan, believing that "the very essence of the male animal,
from the bantam rooster to the four-star general, is to
strut" (25), thought that the challenges to the Black male's
authority made a stable family relationship impossible. He
also noted in this report that "the white family has
achieved a high degree of st abi l i t y and is maintaining that
st abi l i t y" (26).
The Family Protection Act, fifteen years l at er, replicates
the concerns of the Moynihan Report, but now in the context
of the white family. The model of the white, t radi t i onal ,
patriarchal family is used in both reports to asssess the
family's st abi l i t y and vi abi l i t y. Paul Laxalt, the act ' s or-
iginal author, could as easily have quoted from Margaret
Mead as Moynihan did.
Within the family, each new generation of young males
learn the appropriate nurturing behavior and superimpose
upon their biologically given maleness this learned pa-
rental rol e. When the family breaks downas i t does un-
der slavery, under certain forms of indentured labor and
serfdom, in periods of extreme social unrest, during
wars, revolutions, famines, and epidemics, or in periods
of abrupt transition from one type of economy to anoth-
erthis delicate line of transmission is broken. Men
may flounder badly in these periods, during which the
primary unit may again become mother and child. (27)
Today, advanced capitalism and i t s racist structure re-
quire the wage-earning Black and white mother and the sin-
gle-parent family. Both of these real i t i es require a more
active st at e, even if i t is not the welfare state as it is
presently defined. Neither the traditional nor the advanced
capitalist patriarchal family, whether white or Black, is or-
ganized around women's equality (28). If one recognizes
that family forms are integrally connected to the demands of
the advanced capitalist economy, one has to move beyond the
outworn models of the competitive marketplace and the t radi -
tional family.
If Reagan and the New Right begin to appreciate these r eal -
i t i es , they will have to move beyond their rhetoric, because
in the end i t can only heighten the conflicts that appear in
people's everyday lives. After al l , the New Right's cr i -
tique of monopoly capitalism, i t s embrace of the petit bour-
geois competitive market, and i t s rage against advanced
capitalist family forms put it in real opposition to the
state i t sel f. Their theorist might have been Jean-Jacques
Rousseau. Reagan and the New Right's visions of the economy
and of the family are outmoded. But this does not mean that
they will not seek to force them on us.
The level of feminist consciousness today is directly re-
lated to the everyday experience of women, who are caught up
in the changing nature of their lives, the changing struc-
ture of the family, and the gains made by the women's move-
ment, especially those related to reproductive ri ght s. In
this sense, feminist consciousness is much larger than the
actual women's movement. We must use this consciousness to
launch an assault against the New Right. I argue that main-
stream feminist groupsparticularly those related to the re-
productive rights strugglemust direct their energy to mo-
bilizing and organizing support for feminist issues. We
need to match feminist consciousness with a strong organiza-
tion. In part, this will require our rethinking of how we
can fight both within and outside the electoral process so
that the feminist movement can present itself as a counter,
an alternative, to the New Right. We must pressure the Demo-
cratic party from within and, more importantly, from out-
side just as the New Right pressures the Republican party.
We cannot afford to remain removed from electoral struggle.
Before the New Right, the feminist movement understood
that i t s power grew out of concerns rooted in the issues of
everyday l i f e. Richard Viguerie, major fund raiser of the
New Right, makes it clear that the New Right also believes
in building their politics out of everyday issues.
It was the social issues that got us this far . . . and
t hat ' s what will take us into the future. We never real -
ly won until we began stressing issues like busing, abor-
tion, school prayer and gun control. We talked about
the sanctity of free enterprise, about the communist on-
slaught until we were blue in the face. But we didn' t
start winning majorities in elections until we got down
to gut level issues. (29)
Feminists must realize that we will have to fight it out on
these same issuesand not give them up to the Right. After
al l , we too are fighting for a moral society if morality con-
cerns equality and nonpatriarchal family forms.
The New Right has been unable to develop a vision of the
family for the present and the future that grows out of a
majority of people's everyday real needs. It represents a
minority view. Feminists must therefore struggle to build a
politics that recognizes the needs existing in the dual-
wage -earning family and the single-parent family. The New
Right may say i t is profamily, but we must counter it by
making clear that we are prochildren, prochoice, and pro-
woman . The New Right can win only if we let them. We
must therefore reenter the fight for the 1980s on the offen-
sive .
Notes
Part s of this pape r have be e n pre vio us ly publis he d in my
art icle "An t ife min is m in the Po lit ics and Ele ct io n of 1980,"
Fe min is t St udie s 7, n o . 2 (Summe r 1981).
1. I use the t e rm Ne w Right to re pre s e n t these dis parat e
co n s e rvat ive fo rce s . They do not re pre s e n t a ho mo ge n -
o us an alys is of the cris is of libe ralis m n o r do they
co n s t it ut e a s in gle un ifie d po lit ics ; some of the
s harpe s t dis agre e me n t s are be t we e n the n e o co n s e rva-
t ive s and the Ne w Right .
2. Pe t e r St e in fe ls , The Ne o C o n s e rvat ive s , the Me n Who Are
C han gin g Ame rica's Po lit ics (Ne w Yo rk: Simon & Schus -
t e r, 1979); and Nat han Glaze r and Irvin g Kris t o l,
e ds ., The Ame rican C o mmo n we alt h, 1976 (New Yo rk: Ba-
sic Bo o ks , 1976).
3. I dis t in guis h this use of the t e rm libe ralis m fro m the
use that e quat e s it wit h the we lfare s t at e . Bo t h us e s
are re le van t t o day. I t he re fo re argue that alt ho ugh
libe ralis m primarily de fin e s pe o ple 's co n s cio us n e s s
and value s in t his s o cie t y, it als o is re je ct e d whe n
it is de fin e d the we lfare s t at e . This in it s e lf
po s e s a s e rio us pro ble m for the libe ral de mo crat ic
s t at e .
4. See Emma Ro t hs child, "Re agan and the Re al Ame rica," Ne w
Yo rk Re vie w o f Bo o ks 28, n o . 1 (5 Fe bruary 1981): 12-
18.
5. Pre s e n t ly, 57 pe rce n t of t wo -pare n t familie s have two
wage -e arn e rs . See Familie s and Public Po licie s in
the Un it e d St at e s , Fin al Re po rt o f the C o mmis s io n
(Was hin gt o n , D.C .: Nat io n al C o n fe re n ce on So cial We l-
fare , 1978). Available from Nat io n al C o n fe re n ce on So -
cial We lfare , 1730 M St re e t , NW, St e . 911, Was hin gt o n ,
DC 20036.
6. Barbara Ehre n re ich, "The Wo me n 's Mo ve me n t s : Fe min is t
and An t ife min is t ," Radical Ame rica 15, n o s . 1 & 2
(Sprin g 1981):100.
7. See my bo o k, The Radical Fut ure o f Libe ral Fe min is m
(New Yo rk: Lo n gman , 1981), ch. 9, for a mo re de ve l-
o pe d dis cus s io n .
8. See Radical Fut ure o f Libe ral Fe min is m, e s pe cially
chs . 2 and 10.
9. See Nan cy C ho do ro w, The Re pro duct io n o f Mo t he rin g, Ps y-
cho an alys is and the So cio lo gy o f Ge n de r (Be rke le y:
Un ive rs it y of C alifo rn ia Pre s s , 1978); and Adrie n n e
Rich, Of Wo man Bo rn (New Yo rk: W.W. No rt o n , 1976).
10. Be rt ram Gro s s , Frie n dly Fas cis m (Ne w Yo rk: Evan s &
C o ., 1980).
11. "Working mother" is the phrase used by the st at e to des-
cribe wage-earning mothers. This phrase assumes that
mothers who are not in the labor force are not working
as mothers. As such, i t denies the r eal i t y of wom-
an' s labor a a mother and at the same time, defines
her as a mother f i r s t , even when she is working in the
market.
12. See Seymour Martin Lipset and Earl Rabb, "The Election
and the Evangelicals," Commentary 71, no. 3 (March
1981):25-31.
13. This data was compiled by a AP/NBC Poll of about eleven
thousand vot ers.
14. The National Now Times 11, no. 4 (April 1981):2.
15. Ibid.
16. See The Radical Fut ure o f Libe ral Fe min is m, e s pe cially
chs . 9 and 10.
17. Lee Rain wat e r and William Yan ce y, The Mo yn ihan Re po rt
and the Po lit ics o f C o n t ro ve rs y (C ambridge , Mas s .:
MIT Pre s s , 1967), p. 49.
18. "Fact s We Dare Not Fo rge t ," Dis s e n t 28, n o . 2 (Sprin g
1981).-166. "C rit ical C ho ice s for the Eight ie s " can be
o bt ain e d fro m the Supe rin t e n de n t of Do cume n t s , U.S.
Go ve rn me n t Prin t in g Office , Was hin gt o n , DC 20402.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. Je rry Falwe ll, Lis t e n , Ame rica (Ne w Yo rk: Do uble day &
C o ., 1980), p. 26.
22. Ibid., p. 148 (my e mphas is ).
23. Ibid., p. 121.
24. Rain wat e r and Yan ce y, Mo yn ihan Re po rt , p. 5.
25. Ibid., p. 62.
26. Ibid., p. 51.
27. Ibid., p. 63, quo t e d from Margare t Me ad, Male and Fe -
male (New Yo rk: NAL, 1967), p. 148.
28. See my "The St at e, the Pat ri archal Family, and 'Working
Mothers,' " in Irene Diamond's Families, Pol i t i cs and
Public Policy: A Feminist Dialogue on Women and the
State (New York: Longman, in pr ess) .
29. Ben Bedell, "The New Right Sets It s Agenda," Guardian
33, no. 26 (1 April 1981):5.
JAN ROSENBERG
Feminism, the Family, and the New Right
(1980)
Vast changes have marked indelibly the social relations be-
tween the sexes in post-World War II America. These changes
have ranged from women's increasing labor force participa-
tion through the expansion of female involvement in higher
education to behavior and norms concerning marriage, di -
vorce, sexuality, and child rearing. Take one key s t at i s -
t i c: the divorce rate doubled between 1950 and 1980 (1).
As part and parcel of these changes the family has become a
major pol i t i cal and intellectual battleground, now defended
as vociferously by the New Right as it once was attacked by
elements of the New Left and many early feminists.
The transformation of the traditional family has reverber-
ated throughout the society, though typically professional
and working-class women experienced and responded to these
shocks very differently (2). To many middle- and upper-mid-
dle-class women, the changes meant rising career expecta-
tions and expanding opportunities to achieve independence
and individuality, once closely guarded male prerogatives
now adopted by feminism..Working-class women, however, gener-
ally cleaved to the norms of family-centered traditionalism
even as many felt sharp pangs of dissatisfaction with emerg-
ing real i t i es of family life (3).
How, and to what extent, has the grass-roots, working-
class view of the family resonated with the sentiments of a
pol i t i cal movement, the New Right? What are the basic val -
ues and assumptions that inform the conservatives of the pro-
family New Right? What alliances have they made, at what
costs, to transform personal and collective sentiments and a
core of cultural symbols into a pol i t i cal movement? What is
the range of New Right issues, economically and pol i t i cal l y
as well as culturally, and where does the family fi t into
the larger agenda?
This art i cl e addresses these questions by exploring the
cultural contours and class bases of feminist and antifemin-
ist/New Right views of the family. It argues that the New
Right, the most vocal and highly organized threat to femin-
Feminism, Family, and the Ne w Right 127
is m, re ache s far be yo n d mo ve me n t act ivis t s , t o uchin g re s po n -
sive cho rds amo n g man y wo me n and me n who s e ide n t it ie s are
rooted in t radit io n al familie s . The abilit y of fe min is m to
s ucce s s fully co mbat the Ne w Right de pe n ds in part on whe t he r
adhe re n t s can pe rs uas ive ly re pudiat e the vie w that the logic
of fe min is m n e ce s s arily leads to the o blit e rat io n of the
family.
Feminism, Social Class, and the Family
Fo r man y yo un ge r pro fe s s io n al wo me n , the gro up from which
fe min is t le ade rs hip and core me mbe rs hip is drawn (4), the
family had come to be s e e n as a fe t t e r on wo me n 's in dividual
achie ve me n t and e xpre s s io n . The s e an t ifamily vie ws may be
s e e n , in part , as an e xt e n s io n of a ce n t ral t e n de n cy in mid-
dle - and uppe r-middle -clas s cult ure t he e mphas is on in divid-
ualis m and achie ve me n t (5). In the late 1960s and e arly
1970s , radical fe min is t s re pudiat e d the do me s t ic "impris o n -
me n t " o f wo me n in favo r of public achie ve me n t . The y be gan
by crit icizin g fe male s ubo rdin at io n wit hin the pat riarchal
family but quickly mo ve d to a who le s ale re je ct io n of the fam-
ily it s e lf. By co n fus in g the t radit io n al family wit h the
family pe r s e , t he s e wo me n de n ie d the human e , fulfillin g po s -
s ibilit ie s of marriage and family life wit h re s t ruct ure d s e x
ro le s , child re arin g, and ho us e ke e pin g (6). It is not s ur-
pris in g that the mo ve me n t 's e arlie s t at t acks we re so in t e n s e
and un diffe re n t iat e d (many wo me n we re e n rage d whe n they dis -
co ve re d the e xt e n t of their o wn s ubo rdin at io n ) or that they
e ve n t ually ge n e rat e d so much o ppo s it io n o ut s ide the fe min is t
mo ve me n t . What is s urpris in g, ho we ve r, is that o t he r fe min -
is t s failed to make the crucial dis t in ct io n s be t we e n the
pat riarchal family and o t he r po s s ible , mo re e galit arian fami-
ly fo rms . (Spe culat io n abo ut alt e rn at ive s fas t e n e d o n t o co m-
mun e s , n o t re s t ruct ure d familie s .)
As the fo llo win g quo t e s illus t rat e , fe min is t s , like large
s e gme n t s of the co un t e rcult ure , s aw the family as the locus
of s e xual re pre s s io n , the bre e din g gro un d of all in e qualit y
and e xplo it at io n , and the he art of pro vin cialis m and part icu-
laris m (7). Sis t e rho o d Is Po we rful (1970), o n e of the
mo s t po pular an t ho lo gie s of the n e w fe min is m, in clude d an at -
tack e n t it le d "The Dyn amics of Marriage and Mo t he rho o d":
No one wo uld t hin k of judgin g a marriage by its first
hun dre d days . . . in ge n e ral all is happin e s s ; the girl
has fin ally made it ; the pas t is but a bad dre am. All
good t hin gs are abo ut to co me to he r. And then re alit y
sets in . . . . The man mo ve s to insure his po s it io n of
po we r and do min an ce . (8)
Even Juliet Mitchell, one of the most thoughtful and influen-
t i al early feminist t heori st s, attacked the family as tyran-
nical, though Mitchell tried to differentiate the biological
family from an alternative, nonbiological family form. As
was typically the case, the alternative remained hazy and ab-
st ract , more a reproach than a historical possibility.
Mitchell wrote of an ideal future when "the dependence of
the child on the mother (and vice versa) would give way to a
greatly shortened dependence on a small group of others in
general. . . . The tyranny of the biological family would
be broken" (9). Like others, Mitchell envisioned the aboli-
tion of the family, not i t s reform, thus accepting the then-
popular notion that families are necessarily oppressive to
women.
Perhaps the most memorable image of antifamily ideology is
s t i l l Shulamith Firestone' s technological fantasy in The Di-
alectic of Sex (1970). Even if one discounts Firestone' s
extreme, sci-fi formulations about "extrauterine pregnancy,"
one is left with the view that the family is the fount of
women's subordination and powerlessness. In a concluding
chapter of The Dialectic of Sex, Firestone summarizes her
account of women's (and children' s) role within the family
as follows:
We have now attacked the family on a double front, chal-
lenging that around which it is organized: reproduction
of the species by families and i t s outgrowth, the physi-
cal dependence of women and children. To eliminate
these would be enough to destroy the family, which
breeds the power psychology. (10)
Some women now argue that the early women's movement was
not so much antifamily as i t was prowoman, but they ignore
how easily prowoman attitudes become antifamily and ant i -
male. It was difficult to emphasize the virtues of female-
ness without at least implicitly denigrating maleness and
the institutionalization of heterosexuality in the family.
Swept away by the lure of transcendence in the outside
world, women replaced one set of stereotypes with another.
We had moved, in the words of early feminist Alice Rossi,
from the old stereotype of women as pure, the home their
pedestal and motherhood their true and exclusive f ul f i l l -
ment , to a "new" stereotype of the home as a cage, i t s
maintenance "shit-work" and motherhood a "drag." . . .
To read the social science and pol i t i cal literature in
this area is to gain the impression that women can find
nothing but economic dependency, boredom, and mental
Feminism, Family, and the New Right 129
stagnation at home, while they can find true fulfillment
and autonomy only by holding down a job. (11)
Anthropologist Joan Cassell captured this aspect of the wom-
en' s movement when she wrote:
The consciousness-raising confessional mode has i t s (un-
spoken) conventions, as does the "feminine" mode. . . .
One reveals difficulties or disillusion with men, but
says l i t t l e good about relationships with the opposite
sex. . . . One discusses one's work, but keeps discreet-
ly quiet about the joys of motherhoodalthough one is
free to describe the difficulties and inconveniences
posed by children. There i s , in short, an inversion of
the conventions of middle-class conversation, where con-
sumption is stressed, financial and marital difficulties
glossed over, and motherhood glorified. (12)
The younger feminists' renunciation of family life was em-
bedded in the age as well as the social-class base of their
branch of the movement; it appealed most to those just begin-
ning their adult lives with very high expectations for mak-
ing their own destinies. Socially, the relatively egal i t ari -
an college experiences of unprecedented numbers of women in
the 1960s undoubtedly fanned the flames of their ambitions
and led to the revolution of rising expectations. Intellec-
tually, Siraone de Beauvoir's "work equals transcendence"
equation legitimized and theoretically grounded their views
and values concerning work and their shared denigration of
family l i f e.
By the mid-seventies, this was beginning to change. As
younger feminists grew a bit older and distanced themselves
from their earlier ambitions, they began revising their
views of the family and of work. Leading feminist documen-
tary filmmakers, as early as 1973, gave cinematic shape to
the emerging reassessment of the family by exploring their
own matrilineages (13). A fuller and more complex and shad-
ed image of women's past came into focus; the strengths of
women's traditional roles as mothers, homemakers, and work-
ers were explored in loving detail within a broader feminist
view which simultaneously deplored women's traditional sub-
ordination. Joyce at 34, s t i l l the protypical film about
women's heritage, traces three generations of women in a
family, while exploring the shifting balance between work
and family roles in their lives. (Other significant films
in this genre are: Old-Fashioned Women, Nana, Mom and
Me, and Yudie.)
In addition to life-stage changes for younger feminists,
broader changes in the women's movement and in the larger
society also affected these women's shifting views of the
family. The radicalization of NOW's objectives and the
broadening of i t s base meant that by the early seventies the
distinctions between the rights and liberationist tendencies
of feminism had faded considerably (14). For the entire
movement, the personal was now pol i t i cal , and consciousness
raising was seen as an appropriate strategy for unearthing
the personal sources of women's oppression. Women in the
rights branch whose i ni t i al interests in feminism were
directed outward at collectively reforming or transforming
social institutions that discriminated against women added a
new dimension by attempting to focus some of their energies
on the private sphere and reforming or transforming them-
selves .
Changes in the larger political context of American soci-
ety further clarify shifts in feminist ideology and views of
the family. The current American political climate con-
trasts sharply with that of the si xt i es; between 1966 and
1980, there was a marked decline in left-liberal political
activity. Christopher Lasch, Tom Wolfe, and others argue
that Americans have become ensnared in narcissism (15). The
seemingly endless appeal of various self-help movements
(EST, assertiveness training, Esalen, exercise, and running)
and best-selling books on how to say no without guilt and
how to be your own best friend are taken as conclusive
evidence that Americans have retreated from politics and
have become obsessed with gratifying their personal appe-
t i t es for money, power, body fitness, and sex.
Parallel shifts from public/political to private/internal
emphases characterized the women's movement during the same
period. Many commentators glibly assumed that privatization
signified a repudiation of core feminist values and hence
the demise of the contemporary women's movement. This is
only part of the story. For many feminists, the privatiza-
tion of the women's movement paral l el s, but is distinct
from, the narcissism mentioned above. Privatization indi-
cates that some feminists are involved in the difficult but
demanding task of integrating feminist values into their per-
sonal lives, rather than rejecting such values.
It seems likely that contemporary feminists were following
the same internal dialectic that characterized earlier gener-
ations of feminist act i vi st s. Alice Rossi has argued that
social change involves a predictable dialectic between the
public and private expression of core values (16). Individ-
uals (or generations) who engage in highly visible public
activity in the political arena in one stage of their lives
may struggle to apply the same values to the personal, pr i -
vate sphere in the next stage (or the next generation).
Each stage strengthens the entire fabric of social change:
public, political behavior has an impact on social i nst i t u-
tions and private behavior has an impact on personal l i fe.
Through this di al ect i c, public ideas are translated into the
stuff of private lives, and social theory is refined and mod-
ified. NOW's profamily conference (1979) signaled i t s new
position, just as much socialist-feminist theory modifies
the antifamily thrust of early feminists (17).
For many onlookers and cr i t i cs, however, the antifamily
tendency of feminist ideology continued to define the entire
women's movement in spite of emerging revisions. To many
powerful opponents of feminism, particularly among Roman
Catholics and supporters of Phyllis Schlafly, the 1972-73
congressional passage of the equal rights resolution and the
Supreme Court decisions declaring abortion a constitutional
right symbolized the victory of antifaraily feminism. (Neith-
er the ERA nor prochoice positions are inherently antifami-
ly, of course, though they were sometimes presented that way
by feminists, and more importantly, they were perceived and
defined as such by the emerging opposition to feminism
[18]). The Catholic bishops and Schlafly, working in their
separate ways, galvanized a shr i l l , strident defense of t ra-
ditionalisma defense nurtured by the special meaning the
family holds in working-class culture.
The Working Class and the Family
Among the working class, identities are typically submerged
in, and given meaning by, the web of relationships that con-
st i t ut e the familynot merely the stripped-down, nuclear
family and companionate marriage that haunt the sociological
and popular literature and are most commonly found among mo-
bile professionals, but the extended family (or family ci r-
cle) in which the nuclear family is embedded. It is the
focus of social l i fe; married children and parents, sib-
lings, cousins, and in-laws often live near one another and
rely on each other for material and emotional support. The
most meaningful social relations and most frequent social
interaction occur within these wider familial bounds. Ties
among selected, typically same-sex kin, formed in childhood,
often bind individuals to a cohesive peer group throughout
their lives. Among working-class women, female kin and
friends offered the companionship, intimacy, and support
that middle- and upper-middle-class women sought increasing-
ly from their spouses. The possibility of meaningful, non-
competitive relationships with other women, an important
promise of the feminist movement, was already a fact of life
for many working-class women.
Marriage, not work, is seen as the gateway to maturity and
adulthood for most working-class women and men (19). This
should not come as a surprise, given the i nt ri nsi c limita-
tions of most blue-collar and lower-level white-collar jobs.
Work is often routine, boring, and narrowly defined, allow-
ing l i t t l e room for imagination or personal judgment. As
others have frequently noted, work i s , and is expected to
be, a means toward desired ends, in no way "i t s own reward."
In addition, marriage is the typical passageway from the pa-
rental home to one' s own home, and it is through marriage
that one becomes ensconced in an extended family network.
Rather than viewing marriage and the family as a restraining
t et her, working-class people more commonly regard i t as a
barrier against an alien and increasingly intrusive soci -
etyas something that protects "us" from "them."
The New Right: Threat to Feminism
The New Right is more heterogeneous and divided than its
name or popular image suggests. It combines three separate
streams of contemporary life: culture (life-style and r el i -
gion), politics (foreign policy), and economics (free market
ideology and antiunion strategy). The cultural sphere draws
on two major institutional axesfamily/sexuality and r el i -
gion (20). It is these, especially the family/sexuality con-
stellation, that constitute the major threat to the contempo-
rary feminist movement. The profamily movement favors
resurrecting an idealized patriarchal family structure and
claims to oppose government intervention in family life
while in fact favoring i t s own brand of government regula-
tions of sexuality, abortion, and marital relationships. It
is against the ERA, abortion, divorce, sex education, public-
ly supported child care, homosexuality, and what it sees as
lurking beneath all these issuesthe overall decline of
male authority.
In the face of the conflict over the meaning of the fami-
ly, the cultural traditionalists within the New Right have
entered into an ironic alliance with free-marketeersironic
because the market has been the great engine of change under-
minig social and cultural tradition. As Robert Heilbroner
recently wrote:
Capitalism builds and it also undermines. It satisfies
wants but creates new ones even more rapidly, so that
capitalist societies are marked by a perpetual craving,
not a sense of commitment. (21)
In spite of their rhetoric, the free-marketeers' economic
ideals are guaranteed to undercut the stability and conserva-
tism that their al l i es, the profamily groups, are seeking.
Capitalism has undermined stability and has led, instead to
a loss of cultural coherence; it has bred modernism, that
great "rage against order and bourgeois orderliness." Yet
the contradictions between capitalism's endless thrust t o-
ward change and innovation and the cultural conservative's
quest for stability are largely ignored or obscured in the
current attempt to forge alliances and create a New Major-
i t y.
Although some New Right activists sincerely seek a return
to traditional family and religious values as their main pr i -
ority, certain key movement leaders manipulate family senti-
ments to mask their more basic antigovernment, laissez-faire
economic program. Paul Weyrich, spokesman for the Committee
for the Survival of a Free Congress (CSFC), a leading New
Right organization that embraces all three main tendencies,
baldly laid out his strategy for publicly emphasizing the
family and other cultural/quality-of-life issues as follows:
"We talk about issues that people care about, like gun con-
t r ol , abortion, taxes, and crime. Yes, they're emotional
issues, but t hat ' s better than talking about capital forma-
tion" (22).
Since making that statement, Weyrich has increasingly em-
phasized family/life-style issues. He recently helped found
Library Court, a Washington-based coalition of more than
twenty national profamily groups which meets frequently to
discuss issues and formulate strategies. Statements made by
some profamily spokesmen indicate they are trying to main-
tain their integrity against pressure from the broader New
Right movement. Implicitly denying the subordination of
family issues to economic and foreign policy concerns, Jim
Wright, chairman of the Christian Coalition for Legislative
Action, asserted: "The pro-family movement is not a subset
of the conservative movement" (23). Similarly, another
Library Court participant proclaimed "the New Right influ-
ences the pro-family movement only to the extent that it
shares the movement's God centered views and that the move-
ment needs the New Right's technical guidance" (24).
What holds this diverse, multifaceted movement of cultural
conservatives, free-marketeers, and xenophobes together? A
fully developed analysis of the New Right is beyond the
scope of this paper, but even a brief discussion such as
this must mention two primary factors: the Jacobite/restor-
ationist ideology that marks each cluster of issues, and the
overlapping national leadership, including organizations and
journals as well as individuals. All three axial clusters
culture, economics, and foreign policyshare an aggressive
nostalgia for an idealized, simpler past in which America,
the dominant world power, was ruled by successful business-
men and inhabited by happy, God-fearing families headed by
strong, decisive fathers and loving, supportive, full-time
mothers. Each strand of the New Right is attempting to es-
tablish one element of this sentimentalized version of the
past.
In sum, the New Right is a cluster of restorationist for-
ces and groups responding to cultural, economic, and pol i t i -
cal tensions which have characterized American society since
the mid-1940s. New Right groups have begun to tap the long-
standing cultural conservatism of blue-collar Democrats
(mostly Catholics) and to activate the political potential
of the evangelical Christians (estimated at 30 to 40 million
Americans) (25), which their national leaders hope to join
with the economic conservatism (read "union busting") of mid-
dle-level businessmen. All three major groups, for reasons
of their own, feed into the overwrought nationalism which is
the third leg of the New Right's power base.
At the moment, the New Right seems to be riding high by
glossing over the internal contradictions within i t s far-
flung base and underscoring the pervasive sense of loss and
drift that casts such a large shadow on contemporary Ameri-
ca. But i t s coalition of diverse forces will not hold forev-
er. Even more significantly, the New Right's vision derives
from a nostalgic, sentimentalized version of our past and
consequently offers l i t t l e to shape our vision of the
future.
Feminists have provided ample, insightful criticism of
this idealized myth: i t denies the costs of business domin-
ance to working people and of male dominance to women, and
systematically overlooks the endemic conflicts between busi-
ness and labor, men and women, the United States and other
countries. Like al l myths, this one distorts our understand-
ing of our own past and present.
As feminists, we need to rethink our basic assumptions
about the meaning of, and tensions between, individualism,
family, and community, and to repudiate the radical individu-
alism and unbounded social experimentalism that have led us
into the current cul-de-sac.
Notes
Members of the Park Slope women's group deserve special
thanks for forcing me to clarify my ideas and helping me to
anticipate my cr i t i cs. Liz Phillips and Jo Freeman were par-
t i cul arl y important in helping me sharpen ideas that often
conflicted with their own. Thanks, too, to Carole Turbin
and Sue Levine for asking tough questions.
1. From 1950 to 1978, the proportion of women who worked at
paid jobs nearly doubled, increasing from 32 to 56 per-
cent. Mothers with young children became a sizable
proportion of the new female wage earners, increasing
tenfold from 1940 to 1975. See Alice Kessler-Harris,
Women Have Always Worked (Old Westbury, N.Y.: Femin-
i st Press / McGraw-Hill, 1981), pp. 144-48 for a sum-
mary of contemporary trends. Many of the relevant da-
ta on women and family status are presented in Ameri-
can Families and Living Arrangements (U.S. Bureau of
the Census, 1980).
2. Characteristically, working-class women have high school
educations, blue-collar or low-level white-collar ( t r a-
ditionally female) occupations (if they work outside
the home), very modest family incomes, and l i t t l e if
any savings. Professional women, by contrast, have
college degrees and additional education in many cas-
es, relatively high incomes, and professional careers.
3. The extensive sociological l i t erat ure supports this the-
s i s . These studies include Herbert Gans, The Urban
Villagers (New York: Free Press, 1962); Mirra Komar-
ovsky, Blue Collar Marriage (New York: Random
House, 1964); Michael Young and Peter Willmott, Fami-
ly and Kinship in East London (London: Routledge &
Kegan Paul, 1957); Arlene Mancuso, Women of Old Town
(Ph.D. di ss. , Columbia Teachers College, 1977); Nancy
Seifer, Absent from the Majority (New York: Nation-
al Project on Ethnic Research, 1973); David M.
Schneider and Raymond T. Smith, Class Differences in
American Kinship (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Press, 1978). Recent studies underscore the continu-
ing importance of family roles for working-class wom-
en. The 1980 Virginia Slims Survey indicates that wom-
en' s preferences for job versus housewife roles cor-
relates closely with their educational level (an im-
portant indicator of social cl ass). (The 1980 Virgin-
ia Slims American Women's Opinion Poll: A Survey of
Contemporary Attitudes, Conducted by the Roper Organi-
zation, p. 55.) And Arrington and Kyle's study of
pro- and anti-ERA act i vi st s lends further support to
the existence of a traditional cultural orientation
among working-class women. The women opposed to the
ERA were less educated than the other three groups
studied (men opposed, men and women supporters). In
addit io n , wo me n act ivis t s o ppo s e d to the ERA we re ve ry
like ly to be ho us e wive s , whe re as almo s t all the wo me n
s uppo rt e rs wo rke d o ut s ide the ho me and o ve r half of
t he s e we re pro fe s s io n als . See The o do re S. Arrin gt o n
and Pat ricia A. Kyle , "Equal Right s Ame n dme n t Act iv-
is t s in No rt h C aro lin a," Sign s 3, n o . 3 (Sprin g
1978).
4. See Jo Fre e man , The Po lit ics o f Wo me n 's Libe rat io n
(Ne w Yo rk: David McKay C o ., 1975); Barbara Eas t o n ,
"Fe min is m and the C o n t e mpo rary Family," So cialis t Re -
vie w, n o . 39 (May-Jun e 1978); and Mare n Lo ckwo o d C ar-
de n , The Ne w Fe min is t Mo ve me n t (Ne w Yo rk: Rus s e ll
Sage , 1974) for the clas s bas e of the wo me n 's mo ve -
me n t .
5. In dividualis m re fe rs to the un de rlyin g be lie f in wo m-
e n 's right to pe rs o n al e xpre s s io n and fulfillme n t , to
s e lf-act ualizat io n . Man y act ivis t s who acce pt e d this
in dividualis t go al als o re co gn ize d that co lle ct ive po -
lit ical act io n was n e ce s s ary to achie ve it . Impo rt an t
s e co n dary t e n de n cie s , fro m the po lit ico s in the late
1960s to s o cialis t fe min is t s t o day have pro vide d an
ide o lo gical crit ique of the pro in dividualis t e t ho s of
fe min is m.
6. See Blan che Glas s man He rs h, The Slave ry o f Se x: Fe min -
is t -Abo lit io n is t s in Ame rica (Urban a: Un ive rs it y of
Illin o is Pre s s , 1978) fo r an in t e re s t in g in t e rpre t a-
tion of n in e t e e n t h-ce n t ury fe min is m and the family.
7. See Je s s e Be rn ard, Wo me n , Wive s , Mo t he rs (C hicago : Al-
din e Publis hin g C o ., 1975), e s pe cially C h. 9, "C las s
and Fe min is t Is s ue s ," fo r a dis cus s io n of the an t in a-
t alis t and an t ifamily impe t us of the e arly fe min is t
mo ve me n t .
8. Be ve rly Jo n e s , "The Dyn amics of Marriage and Mo t he r-
ho o d," in Sis t e rho o d Is Po we rful, e d. Ro bin Mo rgan
(Ne w Yo rk: Vin t age Bo o ks , 1970), p. 46.
9. Julie t Mit che ll, Wo man 's Es t at e (Ne w Yo rk: Vin t age
Bo o ks , 1973).
10. Shulamit h Fire s t o n e , The Diale ct ic o f Se x (Ne w Yo rk:
Ban t am, 1972), p. 208.
11. Alice Ro s s i, "Re s po n s e ," Sign s 5, n o . 4 (Summe r 1979):
714-15.
12. Jo an C as s e ll, A Gro up C alle d Wo man (Ne w Yo rk: David
McKay, 1975), pp. 57-58.
13. Jan Ro s e n be rg, Fe min is m in t o Film: So cial Bas e s o f an
Art is t ic Mo ve me n t (Tro y, N.Y.: Whit s t o n Publis hin g
C o ., in pre s s ).
14. Fo r s hift s in the wo me n 's mo ve me n t from the late 1960s
in t o the 1970s , s e e , for e xample , Mare n Lo ckwo o d
Feminism, Family, and the Ne w Right 137
C arde n , Fe min is m in 1975: the No n -Es t ablis hme n t , the
Es t ablis hme n t , and the Fut ure (Ne w Yo rk: Ford Fo un da-
t io n , 1976) and Fre e man , Po lit ics o f Wo me n 's Libe ra-
t io n .
15. C hris t o phe r Las ch, The C ult ure of Narcis s is m (New
Yo rk: Vikin g, 1977); Richard Se n n e t t , "De s t ruct ive
Ge me in s chaaft ," Part is an Re vie w, n o . 3 (1976); To m
Wo lfe , "The Me De cade and the Third Gre at Awake n in g,"
Ne w Yo rk Magazin e , 23 Augus t 1976; Richard Kazis ,
"Be rge r-Tan n e r and the Ne w Narcis s is m," So cialis t
Re vo lut io n 7, n o . 5 (1977). Fred Sie ge l's "The Ago n y
of C hris t o phe r Las ch," Re vie ws in Ame rican His t o ry
8, n o . 3 (Se pt e mbe r 1980), po in t s to the co n t in uit ie s
amd co n t radict io n s in Las ch
1
s wo rk.
16. Alice Ro s s i, "C o n t e mpo rary Ame rican Fe min is m: In and
Out of the Po lit ical Main s t re am," pape r de live re d at
In t e rn at io n al Sympo s ium on Re s e arch on Po pular Mo ve -
me n t s , St o ckho lm, Swe de n , Fe bruary 1978.
17. Nan cy C ho do ro w, The Re pro duct io n o f Mo t he rin g (Be rke -
ley: Un ive rs it y of C alifo rn ia Pre s s , 1978), and
Eas t o n , "Fe min is m and the C o n t e mpo rary Family."
18. C aro l Mue lle r, "Ran co ro us C o n flict and Oppo s it io n to the
ERA," pape r pre s e n t e d at the An n ual Me e t in g of the
Ame rican So cio lo gical As s o ciat io n , Ne w Yo rk C it y,
1976.
19. Pe t e r Ske rry, "The C las s C o n flict o ve r Abo rt io n ," Pub-
lic In t e re s t , n o . 52 (Summe r 1978), o ffe rs co n s ide r-
able in s ight into these is s ue s . The part icularly
ble ak, is o lat e d e xis t e n ce Lillian Rubin so mo vin gly
de s cribe s in Wo rlds o f Pain is at o dds wit h mo s t
s t udie s of wo rkin g-clas s family life . Rubin 's s ample
C alifo rn ia familie s may be ge o graphically cut o ff from
kin who wo uld o t he rwis e be impo rt an t .
20. Fred Siege 1, "No t e s on the Ne w Right ," C o mmo n we al, 7
May 1981 , pro vide s an in cis ive his t o rical pe rs pe ct ive
on the s o cial bas e and ide o lo gical core of the Ne w
Right .
21. Ro be rt He ilbro n e r, "The Ro ad to Se rfdo m," Ne w Yo rk Re -
vie w o f Bo o ks 27 (17 April 1980):6.
22. Quo t e d in Je rry Phe lan and Flo Es t e s , "The Ne w Right :
Thre at to Labo r," Labo r C e n t e r Re vie w (Amhe rs t ,
Mas s .) 1 (Fall/Win t e r 1980).
23. Quoted in C o n s e rvat ive Dige s t , May/Jun e 1980.
24. Quo t e d in C o n s e rvat ive Dige s t , May/Jun e 1980.
25. Ne w Yo rk Time s , 17 Augus t 1980.
LISA DESPOSITO
The New Right and the Abortion Issue
Abo rt io n is a co mple x and e mo t io n al is s ue , and acco rdin g to
the pre vale n t me dia myt h, all C at ho lics o ppo s e it ve he me n t -
ly. But do they re ally? All re ce n t po lls s ho w that
alt ho ugh Ame rican C at ho lics may re je ct abo rt io n for t he m-
s e lve s , they do not o ppo s e it as a legal o pt io n . C at ho lics
be lie ve abo rt io n is a mat t e r of in dividual cho ice and co n -
s cie n ce . Ne ve rt he le s s , in the pas t s e ve ral ye ars , the Ro man
C at ho lic hie rarchy and s ubs e que n t ly the Ne w Right have
seized on the co mple xit ie s of the abo rt io n is s ue and used
t he m to furt he r t he ir o wn po lit ical age n da. Should the n e w
gro up of pro life , pro family act ivis t s s ucce e d in pas s in g
such re s t rict ive le gis lat io n , we will lose mo re t han t we n t y
ye ars of pro gre s s ive le gis lat io n and s o cial pro grams ; in the
pro ce s s we will lose man y de arly he ld co n s t it ut io n al right s .
This art icle t rie s to do cume n t the un e as y allian ce be t we e n
the C at ho lic hie rarchy, fun dame n t alis t C hris t ian s , and Ne w
Right is t s . I wan t to s ho w ho w the Ne w Right has t arge t e d
blue -co llar wo rke rs , the lo we r to middle clas s e s , ce rt ain
e t hn ic gro ups , co n s e rvat ive s , and t radit io n al De mo crat s pe o -
ple who have be e n calle d the old "Ne w De al co alit io n "t o
build a pro family army. Ro man C at ho lics co mpris e a s ubs t an -
t ial pe rce n t age of the t arge t e d co n s t it ue n cy, as do fun dame n -
t alis t C hris t ian s . The right to life mo ve me n t is large ly
co mpo s e d of C at ho lics and fun dame n t alis t C hris t ian s . In ad-
dit io n , the hie rarchy of the C at ho lic church has had an im-
po rt an t place in the de ve lo pme n t of the right to life mo ve -
me n t , which in t urn has served as a role mo de l for the
large r Ne w Right po lit ical phe n o me n o n . The right to life
mo ve me n t has give n co n s e rvat ive po lit ical o rgan ize rs crit i-
cal acce s s to re ligio us in s t it ut io n s and to the C at ho lic co m-
mun it y.
In e n t e rin g such a co alit io n , the C at ho lic hie rarchy has
put it s e lf in an e xt re me ly awkward po s it io n , since abo rt io n
re ally is its majo r po in t of co n t act and agre e me n t wit h the
Right . In fo rmin g this in fo rmal allian ce , the church ris ks
its mo re libe ral s t an ds on o t he r s o cial is s ue s . It als o
The Ne w Right an d Abortion 139
ris ks lo s in g the s uppo rt of much of the C at ho lic lait y,
which is dis t urbe d, e ve n alarme d, by the hys t e rical, re ac-
t io n ary po lit ics of the Ne w Right . In he lpin g to e le ct co n -
s e rvat ive , an t iabo rt io n le gis lat o rs , the church is als o he lp-
ing to dis man t le the kin ds of s o cial jus t ice pro grams it has
s uppo rt e d in the pas t .
My o wn cre de n t ials for writ in g this pape r re fle ct the o p-
po s in g t re n ds amo n g C at ho lics . I was bro ught up and s t ill
live in Bro o klyn , Ne w Yo rk. I was raised in a large , clo s e ,
t radit io n al, and ve ry co n s e rvat ive C at ho lic family. The ma-
jo rit y of my re lat ive s are blue -co llar wo rke rs . Ye t I am an
abo rt io n -right s o rgan ize r for Plan n e d Pare n t ho o d o f Ne w Yo rk
C it y, and I am an act ive me mbe r of C at ho lics for a Fre e
C ho ice . Thus I un de rs t an d bo t h s ide s of the is s ue . Al-
t ho ugh I be lie ve firmly in le gal abo rt io n , I als o see ho w
the Ne w Right can appe al to man y pe o ple . I be lie ve that pro -
cho ice act ivis t s can n o t s imply dis mis s t radit io n al co n s t it u-
e n cie s as ho pe le s s re act io n arie s . Fo r pe o ple wit h my back-
gro un d, "fe min is t s ," "libe rals ," and "le ft is t s " are s e e n as
a t hre at to familie s , n e ighbo rho o ds , and churche s that pe o -
ple have wo rke d hard to cre at e and s us t ain . Pe o ple wan t to
han g o n to the s t abilit y of mo rals and value s they have al-
ways kn o wn . As an o rgan ize r, my task is to co n vin ce such
pe o ple that the kin d of challe n ge to t radit io n al value s
po s e d by fe min is m will n o t de s t ro y an e n t ire way of life , as
the Ne w Right s ugge s t s . To do t his , it is e s s e n t ial to un -
de rs t an d ho w the Ne w Right is o rgan ize d, ho w it o pe rat e s ,,
and the bas is of its appe al.
Organization and Leadership in the New Right
To day's Ne w Right diffe rs from the "o ld" Right in ce rt ain im-
po rt an t ways . The o ld Right co n s is t e d primarily of s plin t e r
gro ups , which, de s pit e mo me n t s of s ucce s s , us ually lacked a
bro ad bas e of s uppo rt . Fract ure d into s ubgro ups which quar-
reled wit h e ach o t he r, o ld Right gro ups had fe w me chan is ms
to bro ade n t he ir co n s t it ue n cie s . The Ne w Right , in co n -
t ras t , is highly o rgan ize d and ve ry e fficie n t at buildin g co -
alit io n s . As the n e o co n s e rvat ive t hin ke r and act ivis t Paul
We yrich s aid, "Organ izat io n is o ur bag. We pre ach and teach
n o t hin g but o rgan izat io n " (1).
By the late 1970s , t e chn o lo gy and a n e w style of le ade r-
ship had allo we d the Ne w Right to we ld dis parat e right -win g
o rgan izat io n s in t o a mult iface t e d, po we rful, gras s -ro o t s po -
lit ical machin e . This machin e re lie d he avily o n s in gle -
is s ue gro ups , us in g part icularly the an t iabo rt io n right to
life mo ve me n t as the light n in g ro d. To cre at e this co ali-
t io n , the Ne w Right has tapped de e p-s e at e d s e n t ime n t in fa-
vo r of Go d, ho me , and co un t ry. By cle arly ide n t ifyin g the
"e n e my," which are ho me -gro wn and co n s is t o f gro ups and in -
s t it ut io n s that are t radit io n ally libe ral (the wo man 's mo ve -
me n t , the civil right s mo ve me n t , the "Eas t e rn e s t ablis hme n t
e lit e s ," the Eas t e rn un ive rs it ie s , the t e le vis io n n e t wo rks
and majo r n e ws pape rs ), the Ne w Right dimin is he s in t e rn al dif-
fe re n ce s and s t re n gt he n s its o wn in t e rn al s o lidarit y.
Fo r pract ical re as o n s , the Ne w Right seized on family is -
s ue s (of which abo rt io n is the mo s t crit ical) rat he r than
e co n o mic o n e s in buildin g its plat fo rm and po lit ical ma-
chin e . St rat e gis t s have s hre wdly as s ume d that t he s e will
rally mo re s uppo rt than the Right 's e co n o mic plat fo rm. As
We yrich has n o t e d, "The Ne w Right is lo o kin g for is s ue s that
pe o ple care abo ut , and s o cial is s ue s at least for the pre s -
ent fit the bill. We talk abo ut is s ue s that pe o ple care
abo ut like gun co n t ro l, abo rt io n , t axe s and crime . Ye s ,
t he y're e mo t io n al is s ue s , but t hat 's be t t e r than t alkin g
abo ut capit al fo rmat io n " (2). This do e s not me an that the
Ne w Right has aban do n e d the rest of its s o cial and e co n o mic
pro grams , s imply that it sees family is s ue s as the o pe n in g
we dge in its drive to win n at io n al po lit ical po we r.
The Ne w Right le ade rs hip is a quart e t . Richard Vigue rie ,
a fo rt y-s e ve n -ye ar-o ld co n s e rvat ive C at ho lic, is the mo ve -
me n t 's dire ct -mail fun d-rais in g wizard. He is als o the pub-
lis he r of the magazin e C o n s e rvat ive Dige s t . A fo rme r me m-
be r of Yo un g Ame rican s for Fre e do m, Vigue rie be gan his
care e r wit h 12,500 n ame s from the Go ldwat e r campaign (3).
To day his Falls C hurch, Virgin ia, co mpan y, called PAVC O, e m-
plo ys three hun dre d n o n un io n e mplo ye e s and rais e s mo re than
$40 millio n an n ually. Vigue rie 's in flue n ce re s t s part ly on
the mo re t han 25 millio n n ame s on his co mput e r lis t , cro s s -
in de xe d by is s ue s and o rgan izat io n , to who m he claims to
mail o ut mo re t han 100 millio n lo bbyin g and fun d-rais in g le t -
ters a ye ar (4). He he lpe d launch the pro family gro ups in
man y s t at e s , and wo rks clo s e ly wit h the pro gun and an t iun io n
lo bbie s .
In addit io n to Vigue rie t he re is Paul We yrich, an Eas t e rn
Ort ho do x C at ho lic from Wis co n s in who o ft e n re fe rs to hims e lf
as the "archit e ct of the mo ve me n t " (5). We yrich is clo s e ly
as s o ciat e d wit h co n s e rvat ive be e r bre we r Jo s e ph C o o rs , who
un de rwrit e s man y of the Ne w Right gro ups (6). He claims
that the Ne w Right is a "re vo lut io n " of the "middle clas s ,"
again s t an "e lit is t uppe r clas s " (7). One of We yrich
1
s pro -
je ct s is a can didat e t rain in g s cho o l; he als o co o rdin at e s
s e ve ral Ne w Right n e t wo rks , such as the Library C o urt , a co -
alit io n of majo r pro family gro ups .
Te rry Do lan , t hirt y-o n e , is e xe cut ive dire ct o r of the Na-
t io n al C o n s e rvat ive Po lit ical Act io n C o mmit t e e , and he co n -
ce n t rat e s on at t ackin g the record of in cumbe n t mo de rat e and
libe ral le gis lat o rs . He has s aid, "A gro up like o urs could
lie t hro ugh its t e e t h, and the can didat e it he lps s t ays
cle an " (8). Do lan wo rke d o n Nixo n 's campaign s t aff in 1972
(9). In March 1981, he calle d o n co n s e rvat ive s at the C o n -
s e rvat ive Po lit ical Act io n C o n fe re n ce (C PAC ) to s uppo rt a
$172 billio n cut in the fe de ral budge t , in cludin g the e limin -
at io n of fe de ral age n cie s such as the Food and Drug Admin is -
t rat io n and OSHA (10).
Ho ward Phillips , the son of a Bo s t o n in s uran ce bro ke r, is
Je wis h and claims to read the Bible e ve ry day. He s uppo rt s
a "re t urn to biblical law" (11). A Harvard graduat e , his
go al is to "Organ ize dis co n t e n t . That 's o ur s t rat e gy" (12).
Thro ugh the C o n s e rvat ive C aucus , he co n ce n t rat e s on gras s -
ro o t s dis t rict o rgan izin g, part icularly on "ho me and family"
gro ups (13).
In o rde r to un de rs t an d ho w the Ne w Right fun ct io n s as a
who le , it is impo rt an t to un de rs t an d its co n s t it ue n t part s .
The Ne w Right is made up of three kin ds of gro ups : the mul-
t i-is s ue umbre lla gro ups , the s in gle -is s ue gro ups , and the
re ligio us gro ups .
Umbrella Group s
Ne w Right umbre lla gro ups s pe cialize in le gis lat ive act ivi-
t y, po lit ical campaign s , fund rais in g, re s e arch and legal
challe n ge s . The fo llo win g is a brie f list of some ke y o rgan -
izat io n s that pro vide o ve rall o rgan izat io n to the Ne w Right
co alit io n :
The C o mmit t e e for the Survival of a Fre e C o n gre s s was fo un -
ded in 1975 by We yrich and Jo s e ph C o o rs (14). Lo cat e d in
Was hin gt o n , D.C ., it is o n e of the mo s t e ffe ct ive right -win g
Po lit ical Act io n C o mmit t e e s (PAC s ), e mphas izin g the o rgan iza-
tion of campaign o pe rat io n s . The C o n s e rvat ive C aucus do e s
gras s -ro o t s o rgan izin g in co n gre s s io n al dis t rict s . Fo un de d
in 1975 by Ho ward Phillips and Se n at o r Je s s e He lms , it
claims an an n ual budge t of $3 millio n rais e d fro m 300,000
co n t ribut o rs (15). The Nat io n al C o n s e rvat ive Po lit ical Ac-
t io n C o mmit t e e (NicPac) was fo un de d by Te rry Do lan and
C harle s Black, fo rme r aide to Se n at o r He lms , to o ffe r co n s e r-
vat ive can didat e s in -kin d s e rvice s , such as campaign man age -
me n t , and t e le vis io n and radio adve rt is in g (16). The C o n -
gre s s io n al Club was fo un de d in 1973 by Vigue rie , Se n at o r
Je s s e He lms , and at t o rn e y To m Ellis ; Ellis was the fo rme r di-
re ct o r of the Pio n e e r Fun d, cre at e d to co n duct re s e arch o n
the ge n e t ic in fe rio rit y of Blacks (17). The C o n gre s s io n al
Club rais e s mo n e y for right -win g can didat e s s o me $8 millio n
in 1980 fro m 300,00 co n t ribut o rs (18).
142 The Ne w Anti feminism
This array of o rgan izat io n s is ro un de d out by s e ve ral o t h-
e rs . The He rit age Fo un dat io n , be gun in 1973 by C o o rs and
We yrich, is a re s e arch in s t it ut e o ffe rin g s t udie s and an aly-
ses to the pre s s and to fe de ral and s t at e le gis lat o rs pro vid-
ing co n firmat io n of right -win g po s it io n s on is s ue s and le gis -
lat io n (19). The Pacific Le gal Fo un dat io n is a right -win g
ve rs io n of the Ame rican C ivil Libe rt ie s Un io n . Als o fo un de d
in 1973, it n o w has a s t aff o f mo re t han t we n t y at t o rn e ys
and co n ce n t rat e s on challe n gin g the wo rk of o rgan izat io n s
like the Sie rra C lub or laws such as the Occupat io n al Safety
and He alt h Act (20). The Ame rican Le gis lat ive Exchan ge C o un -
cil is a cle arin gho us e for right -win g le gis lat io n in vario us
s t at e s and he lps co n s e rvat ive s t at e le gis lat o rs in re s e arch-
in g, writ in g, and pas s in g co n s e rvat ive le gis lat io n (21).
The C o mmit t e e for Re s po n s ible Yo ut h Po lit ics is dire ct e d by
Mo rt o n Blackwe ll, e dit o r of the Ne w Right Re po rt , fo rme r
e mplo ye e of Vigue rie and curre n t ly a s pe cial as s is t an t in
the Re agan admin is t rat io n . It t rain s act ivis t s in campaign
man age me n t be fo re they jo in the s t affs of right -win g can di-
dat e s (22).
Sp ecial Interest Group s
While umbre lla gro ups pro vide the o ve rall dire ct io n and co o r-
din at io n of the Ne w Right 's e xt e n s ive , s o phis t icat e d cam-
paign to win co n t ro l of the le gis lat ive pro ce s s , the s in gle -
is s ue gro up is in cre as in gly po we rful as we ll. Organ izat io n s
like the an t iun io n Right to Wo rk C o mmit t e e or the pro gun Na-
t io n al Rifle As s o ciat io n have be e n aro un d a long t ime . The
n e we r pro family gro ups s pe cialize in a s e rie s of is s ue s
t hat , they be lie ve , t hre at e n the s an ct it y of the U.S. fami-
ly. The y wo rk to o ppo s e abo rt io n , to pre ve n t the pas s age of
the Equal Right s Ame n dme n t , to curt ail gay right s . They
have s uppo rt e d and tried to imple me n t praye r in the s cho o ls
and bo o k ce n s o rs hip. Us in g t he s e is s ue s , they have be e n un -
us ually s ucce s s ful in mo bilizin g fright e n e d wo me n and me n in
de fe n s e of value s and ways of life that are , t he s e pe o ple be -
lie ve , pro fo un dly t hre at e n e d by s o cial chan ge .
Two po in t s are s ign ifican t abo ut the pro family gro ups .
Firs t , this is the s e ct o r of the right wit h which the C at ho -
lic C hurch has the clo s e s t links t hro ugh the right to life
mo ve me n t . Se co n dly, t his is the s e ct o r of the Right in
which wo me n are mo s t pro min e n t as o rgan ize rs . Wo me n are in -
vo lve d in the day-t o -day o pe rat io n of such o rgan izat io n s and
they are als o le ade rs , pro bably be caus e family is s ue s are
t ho ught to be the pro pe r s phe re of fe min in e and mat e rn al co n -
ce rn , e s pe cially amo n g the mo s t t radit io n ally min de d wo me n .
I be lie ve , ho we ve r, that man y of the majo r de cis io n s in
t he s e gro ups are s ubo rdin at e d to the de cis io n makin g and
The Ne w Right and Abortion 143
plan n in g of male Ne w Right le ade rs , e s pe cially to t ho s e of
Paul We yrich. The fo llo win g s ke t ch of some fe male le ade rs
and the s in gle -is s ue gro ups they run will s ugge s t the scope
of pro family act ivit y.
C an n aught Mars hn e r is the chair of the Library C o urt co ali-
t io n and the dire ct o r of the Family Po licy Divis io n of the
Fre e C o n gre s s Fo un dat io n (23). She was als o the chair of
the Pro -Family C o alit io n on the Whit e Ho us e C o n fe re n ce o n
Familie s and is the e dit o r of the we e kly Family Pro t e ct io n
Re po rt . No rma Galbe r of Educat io n al Re s e arch is from Lo n g-
vie w, Te xas (24). She is a le ade r in the bo o k ce n s o rs hip
mo ve me n t , an alyzin g childre n 's t e xt bo o ks and t e s t ifyin g
again s t t he m. She has be e n cre dit e d wit h fo rcin g t e xt bo o k
co mpan ie s to re writ e e n t ire e dit io n s be caus e the bo o ks "gave
a bias e d vie w of Ame rica" (25). Jo An n Gas pe r is the e dit o r
of The Right Wo man and the Re gis t e r Re po rt , which mo n i-
tors family is s ue s in the Fe de ral Re gis t e r (26). She has
be e n calle d the pro family mo ve me n t 's "e arly warn in g s ys t e m
in Was hin gt o n ." On ale e McGraw of the He rit age Fo un dat io n
and the C o alit io n for C hildre n is co n s ide re d an "e xpe rt on
the dan ge rs of s e cular human is m" (27). She has wo rke d
again s t le gis lat io n such as the Do me s t ic Vio le n ce Act ,
be caus e it impo s e s go ve rn me n t al co n t ro ls on the family.
Sus an Phillips is the dire ct o r of re s e arch and publicat io n s
for the C o n s e rvat ive C aucus and for the C o n s e rvat ive C aucus
Re s e arch and Educat io n Fo un dat io n . She writ e s s e ve ral n e ws -
le t t e rs in fo rmin g the pro family mo ve me n t of key is s ue s (28).
Kat hy Te auge is the e xpe rt o n wo me n 's is s ue s for the Ame ri-
can Le gis lat ive Exchan ge C o un cil. As the e xe cut ive dire c-
t o r, she "o ffe rs brillian t po lit ical advice on ho w to marke t
pro -family is s ue s " (29). Mart ha Ro un t re e runs the Le ade r-
ship Fo un dat io n , which co n ce n t rat e s on the pas s age of a
co n s t it ut io n al ame n dme n t guaran t e e in g praye r in s cho o ls
(30). The in vo lve me n t of so man y wo me n in t he s e gro ups
rais e s crit ical is s ue s abo ut ho w wo me n get in vo lve d in po lit -
ical e ffo rt s to co n t ro l o t he r wo me n .
Christian New Right
The C hris t ian Ne w Right is ce n t ral to the pro family mo ve -
me n t , s in ce it lin ks t o ge t he r man y of the o t he r gro ups . It
too co n s is t s of a varie t y of in t e rlo ckin g s ubgro ups , and its
go al is to po lit icize fun dame n t alis t C hris t ian s , e s t imat e d
to in clude up to 60 millio n Ame rican s . In dire ct ly, the
Ro man C at ho lic hie rarchy has playe d a ro le in t his phe n o m-
e n o n by pro vidin g a mo de l of ho w to act ivat e the re ligio us
co mmun it y o n family is s ue s , such as abo rt io n , ERA, and t ui-
t io n tax cre dit s .
The be s t -kn o wn le ade r of the C hris t ian Ne w Right is the
144 The Ne w Anti feminism
Re v. Je rry Falwe ll, a t e le vis io n pre ache r of the Old Time
Go s pe l Ho ur, which has an e s t imat e d audie n ce of 18 millio n
pe o ple e ach we e k (31). Falwe ll co me s from the Tho mas Ro ad
Bapt is t C hurch in Lyn chburg, Virgin ia, whe re the s ho w is
filme d, and re po rt e dly rais e s $46 millio n a ye ar (32). He
has be e n pre achin g the go s pe l t hro ugh the e le ct ro n ic pulpit
for ye ars , but re ce ive d n at io n al fame o n ly in 1979 whe n he
founded Mo ral Majo rit y, the po lit ical act io n arm of the
C hris t ian Ne w Right (33). Since t he n , Falwe ll has be e n
o rgan izin g his fe llo w pre ache rs to mo bilize their co n gre ga-
t io n s , church by church, in s uppo rt of the Ne w Right age n da.
To day's fun dame n t alis t right -win g gro ups are diffe re n t
from their pre de ce s s o rs , such as the Jo hn Birch So cie t y, be -
caus e they are dire ct ly linked to the Ne w Right le ade rs hip,
e s pe cially to Paul We yrich. The pre s e n t gro ups are als o dif-
ferent be caus e they no lo n ge r e xis t in ho s t ile , s us picio us
is o lat io n from the rest of s o cie t y. Pe rhaps mo s t impo rt an t ,
they n o w vo t e . Thro ugh the e le ct ro n ic min is t ry of t e le vi-
sion and radio , these fun dame n t alis t s re ach a capt ivat e d aud-
ie n ce of mo re t han 115 millio n pe o ple each we e k. The y can
call fo rt h Go d's right e o us s o ldie rs and virt ually limit le s s
fun ds . On ce pe o ple writ e in wit h do n at io n s to t he ir favo r-
ite pre ache r, t he ir n ame s are put on co mput e r lists and they
can be s o licit e d to s upply fun ds , to jo in le t t e r-writ in g and
lo bbyin g campaign s , and to vo t e for right -win g can didat e s .
The C hris t ian Ne w Right s ucce e ds t hro ugh a co mbin at io n of
mas t e rful publicit y and s killful gras s -ro o t s o rgan izin g.
Fo r in s t an ce , in April 1980, s o me 200,000 fun dame n t alis t s ,
callin g t he ms e lve s One Nat io n Un de r Go d, de s ce n de d on Was h-
in gt o n , D.C ., to pray that C o n gre s s re pe n t its s in s (34).
The e ve n t , acco rdin g to its o rgan ize rs , was not po lit ical.
In s t e ad, C hris t ian s asked for Go d's in t e rce s s io n in "a wo rld
aflame in s in " and lobbied t he ir re pre s e n t at ive s to re t urn
to a mo ral go ve rn me n t (35). In 1980, man y fun dame n t alis t
pre ache rs als o carrie d out vo t e r re gis t rat io n drive s in
t he ir churche s , t arge t in g the gro up of co n s e rvat ive s who had
t radit io n ally not vo t e d.
Durin g the s umme r of 1980, the Re ligio us Ro un dt able he ld
an o rgan izin g co n fe re n ce in Dallas , Te xas , at t e n de d by fif-
t e e n t ho us an d min is t e rs . The s pe e che s and s e rmo n s cle arly
re fle ct e d the age n da of the Ne w Right : the Red me n ace , abo r-
t io n , affirmat ive act io n , the ERA, day care , and OSHA we re
amo n g the s ubje ct s dis cus s e d and co n de mn e d (36). The Re v.
Jame s Ro bin s o n , a t e le vis io n pre ache r fro m Fort Wo rt h, Te x-
as , who s e pro gram is s yn dicat e d on mo re t han a hun dre d s t a-
t io n s , told the gat he rin g:
If yo u t hin k o ur s o lut io n is po lit ical, yo u too have
be e n de ce ive d. Do n 't yo u co mmit yo urs e lf to some po lit -
ical part y o r po lit ician , yo u co mmit yo urs e lf to the
prin ciple s of Go d, and de man d t ho s e part ie s and po lit i-
cian s align t he ms e lve s wit h the e t e rn al value s in t his
bo o k [the Bible ], and Ame rica will be fo re ve r the gre at -
e s t n at io n on t his e art h! (37)
The Re v. Baile y Smit h, then pre s ide n t of the So ut he rn Bap-
t is t s , told the gro up:
It 's in t e re s t in g to me at gre at po lit ical rallie s ho w
yo u have a Pro t e s t an t to pray, and a C at ho lic to pray,
and t he n yo u have a Je w to pray. Wit h all due re s pe ct
to those de ar pe o ple , my frie n d, God almight y do e s not
he ar the praye r of a Je w, for ho w in the wo rld can God
he ar the praye r of a man who s ays Je s us C hris t is not
the true Me s s iah? (38)
The C hris t ian Ne w Right is able to o pe rat e be caus e it
cle arly de fin e s all is s ue s in t e rms of t he ir o ppo s it io n :
e it he r yo u are a go o d, mo ral, be lie vin g C hris t ian , o r yo u
are o n e of the "e vil," led by "s at an ic fo rce s ," an t i-Go d,
an t ifamily, and an t i-Ame rica. An yo n e who dis agre e s o n an y
one of t he s e is s ue s be co me s one of "t he m," cut off from s e -
curit y and co mmun it y in this co n fus in g wo rld and fro m s alva-
tion in the n e xt o n e .
The Constituency of the New Right
One of the s e cre t s of Ne w Right s ucce s s is the way it is
able to cut acro s s the lines of t radit io n al po lit ical par-
ties in put t in g t o ge t he r its co alit io n . Alt ho ugh man y Ne w
Right e le ct e d o fficials are Re publican s , the Ne w Right 's
go al is not to build a part y, but to build a co n s e rvat ive
co alit io n that can , in e ffe ct , bypas s or co n t ro l the t wo -par-
ty s ys t e m of Ame rican po lit ics . Richard Vigue rie has said
that the Ne w Right has t ake n co n t ro l of the co n s e rvat ive
mo ve me n t and that in turn the co n s e rvat ive mo ve me n t has t ak-
e n co n t ro l of the Re publican part y. What re main s , he s ays ,
is to "s e e if they can take co n t ro l of the co un t ry" (39).
C e n t ral to t his plan is the abilit y of the Ne w Right to wo o
t radit io n ally De mo crat ic vo t e rs , what was kn o wn as the Ne w
De al co alit io n of blue -co llar e t hn ics C at ho lics , Je ws ,
Blacks , and fun dame n t alis t C hris t ian s .
To win t he s e gro ups , the Ne w Right is t akin g advan t age of
curre n t s o cial, e co n o mic, and po lit ical uphe avals to stir up
an xie t y and an ge r o ve r s o cial is s ue s . The n a Ne w Right
can didat e o r pie ce of le gis lat io n is o ffe re d as the an s we r.
In this s t rat e gy, the C at ho lic vo t e is ve ry impo rt an t .
Alt ho ugh n o t a mo n o lit hic gro up, t he re are 48 to 50 millio n
C at ho lics in the Un it e d St at e s , a po pulat io n that t e n ds to
be co n s e rvat ive , e s pe cially o n s o cial is s ue s . Acco rdin g to
a Ne w Yo rk Time s /C BS po ll, 51 pe rce n t s uppo rt e d Re agan in
the last e le ct io n . Acco rdin g to fo rme r Whit e Ho us e aide
Anne We xle r, "The C at ho lic vo t e at one time was s o lidly
De mo crat ic," but n o w, she be lie ve s , e t hn ic C at ho lics are "in
a s it uat io n of pro t e ct in g what they have ." Michae l No vak of
the co n s e rvat ive Ame rican En t e rpris e In s t it ut e be lie ve s the
co n s e rvat ive mo o d amo n g C at ho lics has to do wit h " . . . the
who le De mo crat ic Part y. They s t art e d t alkin g the lan guage
of the n e w mo ralit y." He claims that "C at ho lics are the
s in gle mo s t impo rt an t vo t in g blo c in the co un t ry" (40).
Obvio us ly man y pe o ple in the Un it e d States have be e n frigh-
tened and be wilde re d by chan ge s in the s o cie t y o ve r the pas t
t we n t y ye ars . Familie s and co mmun it ie s have be e n affe ct e d
by the n e w s e xual mo ralit y, by the de man ds of wo me n and t e e n -
age rs for mo re aut o n o my, by wo me n 's e n t ry into the labor mar-
ke t , by n e w s e x role mo de ls . The clarit y and de fin it io n of
old mo ral t rut hs have be e n was he d away. For man y pe o ple ,
these chan ge s , rat he r than brin gin g a s e n s e of pe rs o n al lib-
e rat io n , have bro ught an xie t y and a s e n s e of is o lat io n fro m
their co mmun it ie s and the large r s o cie t y. The ir familie s ,
churche s , and n e ighbo rho o ds have t ake n on a s ymbo lic value
as barricade s be t we e n them and a wo rld go n e as t ray.
The Ne w Right has bo t h co n firme d and e s calat e d these
fe ars . By de fin in g the e n e my and the is s ue s and o ffe rin g s o -
lut io n s , the Ne w Right has cre at e d a n e w s e n s e of co mmun it y
and s e curit y fo r its co n s t it ue n cy. The Ne w Right has o n ly
to adapt alre ady-co n s e rvat ive t radit io n al C hris t ian value s
o n s ubje ct s like wo me n 's ro le s , s e xualit y, marriage , and the
family, and to e mphas ize e xis t in g fe ars (41). The Quixo t e
C e n t e r, a C at ho lic s o cial jus t ice o rgan izat io n in the Mid-
we s t , s urve ye d at t it ude s on abo rt io n and found that "t ho s e
in the right -t o -life mo ve me n t see abo rt io n at the de e pe s t
ps ycho lo gical le ve l less as a t akin g o f a human life t han as
a pract ice t hre at e n in g e xis t in g s o cial pat t e rn s and cus t o ms
in familie s , marriage and s e xual re lat io n s " (42).
The Catholic Church and the Right to Life Mov ement
Alt ho ugh C at ho lics have had vario us kin ds of co n n e ct io n s
wit h diffe re n t s e gme n t s of the Ne w Right co alit io n , the C at h-
o lic C hurch has had its clo s e s t o rgan izat io n al links wit h
the right to life gro ups who s hare its o ppo s it io n to abo r-
t io n . The church hie rarchy has be e n the mo t ivat in g force
in the an t iabo rt io n mo ve me n t , be gin n in g wit h the mid-1960s ,
whe n it re s po n de d to the fe min is t mo ve me n t to le galize abo r-
t io n . In 1966, the Nat io n al C o n fe re n ce of C at ho lic Bis ho ps ,
the po licy-makin g bo dy of U.S. C at ho licis m, co mmis s io n e d its
Family Life Divis io n to "co n s t ruct a pro gram of o ppo s it io n
to the e ffo rt to libe ralize abo rt io n laws " (43). By 1972,
public s uppo rt for le gal abo rt io n was appare n t in the pas -
sage of laws le galizin g abo rt io n in s e ve ral s t at e s , and in
re s po n s e the Bis ho ps ' C o mmit t e e for Pro -Life Act ivit ie s was
formed (44). Its purpo s e was to o rgan ize church an t iabo r-
tion e ffo rt s by dis t ribut in g an t iabo rt io n lit e rat ure to C at h-
o lic in s t it ut io n s and by e ducat in g C at ho lics abo ut the
hie rarchy's an t iabo rt io n po s it io n .
In 1973, whe n the U.S. Supre me C o urt le galize d abo rt io n ,
the bis ho ps had chan ge d t he ir fo cus to co n ce n t rat e on o ve r-
t urn in g the co urt de cis io n . Durin g that ye ar, the Nat io n al
Right to Life C o mmit t e e (NRTLC ), the n at io n 's large s t an t i-
abo rt io n o rgan izat io n , claimin g 11 millio n me mbe rs , e me rge d
as a s e parat e e n t it y (45). The NRTLC be gan an aggre s s ive
campaign to de fe at pro cho ice le gis lat o rs run n in g for e le c-
t io n , while s imult an e o us ly co n duct in g mas s ive le t t e r-writ in g
campaign s to pas s an t icho ice le gis lat io n . The bis ho ps , in
t urn , e s t ablis he d their o wn in de pe n de n t lo bbyin g o rgan iza-
t io n in 1973, the Nat io n al C o mmit t e e for a Human Life Ame n d-
me n t (NC HLA) (46), to wo rk for the pas s age of an an t iabo r-
t io n co n s t it ut io n al ame n dme n t .
On the n at io n al le ve l, the NRTLC and the C at ho lic hie rar-
chy have care fully pre s e rve d a s e parat e ide n t it y in the pub-
lic e ye . The clo s e re lat io n s hip can be s e e n o n ly whe n the
local part s of the two o rgan izat io n s are e xamin e d. The
church has pro vide d the NRTLC n o t o n ly wit h fin an cial and o r-
gan izat io n al s uppo rt but als o wit h re ligio us aut ho rit y and
the po we r of mo ral right e o us n e s s . Fo r in s t an ce , in No ve mbe r
1975, the bis ho ps pas s e d a de t aile d, t hirt e e n -page do cume n t
calle d the "Pas t o ral Plan fro Pro -Life Act ivit ie s " (47).
The do cume n t is an o rgan izin g s t rat e gy to draw all paris he s
and all church-re lat e d age n cie s into a n at io n al n e t wo rk of
an t iabo rt io n act ivit ie s . It aims for "pas s age of a co n s t it u-
t io n al ame n dme n t pro vidin g pro t e ct io n for the un bo rn child
to the maximum de gre e po s s ible " and for the "pas s age of fe d-
e ral and s t at e laws and ado pt io n of admin is t rat io n po licie s
that will re s t rict the pract ice of abo rt io n as much as po s -
s ible ." The plan is divide d into t hre e part s : e ducat io n ,
pas t o ral o ut re ach to wo me n , and le gis lat ive advo cacy. Each
s t at e C at ho lic C o n fe re n ce is re s po n s ible for imple me n t in g
the plan , for cre at in g paris h pro life co mmit t e e s , and for e n -
lis t in g the aid of o t he r C at ho lic o rgan izat io n s , such as the
Kn ight s o f C o lumbus . Wit hin e ach dio ce s e , e ach bis ho p is
in s t ruct e d to appo in t a pro life dire ct o r as his re pre s e n t a-
t ive . Alt ho ugh the church is not s uppo s e d to be co me in -
vo lve d in dire ct po lit ical act ivit y, it co me s pe rilo us ly
clo s e to do in g so in these o rgan izat io n s , which are dire ct e d
to wo rk clo s e ly wit h the s e cular right to life gro ups . The
plan claims that t he s e right to life gro ups are not to be
"co n t ro lle d or fin an ce d by the church" (48), but the church
pro vide s the right to life mo ve me n t wit h o pe rat in g facili-
t ie s , s upplie s , fun d-rais in g as s is t an ce , and vo lun t e e r wo rk-
e rs .
The plan has alre ady pro ve d an e ffe ct ive o rgan izin g t o o l
for the an t iabo rt io n mo ve me n t . C at ho lic s cho o lchildre n have
be e n allo we d to mis s a day of s cho o l in o rde r to vis it t he ir
state capit o ls wit h t ape re co rde d "he art be at s of un bo rn chil-
dre n " to play fo r t he ir le gis lat o rs . Ot he r s cho o lchildre n
have be e n in s t ruct e d to have t he ir pare n t s sign le t t e rs o p-
po s in g abo rt io n . One C at ho lic s cho o l ame n de d the Ple dge of
Alle gian ce to in clude ". . . wit h libe rt y and jus t ice for
all, the bo rn and un bo rn ." An o t he r paris h dis t ribut e d
ple dge cards durin g mas s which wo uld aut ho rize the s e n din g
of an t iabo rt io n me s s age s to le gis lat o rs in the s ign e rs '
n ame s . Eve ry 22 Jan uary, the an n ive rs ary of the U.S. Su-
pre me C o urt de cis io n , mo s t dio ce s e s pro vide bus e s to take
paris hio n e rs to Was hin gt o n for the an n ual March for Life .
The church als o us e s its po we r of mo ral pe rs uas io n to pus h
C at ho lics who might o t he rwis e re main s ile n t on the abo rt io n
is s ue . The St . Lo uis C at he dral Bulle t in calle d for C at ho -
lics to picke t a local abo rt io n clin ic wit h the admo n is h-
me n t , "No C hris t ian will e xcus e hims e lf light ly on this du-
t y" (49). Fo r s ixt e e n mo n t hs , the o n ly abo rt io n clin ic o n
St at e n Is lan d, Ne w Yo rk, had be e n un de r co n s t an t s ie ge by
the right to life mo ve me n t . Flye rs dis t ribut e d in church
parkin g lots urge d C at ho lics to he lp picke t the clin ic;
amo n g the an t iabo rt io n de mo n s t rat o rs we re n un s , prie s t s , and
e lde rly wo me n s ayin g the ro s ary and s in gin g hymn s . The ir
van , co mple t e wit h sound s ys t e m, was de co rat e d wit h pict ure s
of the Virgin and the Sacred He art . Pat ie n t s at an o t he r
clin ic in Bro o klyn , Ne w Yo rk, have be e n s prin kle d wit h "ho ly
wat e r" as they e n t e re d.
The right to life mo ve me n t als o re ce ive s crucial fin an cial
s uppo rt from the C at ho lic C hurch as a 1973 me mo from Ms gr.
Jame s McHugh of the Family Life Divis io n of the U.S. C at ho -
lic C o n fe re n ce illus t rat e s . Five mo n t hs aft e r the NRTLC o f-
ficially s e parat e d from the C at ho lic C o n fe re n ce , it faced
s e ve re fun din g pro ble ms . No t in g t his "impe n din g fin an cial
cris is ," McHugh in s t ruct e d each s t at e C at ho lic C o n fe re n ce to
co n t ribut e fun ds , one cent pe r pe rs o n in t he ir s t at e .
He n ce , the NRTLC was re s t o re d to s o lve n cy. This s uppo rt co n -
t in ue s ; in Ne w Yo rk, for in s t an ce , the C at ho lic C o n fe re n ce
re gularly co n t ribut e s s ubs t an t ial fun ds to the Ne w York
State Right to Life C o mmit t e e , as we ll as to the n at io n al
o rgan izat io n (50). The C at ho lic hie rarchy's t o t al de dica-
t io n to the an t iabo rt io n crus ade can be seen cle arly in the
fact that the Pro -Life Se cre t ariat re ce ive s one of the
large s t budge t s wit hin the Nat io n al C o n fe re n ce of C at ho lic
Bis ho ps . In 1981, the s ugge s t e d budge t was $295,343 (51).
In the last fe w ye ars , the church has be e n e dgin g clo s e r
and clo s e r to o ve rt po lit ical in vo lve me n t in e le ct io n s . In
1978, Ne w Yo rk be came the first s t at e to have a Right to
Life po lit ical part y on the ballo t , wit h a fetus as its s ym-
bo l. Alt ho ugh the Right to Life part y is not o fficially
tied to the church, man y paris h prie s t s have o pe n ly s uppo r-
ted e ffo rt s to get right -t o -life rs in t o e ve ry e le ct e d po s i-
t io n po s s ible . The re are re po rt s of vo t e r re gis t rat io n
drive s be in g co n duct e d o n the s t e ps of churche s , s o me t ime s
by n un s . In at least one in s t an ce , it has be e n re po rt e d
that the Right to Life part y was alre ady che cke d o ff on the
re gis t rat io n card be fo re the n e w vo t e r e ve n re gis t e re d.
Bis ho ps and prie s t s have de n o un ce d legal abo rt io n and le gis -
lators who s uppo rt it fro m the pulpit on the Sun day be fo re
e le ct io n day, and the Right to Life part y has dis t ribut e d
flye rs to C at ho lics as they leave mas s .
Internal Op p osition
Despite the efforts of the hierarchy, Catholics are not as
united as i t might seem around the antiabortion position,
but protest is only slowly beginning to emerge. Fully 77
percent of Roman Catholics support legal abortion, according
to a 1980 Gallup Poll. Lay Roman Catholics, and even mem-
bers of the religious community, feel they don't have a vote
in what one ri ght -t o-l i fer called the church's "benevolent
dictatorship." Most Catholics simply listen to the church's
position, and then follow their own conscience. A few brave
voices have begun to oppose church policies.
For example, Catholics for a Free Choice, a national organ-
ization with local networks in more than eighteen states ,
was formed during the mid-1970s to speak for free choice
among Catholics. Thomas Gumbelton, at that time auxiliary
bishop of Detroit, argued against the Pastoral Plan since it
appeared that the church was trying to control the prolife
groups. Catholic religious bodies such as the National Fed-
eration of Catholic Priests have complained that the church
hierarchy was stressing single-issue abortion politics (52).
In 1977, the Nat io n al As s o ciat io n of Wo me n Re ligio us ,
an o rgan izat io n o f t hre e t ho us an d n un s , pas s e d a s t at e me n t
s uppo rt in g church o ppo s it io n to abo rt io n but warn in g that
the pas s age of an an t iabo rt io n co n s t it ut io n al ame n dme n t
wo uld co n s t it ut e an "impo s it io n of one [mo ral] vie w on the
rest of s o cie t y" (53).
Ot he r o bs e rve rs and o rgan izat io n s have e xpre s s e d alarm
that the church is me ddlin g so dire ct ly in e le ct o ral po li-
t ics . The Nat io n al C at ho lic Re po rt e r, a libe ral C at ho lic
n e ws pape r, crit icize d the plan in a 1975 e dit o rial:
If the Bis ho ps have cre at e d a C at ho lic part y, and o n ly
time will t e ll, they have un le as he d a fe ars o me t hin g.
Such pro po rt io n s , give n the 48 millio n C at ho lic
po pulat io n in t his co un t ry, co uld yet rival or co un t e r-
balan ce the large s t po lit ical part ie s or lo bbie s in this
co un t ry: the Re publican part y, the De mo crat ic part y and
the AFL-C IO. (54)
Appare n t ly, the bis ho ps t he ms e lve s have be gun to be co n -
ce rn e d abo ut the s in gle -min de d pas s io n of the right to life
mo ve me n t , re co gn izin g that all o t he r s o cial jus t ice is s ue s
could e as ily s uffe r. On 26 Oct o be r 1979, the bis ho ps issued
a dire ct ive for C at ho lics in Origin s , the o fficial n e ws le t -
ter of the U.S. C at ho lic C o n fe re n ce . This s t at e me n t urge d
C at ho lics n o t to vo t e on the bas is of one is s ue but to "e xam-
ine the po s it io n s of can didat e s on the full ran ge of is s ue s ,
as we ll as the pe rs o n 's in t e grit y, philo s o phy and pe rfo rm-
an ce " (55). In 1980, the Nat io n al C o alit io n of Ame rican
Nun s issued a s t at e me n t : "Un bo rn life is no mo re s acre d
t han bo rn life and an y can didat e 's wo rt hin e s s s o le ly on the
bas is of the abo rt io n is s ue is un fair" (56). Fat he r
The o do re He s burgh of No t re Dame has als o co n de mn e d this
s in gle -is s ue fury by s ayin g, "It is de plo rable that po lit i-
cal can didat e s who agre e 95 pe rce n t wit h C at ho lic prin ciple s
on s o cial jus t ice on mo s t is s ue s of public po licy have be e n
de fe at e d by t he ir o ppo s it io n on this one is s ue abo rt io n
and have be e n re place d by can didat e s who agre e s upe rficially
o n this is s ue but dis agre e wit h us o n almo s t e ve ry o t he r
is s ue be arin g on s o cial jus t ice and e qualit y" (57).
To day we are faced wit h a lo n g-t e rm bat t le , not o n ly to de -
t e rmin e public po licy but to win the he art s and min ds of pe o -
ple t hro ugho ut the co un t ry. The pro cho ice mo ve me n t has the
o ppo rt un it y to de fin e the is s ue s cle arly. C an we o rgan ize
o urs e lve s quickly e n o ugh to pre ve n t a right -win g vict o ry? I
be lie ve we can . The Ne w Right do e s not act ually have mas s
s uppo rt in its an t iabo rt io n po s it io n or on mo s t of its po s i-
The New Right and Abortion 151
tions, as poll after poll shows. My experience as an orga-
nizer confirms these pol l s.
Our job is obvious: to organize on a grass-roots level,
to reach outside the feminist and progressive movements, and
to define the issues clearly as those of women's lives and
constitutional and religious liberty. To do so, we must cre-
ate an ongoing dialogue with this large group of people who
might be called "traditional Americans." They need not be
won over to the New Right.
Notes
1. Alan C rawfo rd, Thun de r o n the Right (New Yo rk: Pan -
t he o n Bo o ks , 1981), p. 3.
2. Ge o rge G. Higgin s , "The Pro life Mo ve me n t and the Ne w
Right ," Ame rica, 13 Se pt e mbe r 1980, p. 108.
3. Pe t e r Ro s s Ran ge , "In s ide the Ne w Right War Machin e ,"
Playbo y, Augus t 1981, p. 2.
4. C rawfo rd, Thun de r, p. 48.
5. Ibid., p. 269.
6. Ibid., p. 10.
7. Ibid., pp. 166, 252.
8. Fre d We rt he ime r, "Fixin g the Ele ct io n Law," Ne w Yo rk
Time s , 3 Se pt e mbe r 1980, p. A19.
9. "The Ne w Right Take s Aim," Time , 20 Augus t 1979, p.
20.
10. Jo hn Judis , "The C o n s e rvat ive s C lo s e Ran ks ," In The s e
Time s , 1-7 April 1981, p. 3.
12. Ibid., pp. 165, 269.
13. Ibid., p. 39.
14. Ibid., pp. 15-16.
15. Tho mas H. Mcln t yre , The Fe ar Bro ke rs (New Yo rk: Pil-
grim Pre s s , 1979), p. 74.
17. "A Re po rt e r at Large Je s s e He lms , Elizabe t h Dre w," Ne w
Yo rke r, 20 July 1981, p. 80.
18. "Me n on the Right Je s s e He lms , Albe rt R. Hun t , and
Jame s H. Pe rry," Wall St re e t Jo urn al, 16 July 1981,
p. 62.
19. C rawfo rd, Thun de r, pp. 11-12.
20. Ibid., pp. 25-26.
21. Ibid., pp. 12-14.
22. Ibid., pp. 25, 57.
24. "Le ade rs of the Mo ve me n t t he Pro -Family Mo ve me n t ," C o n -
s e rvat ive Dige s t 6, n o . 5/6 (May-Jun e 1980):18.
25. Ibid., p. 23.
26. Ibid., p. 26.
27. Ibid., p.18.
28. Ibid., p. 23.
29. Ibid., p. 18.
30. Ibid., pp. 18-19.
31. "Bo rn Again Po lit ics ," Ne ws we e k, 15 Se pt e mbe r 1980, p.
28.
32. L.J. Davis , "On ward C hris t ian So ldie rs !" Pe n t ho us e ,
Fe bruary 1981, p. 59.
33. Ge o rge L. C hurch, "Po lit ics from the Pulpit ," Time , 13
Oct o be r 1978.
34. Lis a Mye rs , "Twe n t ie t h C e n t ury C rus ade Marche s on C api-
t o l," Sain t Pe t e rs burg Time s , 12 July 1980, p. 4.
35. Be n A. Fran klin , "200,000 March and Pray at C hris t ian
Rally," Ne w Yo rk Time s , 30 March 1980, p. 1.
36. Davis , "On ward," p. 53.
37. "C ampaign Re po rt #3," Bill Mo ye rs Jo urn al, 26 Se pt e m-
be r 1980, p. 4.
38. Ibid., p. 12.
39. Mcln t yre , Fe ar Bro ke rs , p. 25.
40. Jame s W. Michae ls , Jr., "C at ho lic Vo t e Mirro rs Re publi-
can Lan ds lide ," Nat io n al C at ho lic Re po rt e r, 21 No ve m-
be r 1980, p. 3.
41. Lis a C ro n in Wo hl, "De co din g the Ele ct io n Game Plan of
the Ne w Right ," Ms_^, Augus t 1979, p. 85.
42. Maure e n Fie dle r and Do lly Po me rle au, "Bo o k Re vie w: Are
C at ho lics Re ady?" Nat io n al C at ho lic Re po rt e r, 14 No -
ve mbe r 1978.
43. Dan a Napars t e ck, "The Po lit ics of the Right to Life Mo ve -
me n t ," In t e rchan ge Re s o urce C e n t e r, p. 2.
44. Fre de rick S. Jaffe , Barbara L. Lin dhe im, and Philip R.
Le e , Abo rt io n Po lit ics , Privat e Mo ralit y, and Public
Po licy (Ne w Yo rk: McGraw Hill, 1981), p. 74.
45. Napars t e ck, "Po lit ics ," p. 2.
46. Jaffe , Lindheira, and Le e , Abo rt io n Po lit ics , p. 74.
47. "Pas t o ral Plan for Pro -Life Act ivit ie s ," Nat io n al C o n fe r-
e n ce of C at ho lic Bis ho ps , 20 No ve mbe r 1975.
48. Ibid., pp. 8-12.
49. Miche.le Magar, "Abo rt io n Po lit ics and the Ame rican C at ho -
lic C hurch," C o n s cie n ce (C at ho lics for a Fre e
C ho ice ), July 1981, p. 3.
50. Ibid., pp. 3-4.
52. Jaffe , Lin dhe im, and Le e , Abo rt io n Po lit ics , p. 75.
53. Napars t e ck, "Po lit ics ," p. 4.
The New Right and Abortion 153
54. Ibid.
55. "Po lit ical Re s po n s ibilit y: C ho ice s for the 1980s ,"
Origin s (U.S. C at ho lic C o n fe re n ce ), 1979.
56. "As Ot he rs See It ," Table t , 23 Fe bruary 1980, p. 15.
57. C o n fe re n ce on Abo rt io n at No t re Dame .
Part III
Gender, Class, and Race
NANCY HARTSOCK
Difference and Domination in the Women's
Movement: The Dialectic of Theory and
Practice (1980)
Fe min is t un de rs t an din gs of diffe re n ce , as these are e x-
pre s s e d in o ur pract ice , have go n e t hro ugh s e ve ral phas e s as
o ur mo ve me n t has de ve lo pe d. We have mo ve d from a de n ial of
the impo rt an ce of diffe re n ce t hro ugh an avo idan ce of diffe r-
e n ce to the be gin n in gs of a re co gn it io n that the diffe re n ce s
amo n g us need not imply re lat io n s of do min at io n . Yet much of
what we have learned abo ut diffe re n ce in pract ice has not
yet be e n art iculat e d as t he o ry. My purpo s e he re is to co n -
t ribut e to this pro ce s s .
I will take up s e ve ral in t e rre lat e d que s t io n s that the n e x-
us of po we r and diffe re n ce po s e s for fe min is t s . Firs t , do e s
po we r me an only po we r o ve r o t he rs ? And do e s diffe re n ce al-
ways pro vide a gro un d or jus t ificat io n for do min at io n ? Se c-
o n d, what e ffe ct s do e s the pract ice of s e parat is m (an avo id-
an ce of diffe re n ce ) have on the t he o ry and pract ice of
po we r? Third, s e parat is m s e e ms to in s t it ut io n alize diffe re n -
ce s . C an a s t rat e gy of in s t it ut io n alizin g diffe re n ce s ,
whe t he r in the fo rms of s e parat is m, the fo rmat io n of caucus -
es in large r o rgan izat io n s , or the co n s t ruct io n of co ali-
t io n s , he lp to o ve rco me diffe re n ce s that lead to or s uppo rt
hie rarchy and do min at io n ? But if o ur o rgan izat io n s in s t it u-
t io n alize diffe re n ce s alo n g the lines of race , s e xualit y, or
clas s , can t he s e o rgan izat io n s then be able to pre figure the
s o cie t y we wan t ? The s e are difficult que s t io n s , and I do
not claim to be able to an s we r them he re .
I be lie ve we can gain mo re clarit y abo ut these difficult
que s t io n s by drawin g some dis t in ct iuo n s wit hin the co n ce pt
of diffe re n ce . I pro po s e to dis t in guis h diffe re n ce s bo t h
fro m Diffe re n ce and from s pe cificit y. Diffe re n ce s can be s t
be un de rs t o o d as e mpirical phe n o me n a. We are , aft e r all,
not all alike : fe min is t s diffe r in t e rms of in co me , o ccupa-
t io n , race , s e xualit y, he ight , hair co lo r, and a ho s t of o t h-
er charact e ris t ics . It is o n ly whe n these charact e ris t ics
are give n a part icular s o cial and e ve n o n t o lo gical me an in g
that they be co me the gro un ds for what I wo uld call Diffe r-
158 Ge n de r, Class, an d Race
e n ce , or radical alt e rit y; they t he re by can be used as a ba-
sis for do min at io n .
Urs ula Le Guin pro vide s an impo rt an t clue to ho w o ur s o cie -
ty us e s diffe re n ce s to co n s t ruct Diffe re n ce whe n she
s ugge s t s that t he re is an impo rt an t re lat io n be t we e n the
t re at me n t of alie n s in s cie n ce fict io n and the t re at me n t of
human s who are co n s ide re d to be s o me ho w diffe re n t . She
argue s , "If yo u de n y an y affin it y wit h an o t he r pe rs o n or
kin d of pe rs o n , if yo u de clare it to be who lly diffe re n t
from yo urs e lf, as me n have do n e to wo me n , and clas s has do n e
to clas s , and n at io n has do n e to n at io n , yo u may hat e it or
de ify it , but in e it he r case yo u have de n ie d its s pirit ual
e qualit y and its human re alit y. Yo u have made it into a
t hin g to which the only po s s ible re lat io n s hip is a po we r
re lat io n s hip and thus yo u have fat ally impo ve ris he d yo ur o wn
re alit y" (1). Le Guin is claimin g that the logic by which
Diffe re n ce is co n s t ruct e d is a logic of do min at io n , a logic
that re s ult s in damage to bo t h part ie s . The e xis t e n ce of
diffe re n ce s , t he n , allo ws for the co n s t ruct io n of Diffe re n ce
and t he re by do min at io n .
Yet fe min is t pract ice has de mo n s t rat e d that this need not
be the in e vit able re s ult of diffe re n ce s . So cially co n s t ruc-
ted Diffe re n ce can be t ran s fo rme d into s pe cificit y, or po s i-
tive co lle ct ive ide n t it y. Thus , while me n have de fin e d wo m-
en as radically "o t he r," fe min is t s have gradually be e n able
to give a s e rie s of s pe cific and po s it ive co n t e n t s to this
o t he rn e s s . We have co n s t ruct e d a s e rie s of co lle ct ive and
o ve rlappin g ide n t it ie s as fe min is t s , as le s bian s , as wo me n
of co lo r, s pe cificit ie s that can no lo n ge r be re duce d to
"o t he rn e s s ," to "not me n " (2). And while the logic of Dif-
fe re n ce leads to do min at io n , I will argue that the logic of
s pe cificit y s uppo rt s the de ve lo pme n t of a de fin it io n of po w-
er as e n e rgy, as an abilit y to act .
The t ran s fo rmat io n of Diffe re n ce into s pe cificit y, and do m-
in at io n into e n e rgy and abilit y to act , impo rt an t and e s s e n -
tial as it has be e n , s imply mirro re d and re ve rs e d the re la-
t io n s of capit alis t pat riarchy. We need to mo ve be yo n d
s imple re act io n and re ve rs al t o ward mo re cre at ive and e n co m-
pas s in g re s po n s e s . Fro m t his pe rs pe ct ive , the curre n t e f-
fo rt s to co n fro n t diffe re n ce s of race , clas s , and s e xualit y
in the wo me n 's mo ve me n t re pre s e n t s o me t hin g n e w and impo r-
t an t . We are be gin n in g to see o ur diffe re n ce s as a gro un d
for cre at ivit y, co n n e ct io n , and co mple me n t arit y (3). And I
will argue that if we an alyze diffe re n ce in a n e w way, give n
the in t imat e co n n e ct io n s of diffe re n ce and po we r, we s ho uld
e xpe ct the de ve lo pme n t of n e w t he o rie s of po we r. Let us
The Dialectic o f The o ry an d Practice 159
look mo re clo s e ly, t he n , at the pract ice in which t he s e in-
s ight s abo ut diffe re n ce and po we r have taken fo rm.
The Denial of Difference
The s t rat e gy of civil right s o rgan izat io n s in the late fif-
ties and e arly s ixt ie s , and in t urn that of a n umbe r of e ar-
ly fe min is t gro ups , can be seen as e ffo rt s to make the rhe t o -
ric and pro mis e s of bo urge o is de mo cracy re al. The s e re fo rm
s t rat e gie s implicit ly acce pt e d the rulin g clas s acco un t of
o ur s o cie t y as fun dame n t ally co n s t it ut e d by free and e qual
in dividuals . This acco un t was be lie ve d to co n flict wit h the
re alit y o n ly in min o r ways , and thus s t rat e gie s for chan ge
in the e arly and mid-s ixt ie s did n o t gro w fro m que s t io n s
abo ut the fun dame n t als of the Ame rican way of life .
In the first s t age of fe min is t re fo rm e ffo rt s (1964-68),
fe min is t s implicit ly he ld that the diffe re n ce s be t we e n wo me n
and me n we re not a s ufficie n t bas e on which to co n s t ruct Dif-
fe re n ce , that is , that diffe re n ce s of ge n de r we re s upe rfi-
cial and in s ufficie n t gro un ds on which to co n s t ruct radical
alt e rit y, or o t he rn e s s . Thus , e ffo rt s to o ve rco me dis crimin -
at io n again s t wo me n took the fo rm of at t e mpt s to cre at e what
co uld o n ly be a false un ive rs alit y and a co n co mit an t re fus al
to re co gn ize the e co n o mic and s o cial un de rpin n in gs of po we r
diffe re n ce s .
In re t ro s pe ct , the re fo rm s t rat e gie s of both the civil
right s mo ve me n t and the e arly wo me n 's mo ve me n t we re part of
a failure to see the ways diffe re n ce s we re s ys t e mat ically
t ran s fo rme d into Diffe re n ce and us e d to do min at e bo t h wo me n
and me n of co lo r and whit e wo me n (4). In t urn , lack of at -
t e n t io n to Diffe re n ce , to s o cially co n s t ruct e d o t he rn e s s ,
led to a failure to n o t ice ho w do min at io n was pe rpe t uat e d
wit hin mo ve me n t s co mmit t e d to chan ge . To take just one e xam-
ple , in vie w of the fact that it was whit e , middle -clas s wo m-
e n wit h acce s s to me dia vis ibilit y who named the pro ble ms
that s ho uld be of co n ce rn to all wo me n , it is not s urpris in g
that few wo me n of co lo r we re in t e re s t e d in part icipat in g in
fe min is t act ivit ie s (5).
The Black mo ve me n t dis co ve re d e arly that the as s umpt io n
that e ve ryo n e was e qual in mo ve me n t s for s o cial chan ge
re pre s e n t e d an un wo rkable and fals e un ive rs alis m, and Black
le ade rs we re the firs t to po in t o ut that diffe re n ce s we re
man ife s t e d as po we r diffe re n ce s . It is no accide n t , t he n ,
that Black s e parat is m and Black libe rat io n in it ially took
fo rm t hro ugh a call fo r Black po we r: the dis co ve ry of the
160 Ge n de r, Class, and Race
s ign ifican ce of s o cially co n s t ruct e d radical alt e rit y was
dire ct ly co n n e ct e d to the dis co ve ry of the impo rt an ce of
po we r re lat io n s .
Difference as Domination in Feminist Practice
Fe min is t s be n e fit e d a gre at de al fro m the in s ight s of the
Black Libe rat io n mo ve me n t . As the wo me n 's mo ve me n t fo llo we d
the s ame dire ct io n s as t ho s e t ake n by the Black mo ve me n t ,
fe min is t pract ice , t ho ugh not yet fe min is t t he o ry, implicit -
ly he ld that it was Diffe re n ce that de fin e d Black and Third
Wo rld o ppre s s io n , and it was s o cially co n s t ruct e d Diffe re n ce
that de fin e d wo me n as o t he r and led to their e xclus io n from
de cis io n makin g, bo t h in s o cie t y and in mo ve me n t s for
chan ge . Fe min is t re co gn it io n of the use of Diffe re n ce to
co n s t ruct do min at io n took the form of e ffo rt s to pre ve n t the
co n s t ruct io n of Diffe re n ce wit hin the wo me n 's mo ve me n t ,
t he re by pre ve n t in g do min at io n . The s e e ffo rt s in clude d o ppo -
s it io n to s t ruct ure d o rgan izat io n s and le ade rs hip, advo cacy
of co lle ct ive wo rk, and s e parat is m.
Un s t ruct ure d co n s cio us n e s s -rais in g gro ups pro vide d the
first fe min is t o rgan izat io n fo rms , and man y s mall gro ups of
gras s -ro o t s act ivis t s as we ll as man y wo me n 's ce n t e rs have
fun ct io n e d on the CR gro up mo de l. Re lat e d to fe min is t e mpha-
sis on un s t ruct ure d gro ups was the s t re s s on pro ce s s . Man y
fe min is t s re me mbe r the e mphas e s on the impo rt an ce of "the
gro win g s e lf," o r the "e vo lvin g co n s cio us n e s s ." Or the fre -
quent pract ice of re makin g and re t hin kin g de cis io n s whe n a
n e w wo man showed up at a me e t in g for the first time and que s -
tioned the de cis io n s a gro up had alre ady t ake n . The gre at
we ight fe min is t s have give n to makin g ce rt ain that e ve ryo n e
was s at is fie d wit h de cis io n s make s cle ar bo t h o ur re luct an ce
to use the po we r of the majo rit y to do min at e and the s e rio us -
n e s s of fe min is t e ffo rt s to pre ve n t the co n s t ruct io n of Dif-
fe re n ce in s t at us wit hin o rgan izat io n s .
In addit io n , in the e arly s e ve n t ie s , fe min is t s o ve rwhe lm-
ingly o ppo s e d le ade rs hip. Alt ho ugh this o ppo s it io n gre w in
part from the s t ro n g in flue n ce of an archis m amo n g the Ne w
Le ft , it came mo re imme diat e ly fro m fe min is t de s ire s to e lim-
in at e bure aucrat ic s t ruct ure s and e lit is t le ade rs hip. Be -
caus e wo me n had be e n o ppre s s e d by e lit is t , un re s po n s ive male
le ade rs in radical Left gro ups , they re act e d by re fus in g to
de s ign at e an y le ade rs at all. The po in t that e me rge s from
t he s e s t rat e gie s is that fe min is t s at t e mpt e d to avo id ap-
po in t in g, e le ct in g, or s e le ct in g an yo n e who wo uld be in a
po s it io n to e xe rcis e po we r o ve r t he m. We re co gn ize d in prac-
tice the impo rt an t ways s t ruct ural diffe re n t iat io n in po s i-
t io n s co uld s e rve as a bas is for do min at io n and at t e mpt e d to
avo id those e ffe ct s by re fus in g to build mo re than min imal
s t ruct ure s .
Wo rkin g co lle ct ive ly was a third re s po n s e /re act io n to the
pro ble ms posed by Diffe re n ce . Alt ho ugh there are a varie t y
of mo de ls for co lle ct ive s , one of the mo s t co mmo n fo rms re -
quire s that the wo rk done by each me mbe r of a gro up s ho uld
be ide n t ical wit h that of e ve ry o t he ra way of avo idin g the
divis io n of labor that has in the pas t taken the form of a
divis io n be t we e n me n t al and man ual labor wit h re s ult in g
e lit is m. This pract ice co n t ain s an impo rt an t s t at e me n t
abo ut both po we r and Diffe re n ce . C o lle ct ive s of this sort
are a s t at e me n t that diffe re n ce s in e vit ably lead to the
s o cial co n s t ruct io n of Diffe re n ce and t he re fo re to
in e qualit y and do min at io n . The s e co lle ct ive s , by in s is t in g
on the ide n t it y of in t e rchan ge abilit y of me mbe rs , re pre s e n t
an o t he r impo rt an t way fe min is t s have wo rke d again s t the
co n s t ruct io n of Diffe re n ce .
Se parat is m too can be seen as a s t rat e gy for avo idin g the
co n s t ruct io n of Diffe re n ce an d, t he re fo re , do min at io n . Fe m-
in is t s re s po n de d to male do min at io n by in s is t in g that they
co uld wo rk o n ly s e parat e ly and used the s plit be t we e n Blacks
and whit e s in the civil right s mo ve me n t as jus t ificat io n .
Whe n it be came cle ar that he t e ro s e xual wo me n were o ppre s s in g
le s bian s and t ryin g to make them in vis ible wit hin the wo m-
e n 's mo ve me n t and that uppe r- and middle -clas s wo me n we re o p-
pre s s in g wo rkin g-clas s wo me n in the mo ve me n t , the n at ural re -
s po n s e was to split into s malle r un it s . Racial s e parat io n ,
whe t he r in the form of s e parat e o rgan izat io n s for wo me n of
co lo r or t he ir in diffe re n ce or ho s t ilit y, has be e n a co n -
s t an t . The s e s mall un it s me an t that no wo man had to wo rk po -
lit ically with o t he rs who might be in a po s it io n whe t he r
t hro ugh clas s , race , or he t e ro s e xual privile ge t o e xe rcis e
po we r o ve r he r.
The cre at io n of s t ruct ure le s s gro ups in which t he re we re
no diffe re n ce s of ge n de r, s e xualit y, clas s , or race implicit -
ly affirme d the t he o re t ical po s it io n that diffe re n ce s in e vit -
ably pro vide d a gro un d for the co n s t ruct io n of Diffe re n ce
and t he re fo re do min at io n or e ve n pe rhaps , that Diffe re n ce
and diffe re n ce s we re ide n t ical. In addit io n , t he s e s t rat e -
gie s for avo idin g po we r and do min at io n implicit ly acce pt e d
that po we r was the abilit y to co mpe l o be die n ce , that po we r
mus t be po we r o ve r s o me o n e s o me t hin g po s s e s s e d, a pro pe rt y
of an act o r that e n able s him or he r to alt e r the will or
act io n s of o t he rs in a way that pro duce s re s ult s in co n fo rmi-
ty wit h the act o r's o wn will. On this un de rs t an din g, po we r
is e xe rcis e d in s it uat io n s in which one pe rs o n in duce s an o t h-
er to do s o me t hin g the lat t e r is dis in clin e d to do by t hre at -
e n in g some co n s e que n ce s that the second pe rs o n will dis like
mo re t han t akin g the re quire d act io n (6).
All this amo un t s to a fe min is t acce pt an ce of the phallo -
crat ic logic of do min at io n . Firs t , we failed to go be yo n d
the phallo crat ic un de rs t an din g that po we r is do min at io n , and
s e co n d, we faile d to see that diffe re n ce s need not lead to
Diffe re n ce . Rat he r than re -e xamin e t his lo gic, we tried
t o pre ve n t the e xis t e n ce of diffe re n ce s and t he re fo re Diffe r-
e n ce wit hin o ur mo ve me n t . In s ayin g t his , I mus t po in t o ut
that t his acce pt an ce was bo t h un t he o rize d and in art iculat e .
In addit io n , I do not me an to s ugge s t that these s e ve ral
s t rat e gie s we re wro n g. Se parat is m in part icular has pro ve d
ve ry fruit ful.
Transforming Difference into Sp ecificity
Se parat is m mus t be as s e s s e d and un de rs t o o d not s imply as a
de fe n s ive re act io n to the phallo crat ic use of Diffe re n ce to
co n s t ruct and re in fo rce do min at io n but als o as the me an s by
which fe min is t s t ran s fo rme d o ur s o cially de fin e d o t he rn e s s
in t o a s e lf-de fin e d s pe cificit y. Fe min is t s have cre at e d
s pace s in a capit alis t and pat riarchal s o cie t y whe re we
co uld be free of o ur o ppre s s io n as wo me n in wo me n 's mus ic,
wo me n 's bus in e s s e s , co ffe e s ho ps , bars , livin g co mmun it ie s ,
and so o n . Se parat is m was fun dame n t al to the s urvival and
s an it y of fe min is t s , bo t h as in dividuals and as a mo ve me n t .
We n e e de d to cre at e s afe s pace s whe re we co uld gro w and
le arn and e xpe rime n t , and we co n t in ue to need place s whe re
we de fin e the t e rms as wo me n , as le s bian s , as wo me n of co l-
o r, as wo rkin g-clas s wo me n .
Yet s e parat is m has a large r s ign ifican ce . Alt ho ugh we in i-
t ially fo rme d gro ups on the bas is of o ur s o cially de fin e d
o t he rn e s s , we dis co ve re d in t he s e gro ups that we shared not
only o ppre s s io n s but s t re n gt hs . And o ur e ffo rt s to pre ve n t
the co n s t ruct io n of Diffe re n ce wit hin the wo me n 's mo ve me n t
did allo w s pace for n e w ways of t hin kin g and o rgan izin g.
C o n s cio us n e s s rais in g, wit h its s t re s s on e xamin in g and un -
de rs t an din g o ur o wn e xpe rie n ce and on co n n e ct in g that e xpe r-
ie n ce to the s t ruct ure s that de fin e o ur live s , allo we d for a
ve ry diffe re n t mo de of t he o rizin g than one fin ds amo n g o t he r
mo ve me n t s for chan ge . We be gan to see fe min is m as a n e w and
diffe re n t mo de of an alys is rat he r t han as a set of po lit ical
co n clus io n s abo ut the o ppre s s io n of wo me n , a wo rld vie w that
co uld s t ruct ure o ur un de rs t an din g of s o cie t y as a who le (7).
As we at t e mpt e d to de ve lo p n e w and n o n hie rarchical ways of
wo rkin g, we de ve lo pe d n e w o rgan izat io n al fo rms and fe min is t
wo rk place s as we ll. In addit io n , the re claimin g of le s bian
The Dialectic of Theory and Practice 163
ide n t it y in the e arly s e ve n t ie s , the cre at io n of le s bian fe m-
in is m in bo t h t he o ry and pract ice , was one of the mo s t impo r-
tant ways in which, by re -e xamin in g o ur e xpe rie n ce and re ap-
pro priat in g it , we man age d to t ran s fo rm bo t h o ur past and
o urs e lve s . All t he s e chan ge s we re impo rt an t re s ult s of o ur
re act io n again s t the use of diffe re n ce s to co n s t ruct Diffe r-
e n ce and re lat io n s of do min at io n .
Emp owerment and Difference
The e xpe rie n ce of s e parat is m le d, as it had pre vio us ly in
the Black mo ve me n t , to a t ran s fo rmat io n of the un de rs t an d-
ing of the n at ure and co n s e que n ce s of the diffe re n ce s alo n g
which the mo ve me n t had s plit . It led as we ll to a t ran s fo rm-
at io n of fe min is t un de rs t an din gs of po we r. Wit hin the mo ve -
me n t , po we r e xe rcis e d in and by fe min is t gro ups be gan to be
seen not as do min at io n but as abilit y to act and capacit y to
pe rfo rm. It came to be s yn o n ymo us wit h s t re n gt h, vigo r, e n -
e rgy, fo rce , and abilit y.
In at t e mpt in g to de ve lo p and de s cribe t his un de rs t an din g
o f po we r, I argue d some ye ars ago that fe min is t s mus t re co g-
n ize that "po we r un de rs t o o d as e n e rgy, s t re n gt h, and e ffe c-
tive in t e ract io n n e e d not be the same as po we r which re -
quire s do min at io n of o t he rs in the mo ve me n t ." At the same
t ime , I argue d that be caus e we als o co n fro n t the wo rld of
t radit io n al po lit ics , "cre at in g po lit ical chan ge in vo lve s
s e t t in g up o rgan izat io n s bas e d on po we r as e n e rgy and
s t re n gt h, gro ups which are s t ruct ure d and not tied to the
pe rs o n alit y of o n e in dividual, gro ups who s e s t ruct ure s do
not pe rmit the use of po we r as a t o o l for do min at io n of o t h-
e rs in the gro up" (8). I re pe at this be caus e I t hin k that
my vie ws we re wide ly shared and that my argume n t s re fle ct e d
fe min is t e ffo rt s to co n s t ruct o rgan izat io n al fo rms that e x-
pre s s e d o ur n e wly de ve lo pe d sense of o ur s t re n gt hs and ide n -
t it ie s . Thus this t he o rizat io n of po we r as e n e rgy gre w bo t h
fro m the fe min is t flight from do min at io n and from the de ve l-
o pme n t and dis co ve ry of capabilit ie s . It e xpre s s e d the e x-
pe rie n ce of e mpo we rme n t the vario us s e parat is t s t rat e gie s
had made po s s ible and marke d a willin gn e s s to t hin k mo re e x-
plicit ly abo ut is s ue s of po we r. Pe rhaps mo s t impo rt an t , it
re pre s e n t e d a bre ak wit h phallo crat ic, male -de fin e d re duc-
t io n s of po we r to do min at io n .
In re t ro s pe ct , ho we ve r, I be lie ve this was an in co mple t e
un de rs t an din g. Havin g the abilit y to act , or e n e rgy, is not
the same as act ually act in g in ways that chan ge the wo rld.
The fe min is t t he o ry of po we r as e n e rgy and abilit y is un co m-
fo rt ably clo s e to Adrie n n e Rich's de s cript io n of the t radi-
t io n al way wo me n 's po we r has be e n e xpe rie n ce dan e n e rgy
lo o kin g for o bje ct s into which to po ur it s e lf, e ve n s o me -
t ime s a de mo n ic po s s e s s io n (9). It is po we r bo t t le d up and
co n t ain e d. Alt ho ugh I argue d for an un de rs t an din g of po we r
as e n e rgy and abilit y, I was s ile n t as to what act io n s might
act ually re pre s e n t such an e xe rcis e of po we r. Pe rhaps this
failure to co n s ide r the e xe rcis e of po we r or the impact of
o ur act io n s re fle ct e d the in s ularit y, is o lat io n , and co n t ain -
me n t in he re n t in the s e ve ral s e parat is t s t rat e gie s we had
ado pt e d.
In s um, the t he o rizat io n of po we r as e n e rgy marke d a bre ak
wit h phallo crat ic un de rs t an din gs of po we r; it be gan to fo rmu-
late a fe min is t re un de rs t an din g of po we r which rested on and
e xpre s s e d the pract ical t ran s fo rmat io n of Diffe re n ce into
s pe cificit y. Jus t as o t he rn e s s was t ran s fo rme d into s e lf-
co n s t it ut e d ide n t it y, so too do min at io n was t ran s fo rme d into
e n e rgy and abilit y to act . De s pit e the fact that t he s e un -
de rs t an din gs we re s imply re ve rs als of the s o cial re lat io n s
of the capit alis t pat riarchy, they paved the way for bre ak-
ing the links be t we e n diffe re n ce and do min at io n .
Difference and Domination: B reak ing the Link s
The curre n t co n ce rn abo ut racis m in the wo me n 's mo ve me n t is
an in dicat io n bo t h of the co n t in uin g pro ble ms diffe re n ce s
po s e and the co lle ct ive e xpre s s io n of fe min is t willin gn e s s
to re t hin k their me an in gs and to learn to use diffe re n ce s as
s o urce s of n e w ide as and s t rat e gie s . We are only be gin n in g
to un de rs t an d the pract ical and t he o re t ical s ign ifican ce of
t re at in g racial diffe re n ce s as s o urce s o f cre at ive t e n s io n
rat he r than jus t ificat io n s for do min at io n . Yet we can learn
s o me t hin g abo ut what might be po s s ible by lo o kin g at the e x-
pe rie n ce of an e arly le s bian fe min is t s e parat is t gro up in
Was hin gt o n , D.C ., o rgan ize d in 1971. The Furie s re fus e d to
wo rk po lit ically wit h s t raight fe min is t s , and yet their e f-
fo rt s to live and wo rk only wit h o t he rs who s hare d t he ir po l-
it ics and s e xualit y we re de e ply han dicappe d by is s ue s of Dif-
fe re n ce .
De s pit e the pro min e n ce of argume n t s that the wo me n 's mo ve -
me n t has always co n s is t e d of whit e middle -clas s wo me n , the
Furie s like man y fe min is t o rgan izat io n s had a n umbe r of me m-
be rs fro m po o r and wo rkin g-clas s backgro un ds . The s e wo me n
in s is t e d that clas s diffe re n ce s be co n fro n t e d and argue d
that "re fus al to de al wit h clas s be havio r in a le s bian /fe m-
in is t mo ve me n t is s he e r s e lf-in dulge n ce and leads to the
do wn fall of o ur o wn s t ruggle " (10). One re s po n s e to the dis -
co ve ry of the Diffe re n ce co n s t ruct e d o ut of clas s diffe re n -
ces might have been to create yet another spl i t , but, per-
haps because of the extent to which Difference had already
become specificity in the context of the women's movement,
the Furies began to develop ways to make it possible to work
together despite differences. The fact that the Furies pro-
duced some of the best feminist analyses of class differen-
ces and their workings within the women's movement i l l us-
trates the creative possibilities in such a situation. Some
of what they learned is worth recounting here since it re-
mains pertinent.
The Furies learned the sense in which we are al l taught to
take for granted that the "middle-class way is the right
way." Being middle class "means being able to control peo-
ple and situations for your benefit. No one in our movement
would say that she believes she is better than her work-
ing-class si st er s, yet her behavior says i t over and over
again" (11). Class arrogance can be expressed in looking
down on the "less art i cul at e, " but may also be apparent in a
kind of passivity often assumed by middle- and especially up-
per-middle-class women for whom things have come easily
(12). Advocating downward mobility too can be another form
of middle-class arrogance. What is cri t i cal about al l this
is that the Furies saw that class differences worked to al -
low middle-class women to set the standards of what is good
and to act "more revolutionary than thou" toward those con-
cerned about money and the future (13). Middle-class women
retained control over approval.
It is not surprising that the Furies' discoveries about
class can be characterized by a Black woman's point about ra-
cism: "The force that allows white authors to make no refer-
ence to racial identity in their books about 'women' that
are in actuality about white women is the same one that
would compel any author writing exclusively on black women
to refer explicitly to their racial identity." She contin-
ues that "i t is the dominant race that reserves for itself
the luxury of dismissing racial identity while the oppressed
race is made daily aware of their racial identity. It is the
dominant race that can make it seem that their experience is
representative" (14). Much the same is true of class,
though since class differences have been less central to
public debate in the United States, there seems even less
awareness of classist behavior than of racism in the women's
movement.
The Furies' experience indicates the potential value
of differences to the feminist movement. For example, one
white middle-class woman stated, "I learned out of neces-
sity what classism was and I changed more quickly than if I
had not been in a group with women who had class conscious-
n e s s . . . . C las s o ppre s s io n was no lo n ge r an abs t ract
co n ce pt . . . . It was part of my life which I co uld see and
chan ge . An d, havin g seen the man ife s t at io n s of clas s in my-
s e lf, I be t t e r un de rs t o o d ho w clas s o pe rat e d ge n e rally to
divide pe o ple and ke e p them do wn " (15).
In addit io n , the Furie s made o rgan izat io n al e ffo rt s to co n -
s t ruct n e w fo rms and to de ve lo p s t rat e gie s that took acco un t
of the clas s diffe re n ce s amo n g t he m, s t rat e gie s for in co me
and re s po n s ibilit y s harin g that paid at t e n t io n to bo t h pas t
and pre s e n t privile ge . The s e o rgan izat io n al chan ge s s ig-
n ale d that diffe re n ce s n e e d not be co me Diffe re n ce , and that
diffe re n ce s amo n g wo me n need not lead to the co n s t ruct io n of
o t he rn e s s . Rat he r, these diffe re n ce s co uld be used to clari-
fy the clas s n at ure of o ur s o cial s ys t e m and he lp us pro t e ct
o ur o rgan izat io n s from the full impact of clas s o ppre s s io n .
It is impo rt an t to s t re s s that t he s e e ffo rt s to de al cre a-
t ive ly wit h clas s diffe re n ce s re quire d o rgan izat io n al chan -
ge s . The s e chan ge s may als o be re quire d whe n wo me n of co lo r
and whit e wo me n wo rk t o ge t he r. As one writ e r has put it ,
"It is e as y for whit e wo me n to t hin k that a gro up has be e n
in t e grat e d if t hird wo rld wo me n have be e n bro ught in , but
maybe they will als o have to chan ge the s t ruct ure of t he ir
o rgan izat io n . Ot he rwis e , the o n ly third wo rld wo me n who can
1
s ucce e d' are t ho s e who can in t e grat e . So we n e e d fun dame n -
tal chan ge s in s t ruct ure " (16).
De ve lo pin g ways to wo rk t o ge t he r acro s s diffe re n ce s of
clas s , race , s e xualit y, and ge n de r o n ce again rais e s the do u-
ble que s t io n of po we r and diffe re n ce , a que s t io n fe min is t s
can co n fro n t wit h the be n e fit of havin g dis co ve re d that dif-
fe re n ce s need not be o n ly s o urce s of do min at io n but can als o
be co me s o urce s for cre at ivit y and gro wt h. At the s ame t ime ,
by be gin n in g to de al wit h diffe re n ce s in a n e w way, the Fur-
ie s ' e xpe rie n ce implicit ly po s e d pro ble ms for the fe min is t
de fin it io n of po we r as e mpo we rme n t and abilit y rat he r than
do min at io n . The fe min is t vie w of po we r as e n e rgy and abili-
ty gre w fro m a pe rio d in which s o me , t ho ugh not all, of the
mo s t damagin g diffe re n ce s amo n g wo me n we re mut e d by s e para-
t is m. By go in g be yo n d this un de rs t an din g, wo rkin g t o ge t he r
acro s s diffe re n ce s , act in g in a wo rld in which wo me n 's dif-
fe re n ce s are ackn o wle dge d, the Furie s may have he lpe d us to
go be yo n d an un de rs t an din g of po we r as e n e rgy.
Difference and Creativ ity: Toward a New Understanding
of Power
The curre n t phas e in which man y fe min is t s are at t e mpt in g to
mo ve be yo n d s e parat is m rais e s in urge n t form the need to
le arn to use diffe re n ce s as s o urce s of cre at ive t e n s io n .
The Furie s ' e xpe rie n ce give s us a s e n s e of bo t h the impo r-
t an ce of de alin g wit h diffe re n ce s and the cre at ive po s s ibili-
t ie s diffe re n ce s make available . The s e po s s ibilit ie s e me rge
ve ry s t ro n gly as we ll in one of the re ce n t co lle ct io n s of
writ in g by wo me n of co lo r. Audre Lo rde 's e s s ay is one
of the mo s t po we rful s t at e me n t s of what might o ccur. She ar-
gue s that "Advo cat in g the me re t o le ran ce of diffe re n ce be -
t we e n wo me n is . . . a t o t al de n ial of the cre at ive fun ct io n
of diffe re n ce in o ur live s . For diffe re n ce mus t be not me re -
ly t o le rat e d, but seen as a fund of n e ce s s ary po larit ie s be -
t we e n which o ur cre at ivit y can s park like a diale ct ic. Only
then do e s the n e ce s s it y for in t e rde pe n de n cy be co me un t hre at -
e n in g. Only wit hin that in t e rde pe n de n cy of diffe re n t
s t re n gt hs , ackn o wle dge d and e qual, can the po we r to seek n e w
ways to act ive ly 'be ' in the wo rld ge n e rat e , as we ll as the
co urage and s us t e n an ce to act whe re there are no chart e rs "
(17).
In t e re s t in gly e n o ugh, t he re is a re s o n an ce be t we e n Lo rde 's
un de rs t an din g of the cre at ive po s s ibilit ie s of diffe re n ce
and the un de rs t an din g of the role of diffe re n ce s that e me r-
ges in Marx's vis io n of human in t e ract io n in co mmun is m.
Wo rk, or co n s cio us , s e lf-re alizin g human act ivit y, t ake n in
its mo s t in clus ive de fin it io n as cre at ive act ivit y rat he r
t han t o il, fo rms the bas is for Marx's co n ce pt io n of the n a-
t ure of human it y it s e lf. Marx's de s cript io n of an un alie n -
ated wo rk pro ce s s make s cle ar the po s s ibilit ie s for mut ual
in t e rde pe n de n ce and cre at io n of co mmun it y on the bas is of
diffe re n ce in this cas e a diffe re n ce that t ake s the fo rm of
a divis io n of labo r. In an e xt rao rdin ary pas s age from the
1844 Man us cript s , Marx s pe culat e s abo ut n o n alie n at e d pro -
duct io n . "If I had pro duce d in a human man n e r," he s ays ,
I wo uld have (1) o bje ct ifie d in my pro duct io n my in divid-
ualit y and its pe culiarit y. . . . (2) In yo ur e n jo yme n t
of us e of my pro duct I wo uld have had the dire ct e n jo y-
me n t of re alizin g that I had bo t h s at is fie d a human need
by my wo rk and . . . fas hio n e d for an o t he r human be in g
the o bje ct that me t his n e e d. (3) I wo uld have be e n for
yo u the me diat o r be t we e n yo u and the s pe cie s and thus
be e n ackn o wle dge d and felt by yo u as a co mple t io n of
yo ur o wn e s s e n ce . . . . (4) In my e xpre s s io n of my life
I wo uld have fas hio n e d yo ur e xpre s s io n of life , and thus
in my o wn act ivit y have re alize d my o wn e s s e n ce , my hu-
man , my co mmun al e s s e n ce . (18)
In t his pas s age , diffe re n ce s amo n g pe o ple cre at e the po s s i-
bilit y of re alizin g o n e 's ve ry human it y.
We can see as we ll some rudime n t s for a n e w un de rs t an din g
of po we r. This pas s age s ugge s t s that po we r n e e d not be un -
de rs t o o d as e n e rgy bo t t le d up but can be e xpre s s e d in ways
that chan ge the wo rld to he lp or e n rich o t he rs diffe re n t
from o urs e lve s . In de e d, po we r can only wo rk this way whe n
the o t he rs wit h who m we as s o ciat e diffe r from o urs e lve s ,
s in ce only then can they and we re ce ive the un ique gift s
e ach of us has . I am not s ugge s t in g that n e it he r this brie f
pas s age n o r the o rgan izat io n al e xpe rie n ce of the Furie s n o r
Lo rde 's argume n t for us in g diffe re n ce s art iculat e s a n e w un -
de rs t an din g of po we r that gro ws from a n e w un de rs t an din g of
diffe re n ce s . Such a t he o ry of po we r can only e me rge in the
fut ure from ye ars of pract ical s t ruggle wit h diffe re n ce s in
o ur mo ve me n t . Rat he r, I like to read these pas s age s as vi-
s io n s and pe rhaps guide s that un de rlin e the varie t y of po s s i-
bilit ie s for co mmun it y and in t e rde pe n de n ce made available by
diffe re n ce s amo n g pe o ple .
Fe min is t s are o n ly be gin n in g to e xplo re po s s ibilit ie s of
wo rkin g t o ge t he r acro s s diffe re n ce s . Be caus e of a wide -
s pre ad and urge n t s e n s e that we n e e d to wo rk t o ge t he r, a
de e p-go in g e xplo rat io n of diffe re n ce s amo n g fe min is t s s e e ms
pro fo un dly impo rt an t . We need to look mo re clo s e ly at the
way clas s , race , or diffe re n ce s of s e xualit y re s ult in the
same fe min is t de man d havin g ve ry diffe re n t e ffe ct s on diffe r-
ent gro ups of wo me n . Black wo me n , to take only one of these
e xample s , have o ft e n argue d that fe min is t s are irre le van t ,
s in ce they wan t e ve ry wo man to have a jo b, whe re as Black wo m-
e n wo uld e n jo y the luxury of be in g ho us e wive s .
But if o ur n e e ds and de s ire s are so diffe re n t , ho w can we
wo rk t o ge t he r? I co n t e n d that it is po s s ible at pre s e n t o n -
ly by us in g, pre s e rvin g, and e n han cin g o ur diffe re n ce s . Fe m-
inist co mmun it ie s mus t make sure t he re are s pace s for wo me n
of co lo r clo s e d to whit e wo me n , le s bian s pace s clo s e d to he t -
e ro s e xual wo me n . We mus t build t he s e s pace s into o ur po lit i-
cal o rgan izat io n s as we llwhe t he r in the form of caucus e s
or the co n s t ruct io n of co alit io n s . The one thing that can
n e ve r be allo we d is s e parat e s pace for the do min an t or
privile ge d gro up. If we at t e mpt to co n s t ruct a un ifie d mo ve -
me n t wit h me n , then t he re mus t be no s e parat e o rgan izat io n al
space for whit e male s . They have always had acce s s to s e p-
arat e s pace . The ir s e parat e s pace s , t he ir s e parat e o rga-
n izat io n s , t he ir diffe re n ce s fro m us have be e n s o urce s of
t he ir po we r. We can n o t allo w t he m to co n t in ue .
A s t rat e gy of pre s e rvin g and in s t it ut io n alizin g o ur diffe r-
e n ce s co uld re s po n d to the twin pro ble ms posed by the fact
that un ive rs alis t ic s t rat e gie s that ign o re diffe re n ce s do
not wo rk and that s e parat is t s t rat e gie s fail to que s t io n the
de fin it io n of diffe re n ce s as Diffe re n ce . But t his e ffo rt to
in s t it ut io n alize diffe re n ce s in our mo ve me n t rais e s yet an -
o t he r difficult yo n e faced by any re vo lut io n ary o rgan iza-
t io n , but not yet much de alt wit h by fe min is t s t he co n t ra-
dict io n be t we e n me an s and e n ds .
Man y fe min is t s have in s is t e d that fe min is t
o rgan izat io n s mus t form the mo de l for the s o cie t y we wan t .
But do we wan t a s o cie t y in which diffe re n ce s of race ,
clas s , ge n de r, or s e xualit y re main in s t it ut io n alize d? Are
t he re impo rt an t dis t in ct io n s be t we e n "wallin g o ut " and
"wallin g in "? Do we wan t a s o cie t y in which all diffe re n ce s
are in dividual diffe re n ce s ? Or a s o cie t y like the one Marge
Pie rcy co n s t ruct s in Wo man o n the Edge o f Time in which
e t hn icit ie s co n t in ue to e xis t but are dis co n n e ct e d from
co lo r? Is t he re s o me t hin g abo ut o ur diffe re n ce s that is
wo rt h pre s e rvin g?
I have wo rrie d abo ut the e xt e n t to which both we and o ur
o rgan izat io n s may be t ran s fo rme d by o ur s t ruggle for po we r.
I have wo n de re d whe t he r o ur o rgan izat io n s can s e rve as t o o ls
for t akin g po we r for wo me n and s t ill lay the gro un dwo rk for
n e w n o n s e xis t , n o n racis t , n o n clas s is t s o cie t al in s t it ut io n s .
Alt ho ugh I o n ce t ho ught o ur in s t it ut io n s co uld pre figure the
s o cie t y we wan t , n o w the que s t io n of me an s and e n ds , the is -
sue of ho w o ur o rgan izat io n s are re lat e d to the wo rld we
wan t s e e ms pe rman e n t ly in flux. Pe rhaps it is time to aban -
do n the n o t io n that o ur o rgan izat io n s mus t pre figure the n e w
s o cie t y. It JLS_ impo rt an t to e xpe rime n t wit h n e w fo rms ,
but the his t o ry of the wo me n 's mo ve me n t s ugge s t s that this
is not always po s s ible . We can n o t e xpe ct fe min is t o rgan iza-
t io n s to be s mall o as e s of un ive rs alit y and co mmun it y in a
pat riarchal capit alis t s o cie t y. Nor can we de ve lo p a s in gle
o rgan izat io n al fo rm appro priat e to all part s of the mo ve -
me n t . In the e n d, o rgan izat io n s can be e valuat e d only his -
t o rically. What was right in the pas t will do ubt le s s be
wro n g in the fut ure .
The pract ice of the wo me n 's mo ve me n t aro un d the que s t io n s
rais e d by diffe re n ce s s ugge s t s that po lit ical chan ge is a
pro ce s s of t ran s fo rmin g not only o urs e lve s but als o o ur mo s t
bas ic as s umpt io n s abo ut human it y and o ur s e n s e of human po s -
s ibilit yn o t just o n ce but man y t ime s . Makin g chan ge re -
quire s that we in co rpo rat e in o ur o rgan izat io n s bo t h o ur co n -
s t an t ly chan gin g un de rs t an din gs of the po s s ible and the
n e e ds of fe min is t s in vo lve d in t he s e o rgan izat io n s . At bo t -
t o m, the chan ge we seek re quire s t ran s fo rmin g the me an in gs
of bo t h po we r and diffe re n ce not o n ce but man y t ime s .
Conclusion
The his t o ry of fe min is t un de rs t an din g of diffe re n ce and po w-
er make s it cle ar that diffe re n t s t rat e gie s are appro priat e
at diffe re n t t ime s and that e ach s t rat e gy can make a co n t ri-
but io n to o ur un de rs t an din g of the s ign ifican ce of the dif-
fe re n ce s amo n g us . Each s t rat e gy co n t ain s an implicit an al-
ys is which n e e ds to be "re ad o ut " of the pract ice and
t he o rize d in o rde r to s ho w us the n e w po s s ibilit ie s toward
which it po in t s . Our pract ice has de mo n s t rat e d that diffe r-
e n ce s n e e d not be re duce d to o t he rn e s s and that the me an in g
of po we r is not e xhaus t e d by do min at io n . We have be e n able
to t ran s fo rm some of o ur s o cially de fin e d o t he rn e s s e s into
s e lf-de fin e d s pe cificit y and in so do in g, have t ran s fo rme d
fe min is t un de rs t an din gs of po we r. We have n o t , ho we ve r,
be e n able to avo id the diffe re n ce s amo n g o urs e lve s . Our e x-
pe rie n ce in dicat e s that we are be gin n in g to see that the
link be t we e n diffe re n ce s and Diffe re n ce can be bro ke n in
bo t h t he o ry and pract ice and that o ur diffe re n ce s as fe min -
ists can in s t e ad be po in t s of co n n e ct io n and cre at ivit y.
Yet t he s e n e w un de rs t an din gs will po s e n e w pro ble ms for us
pro ble ms that ce n t e r aro un d que s t io n s of the re lat io n of
me an s and e n ds , que s t io n s abo ut the e xt e n t to which o ur
o rgan izat io n s s ho uld be or can be e xpre s s io n s of the wo rld
we wan t . Pe rhaps the mo s t fun dame n t al que s t io n to be asked
of e ve ry s t rat e gy for chan ge is t his : ho w do e s this s t rat e -
gy co n t ain at least the s e e ds of its o wn s upe rs e s s io n ?
Notes
The fo llo win g pe o ple dis cus s e d this pape r wit h me at a
ve ry e arly s t age in its writ in g: Ale xa Fre e man , Sarah
Be gus , An n e t t e Bicke l, and Lucius Out law. In addit io n , I
have be e n he lpe d by co mme n t s from San dra Hardin g, Amy Swe rd-
lo w, and Ge rri Train a. This pape r was s ign ifican t ly cut for
in clus io n in t his vo lume , he n ce the lack of qualificat io n
and illus t rat io n .
1. Urs ula Le Guin , "Ame rican SF and the Ot he r," Scie n ce
Fict io n St udie s 1, n o . 3 (No ve mbe r 1975):208-9, cited
in Pame la Sarge n t , in t ro duct io n to Mo re Wo me n o f Wo n -
de r (Ne w Yo rk: Vin t age , 1976), pp. xxxiv-xxxv.
2. This dis t in ct io n is made by Erica Jo y Man n ucci, t ho ugh
she is not re s po n s ible for what I have made of it .
See "Pe rs o n al and Po lit ical Lo yalt y," mime o available
from the aut ho r at Un ive rs it y of Milan , C e n t e r for the
St udy of Wo me n in C ult ure . See als o Audre Lo rde , "The
Mas t e r's To o ls Will Ne ve r Dis man t le the Mas t e r's
Ho us e ," in This Bridge C alle d My Back e d. C he rrie
Mo raga and Glo ria An zaldua (Wat e rt o wn , Mas s .: Pe rs e ph-
one Pre s s , 1981), p. 99.
3. Audre Lord is one of the be s t -kn o wn pe o ple to make this
claim and make it e lo que n t ly. See This Bridge , p.
99.
4. I do not me an to co n de mn all re fo rm s t rat e gie s . See
C harlo t t e Bun ch, "The Re fo rm To o l Kit ," in Buildin g
Fe min is t The o ry, e d. C harlo t t e Bun ch et al. (New
Yo rk: Lo n gman , 1981).
5. For e xample , see Judit h Wit he ro w, "Nat ive Ame rican Mo t h-
e r," Que s t : A Fe min is t Quart e rly 3, n o . 4 (Sprin g
1977). Mo re re ce n t ly, see Be ll Ho o ks , Ain 't I a Wo m-
an (Bo s t o n : South End Pre s s , 1981), p. 138.
6. Se e , for e xample , Haro ld Las s we ll and Abraham Kaplan ,
Po we r and So cie t y (New Have n : Yale Un ive rs it y
Pre s s , 1950), p. 76; and David Be ll, Po we r, In flu-
e n ce , an d Aut ho rit y (Ne w Yo rk: Oxfo rd Un ive rs it y
Pre s s , 1975), pp. 15-17.
7. Alt ho ugh I made t his po in t in "Fun dame n t al Fe min is m:
Pro ce s s and Pe rs pe ct ive ," in Buildin g Fe min is t The -
o ry, it was ve ry much a wide ly shared vie w amo n g the
Que s t s t aff.
8. "Po lit ical C han ge : Two Pe rs pe ct ive s on Po we r," Que s t :
A Fe min is t Quart e rly 1 (Summe r 1974):16, re prin t e d in
Buildin g Fe min is t The o ry.
9. Adrie n n e Rich, Of Wo me n Bo rn (New Yo rk: No rt o n ,
1976), pp. 69, 101.
10. Nan cy Myro n , "C las s Be gin n in gs ," Furie s 1, n o . 3
(March-April 1972):3.
11. C harlo t t e Bun ch and C o le t t a Re id, "Re vo lut io n Be gin s at
Ho me ," Furie s 1, n o . 4 (May 1972): 2-3. See als o
De lo re s Bargo ws ki and C o le t t a Re id, "Garbage amo n g the
Tras h," Furie s 1, n o . 6 (Augus t 1972):8-9. Some of
the e s s ays from Furie s are co lle ct e d in Nan cy Myro n
and C harlo t t e Bun ch, e ds ., C las s and Fe min is m
(Balt imo re : Dian a Pre s s , 1974).
12. Ibid.
13. Compare Barbara Smith and Beverly Smith: "Race is a con-
cept of having to be twice as qual i fi ed, twice as good
to go half as far. . . . No way in Hell would I give
up getting a degree or some piece of paper that would
give me more economic leverage in t hi s ' boy' s' sys-
tem." Barbara Smith and Beverly Smith, in This
Bridge, p. 113.
14. Bell Hooks, Ain' t I a Woman, p. 138.
15. Ginny Berson, "Only by Association, " Furies 1, no. 5
(June-July 1972):5-7.
16. Re mark at t ribut e d to Mirt ha Quin t an ale s at the De ce mbe r
1981 Wo me n in Prin t co n fe re n ce . Off Our Backs 11,
n o . 11 (De ce mbe r 1981):3.
172 Gender, Class, and Race
17. Audre Lord, "The Master's Tools," p. 99. I t is striking
how many of the authors of This Bridge note that
they were different from other members of their com-
munity looking white, being able to pass, being l es-
bian, going through puberty prematurely, being the
lightest or the darkest of the family, and so ona
link with creativity?
18. Quoted in David McClellan, Karl Marx (New York: Vik-
ing, 1975), pp. 31-32.
BONNIE THORNTON DILL
"On the Hem of Life": Race, Class, and
the Prospects for Sisterhood (1980)
The concept of sisterhood has been an important unifying
force in the contemporary women's movement. By stressing
the similarities in women's secondary social and economic po-
sitions in all societies and in the family, it has been a
binding force in the struggles against male chauvinism and
patriarchy. However, as we review the past decade, i t be-
comes apparent that the cry "sisterhood is powerful" (1) has
engaged only a few segments of the female population in the
United States. Black, Hispanic, Native American, and Asian-
American women of al l classes and many working-class women
have not readily identified themselves as sisters of the
white middle-class women who have been in the forefront of
the movement.
This article examines the concept of sisterhood and some
of the reasons for the limited participation of racially and
ethnically distinct women in the women's movement. This is
done with particular reference to the experience and con-
sciousness of Afro-American women. The article is divided
into four part s. The fi rst is a critique of sisterhood as a
binding force for al l women. It examines the limitations of
the concept for both theory and practice when applied to wom-
en who are neither white nor middle class. The second part
discusses the structures that differentiate women and their
analytical importance in reformulating feminist theory. The
third part briefly examines the question of consciousness
and presents data to suggest the ways in which some Black
women see themselves in relationship to the class and race
divisions of our society. Finally, the paper concludes with
a discussion of the prospects for sisterhood and suggests po-
l i t i cal strategies that may provide a first step toward a
truly inclusive women's movement.
The Limitations of Sisterhood
In a recent article entitled "The Personal Is Not Political
Enough," Marxist historian Elizabeth Fox-Genovese provides a
political critique of the concept of sisterhood (2). Her an-
alysis identifies some of the current limitations of this
concept as a rallying point for women across the boundaries
of race and class. It therefore provides a useful starting
point for this paper. According to Fox-Genovese, si st er-
hood, in both i t s historic and contemporary manifestations,
is a nurturant, supportive feeling of attachment and loyalty
to other women which grows out of their shared experience of
oppression. A term rooted in familial ideology, it tends to
focus on the particular nurturant and reproductive roles of
women and, more recently, on commonalities of personal exper-
ience. Fox-Genovese draws an important distinction between
sisterhood and feminism. In fact, she argues that the under-
lying philosophies of each have generated conflict as well
as complementarity.
The contemporary ideas of sisterhood and feminism both
have their roots in the great bourgeois revolutions of
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Sisterhood
perpetuates the struggle within the familial metaphor of
politics that those revolutions repudiated in theory;
feminism demands the realization of the democratic poten-
t i al that the revolutions have thus far failed to deliv-
er in practice. (3)
I interpret this statement by Fox-Genovese as saying that
sisterhood has a particularistic aspect which has sometimes
been diametrically opposed to more socialist directions in
feminism. At times, it has treated the world of women as
unique and insisted upon maintaining a separation between
the competitive values of the world of politics (the public
sphere) and the nurturant ones of the world of women (the
private sphere). At other times, particularly during the
current women's movement, it has been more closely aligned
to feminism by serving as a source of political and economic
action based upon the shared needs and experiences of women.
There are limitations in both of these aspects of the con-
cept of sisterhood, limitations that have an important bear-
ing on the prospects for an all-inclusive sisterhood. Fox-
Genovese points out that sisterhood in the first form is an
inward-turning idealization of feminine t r ai t s . As such, i t
encouraged the growth of bourgeois individualism which re-
sulted in "the passage of a few middle class women into the
public sphere," but sharpened the class and racial divisions
between them and lower-class and minority women (4).
In i t s second form, as the politics of personal experi-
ence, sisterhood is severely restricted by the boundaries of
The Prospects for Sisterhood 175
dominant social conditions such as race and class. She
says:
Sisterhood has helped us, as it helped so many of our
predecessors, to forge ourselves as pol i t i cal beings.
Sisterhood has mobilized our loyalty to each other and
hence to ourselves. I t has given form to a dream of gen-
uine equality for women. But without a broader politics
directed toward the kind of social transformation that
will provide social justice for al l human beings, it
wi l l , in a poignant irony, result in our dropping each
other by the wayside as we compete with rising despera-
tion for crumbs. (5)
It is these two facets of sisterhoodbourgeois individual-
ism and the politics of personal experience as expressed in
the current women's movementthat seem to offer some in-
sights into the alienation many Black women have expressed
about the movement i t sel f.
The bourgeois individualistic themes present in the con-
temporary women's movement led many Black women to express
the belief that the movement existed merely to satisfy the
needs for personal self-fulfillment on the part of white mid-
dle-class women. The movement's early emphasis on participa-
tion in the paid labor force and escape from the confines of
the home seemed foreign to many Black women. After al l ,
Black women as a group had had higher rates of paid labor
force participation than their white counterparts well into
the 1970s, and many would have readily accepted what they
saw as the "luxury of being a housewife." At the same time,
they expressed concern that white women's gains would be
made at the expense of Blacks and/or that having achieved
their personal goals, these so-called si st ers would ignore
or abandon the cause of racial discrimination. The experi-
ences of racial oppression were likely to make Black women
strongly aware of their group identity and consequently more
suspicious of women who, i ni t i al l y at least, defined much of
their feminism in personal and individualistic terms.
Sisterhood, that i s , the nurturant supportive feelings of
attachment and loyalty to other women, is not new to Black
women. We have institutionalized sisterhood in our church-
es, organized i t through the club movements that began in
the late 1800s (6), recited it in numerous informal gather-
ings, and live it in our extended family groupings that fre-
quently place great importance on female kinship t i es. An-
thropologist Carol Stack in her book on kinship patterns
among urban Blacks and social work professor Elmer P. Martin
writing with his wife, Joanne Mitchell Martin, a reading
teacher, identify the nurturant and supportive feelings ex-
isting among female kin as a key element in family st abi l i t y
and survival (7).
Although Black women have fostered and encouraged si st er -
hood, we have not used i t as the anvil to forge our pol i t i -
cal i dent i t i es. This contrasts sharply with the experiences
of many middle-class white women who have participated in
the contemporary women's movement. The pol i t i cal identities
of Afro-American women have largely been formed around i s -
sues of race. Sociologist Cheryl Gilkes has pointed out
that national organizations of Black women, many of which
were fi rst organized on the heels of the nineteenth-century
movement for women's ri ght s, "were (and s t i l l are) decidedly
' feminist' in the values expressed in their l i t erat ure and
in many of the concerns which they addressed," yet they also
always focused upon issues which resulted from the racial op-
pression affecting al l Black people (8). Poet and writer
Adrienne Rich has also identified the linkages between Black
women and white women with regard to feminist ideals (9).
However, both wri t ers, as described below, have also argued
that racial animosity has undermined the potential for coal i -
tion between Black and white women since the women's move-
ment began.
Although many contemporary white feminists would like to
believe that relations between Black and white women in the
early stages of the women's movement were characterized by
the beliefs and actions of Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, and
some others, the hi st ori cal record suggests that these women
were more exceptional than normative. Historian Rosalyn
terborg-Penn provides interesting documentation of her
contention that
Discrimination against Afro-American women reformers was
the rule rather than the exception within the woman's
rights movement from the 1830's to 1920. (10)
Although i t is clearly beyond the scope of this paper to pro-
vide a detailed discussion of the incidents that created mis-
trust and i l l -feel i ng between Black and white women, the fol -
lowing quotations provide examples of a legacy that is s t i l l
with us. According to Gilkes,
Besides the color bar which existed in many white wom-
en' s organizations, black women were infuriated by white
women's accommodation to the principle of lynch law in
order to gain support in the South (Walker, 1973) and
the attacks of well known feminists against anti-lynch-
ing crusader, Ida Wells Barnett. (11)
The Pro s pe ct s for Sisterhood 177
Rich s pe cifically dis cus s e s the failure of the s uffrage
mo ve me n t to s us t ain its co mmit me n t to the de mo crat ic ideal
of e n fran chis e me n t for all cit ize n s . In s t e ad, she po in t s
o ut ,
Aft e r the C ivil War, the s uffrage mo ve me n t was de e ply im-
paire d by the s plit o ve r the is s ue of whe t he r black
male s s ho uld re ce ive the vo t e be fo re whit e and black wo m-
e n . . . . in the he at e d pre s s ure o ve r whe t he r black me n
or whit e and black wo me n s ho uld be e n fran chis e d firs t , a
clas s is t , racis t , and e ve n xe n o pho bic rhe t o ric cre pt in .
(12)
The his t o rical aban do n me n t of un ive rs alis t ic prin ciple s on
the part of whit e wo me n in o rde r to be n e fit a privile ge d few
is , I t hin k, one of the re as o n s Black wo me n have be e n re luc-
tant to see t he ms e lve s as part of a s is t e rho o d that do e s not
e xt e n d be yo n d racial bo un darie s . The fear that the mo ve me n t
will be n e fit whit e wo me n and aban do n Blacks or be n e fit
whit e s at the e xpe n s e of Blacks is a re curre n t t he me .
Te rbo rg-Pe n n co n clude s ,
The black fe min is t mo ve me n t in the Un it e d States durin g
the mid 1970's is a co n t in uat io n of a trend that be gan
o ve r 150 ye ars ago . In s t it ut io n alize d dis crimin at io n
again s t black wo me n by whit e wo me n has t radit io n ally led
to the de ve lo pme n t of racially s e parat e gro ups that ad-
dre s s t he ms e lve s to race de t e rmin e d pro ble ms as we ll as
the co mmo n plight of wo me n in Ame rica. (13)
His t o rically, as we ll as curre n t ly, Black wo me n have felt
calle d upo n to cho o s e be t we e n t he ir co mmit me n t s to fe min is m
and to the s t ruggle again s t racial in jus t ice . C le arly they
are vict ims of bo t h fo rms of o ppre s s io n and are mo s t in need
of e n co urage me n t and s uppo rt in wagin g bat t le s on both
fro n t s . Ho we ve r, in s is t e n ce on s uch a cho ice co n t in ue s
largely as a re s ult of the t e n de n cy of gro ups of Blacks and
gro ups of whit e wo me n to bat t le o ve r the dubio us dis t in ct io n
of be in g the "mo s t " o ppre s s e d. The in s is t e n ce of radical
fe min is t s upo n the his t o rical prio rit y, un ive rs alit y, and
o ve rridin g impo rt an ce of pat riarchy in e ffe ct n e ce s s it at e s
acce pt an ce of a co n ce pt of s is t e rho o d that re co gn ize s o n e 's
wo man ho o d o ve r and abo ve o n e 's race . At the s ame t ime , as
s o cio lo gis t Elizabe t h Higgin bo t ham has s ugge s t e d, Blacks are
accus t o me d to labe lin g dis crimin at o ry t re at me n t as racis m
and t he re fo re may tend to vie w s e xis m o n ly wit hin the bo un ds
of the Black co mmun it y rat he r t han see it as a s ys t e mic pat -
t e rn (14). On one han d, the cho ice be t we e n be in g Black and
female is a product of what Rich refers to as the "patriarch-
al strategy of divide-and-conquer" and therefore, is a false
choice (15). Yet, the historical success of this strategy
and the continued importance of class, patriarchy, and ra-
cial divisions perpetuate such choices both within our con-
sciousness and within the concrete realities of our daily
lives.
Structural B arriers to Sisterhood
Race , of co urs e , is o n ly one of the fact o rs that dife re n t i-
ate wo me n . It is the mo s t s alie n t in dis cus s io n s of black
and whit e wo me n , but it is pe rhaps no mo re impo rt an t , e ve n
in dis cus s io n s of race and ge n de r, than is the fact o r of
clas s . In clus io n of the co n ce pt of clas s pe rmit s a bro ade r
pe rs pe ct ive on the s imilarit ie s and diffe re n ce s be t we e n
Black and whit e wo me n than do e s a pure ly racial an alys is .
The first step is to an alyze the s t ruct ure s and cat e go rie s
that diffe re n t iat e us and the ways in which they in t e ract to
pro duce diffe re n ce s in co n cre t e s o cial re lat io n s , s o cial ide -
o lo gy, and co n s cio us n e s s . Zillah Eis e n s t e in in he r bo o k,
C apit alis t Pat riarchy and the C as e fo r So cialis t Fe min is m,
s t at e s that po we r is dis t ribut e d t hro ugh t hre e s t ruct ure s in
Ame rican s o cie t y t o day. The y are the capit alis t clas s s t ruc-
t ure , the pat riarchal sex hie rarchy, and the racial divis io n
of labo r. She argue s that
Wo me n s hare an o ppre s s io n wit h e ach o t he r; but what they
s hare as s e xual o ppre s s io n is diffe re n t iat e d alo n g clas s
and racial lines in the s ame way that pat riarchal his t o -
ry has always diffe re n t iat e d human it y acco rdin g to clas s
and race . (16)
The s e three s t ruct ure s are at o n ce in de pe n de n t and in t e gral-
ly re lat e d. Each has an in dividual his t o ry and a part icular
pre s e n t that was shaped by the dyn amic in flue n ce s of o n e
s t ruct ure on an o t he r. The diale ct ical re lat io n s hips be t we e n
ge n de r and clas s and race and clas s have , to dat e , re ce ive d
the gre at e s t amo un t of t he o re t ical at t e n t io n .
Eis e n s t e in , in the t radit io n of Marxis t fe min is m, argue s
for re fo cus in g the Marxis t me t ho d by e xpan din g the s t udy of
po we r to in clude the an alys is of the "s e xual s phe re s of po w-
e r," in o t he r wo rds , to e xamin e s o cial re lat io n s not only
t hro ugh s t udyin g the role of po we r in clas s co n flict but in
pat riarchal co n flict as we ll. He r frame of re fe re n ce cle ar-
ly ide n t ifie s pat riarchy as a s o cial fo rm that may e xis t
prio r to capit alis m. Ho we ve r, fo r the purpo s e s of an alyzin g
wo me n 's po s it io n un de r late capit alis m, it is cle arly a
s t ruct ure that is diale ct ically re lat e d to clas s and race .
Alt ho ugh this pe rs pe ct ive pro vide s a us e ful frame wo rk for be -
gin n in g to e xamin e the diale ct ics of ge n de r and clas s , the
role of race , t ho ugh re co gn ize d, is not e xplicat e d.
Jus t as the ge n de r-clas s lit e rat ure t e n ds to omit race ,
the race -clas s lit e rat ure give s lit t le at t e n t io n to wo me n .
C urre n t ly, t his are a of in quiry is do min at e d by the co n t ro -
ve rs y o ve r whe t he r race or clas s mo re appro priat e ly e xplain s
the his t o rical and co n t e mpo rary s t at us of Blacks in this
co un t ry. A n umbe r of s cho lars writ in g on this is s ue have ar-
gued that the racial divis io n of labor in this co un t ry be gan
as a fo rm of clas s e xplo it at io n which was s hro ude d in an ide -
o lo gy of racial in fe rio rit y. Thro ugh the co urs e of U.S. his -
t o ry, racial s t ruct ure s be gan to take on a life of their o wn
and can n o t n o w be co n s ide re d to be me re ly a re fle ct io n of
the clas s s t ruct ure (17). A t he o re t ical un de rs t an din g of
the curre n t co n dit io n s of Blacks in this co un t ry mus t
t he re fo re take acco un t of bo t h race and clas s fact o rs . It
is not my in t e n t io n he re to e n t e r into this de bat e but
in s t e ad to po in t o ut that any s e rio us s t udy of Black wo me n
mus t be in fo rme d by this gro win g t he o re t ical co n t ro ve rs y.
An alys is of the in t e ract io n s of race , ge n de r, and clas s
fall s quare ly be t we e n t he s e two de ve lo pin g bo die s of t he o re t -
ical lit e rat ure . Be caus e bo t h are n as ce n t and co n t ro ve r-
s ial, the task of in t e grat in g them is pe rilo us and chal-
le n gin g. It is a task that appro priat e ly falls to Black
wo me n , be caus e , as the C o mbahe e Rive r C o lle ct ive , a gro up of
Marxis t fe min is t Black wo me n , has po in t e d o ut ,
We re alize that the o n ly pe o ple who care e n o ugh abo ut us
to wo rk co n s is t e n t ly for o ur libe rat io n is us . . . . We
o ft e n find it difficult to s e parat e race from clas s from
sex o ppre s s io n be caus e in o ur live s they are mo s t o ft e n
e xpe rie n ce d s imult an e o us ly. (18)
Alt ho ugh Black wo me n e xpe rie n ce clas s , race , and s e x e x-
plo it at io n s imult an e o us ly, we mus t at t e mpt to s e parat e them
an alyt ically so that we may be t t e r un de rs t an d the ways in
which they s hape and diffe re n t iat e o ur live s . An ge la Davis ,
in he r much cited art icle "Re fle ct io n s on Black Wo me n 's Ro le
in the C o mmun it y of Slave s ," pro vide s one of the be s t an aly-
ses to dat e of the in t e rs e ct io n of s e x, race , and clas s un -
de r a plan t at io n e co n o my (19). Ne ve rt he le s s , we can n o t take
that part icular his t o rical re alit y and read it into the pre s -
ent as if the e xpe rie n ce of Black wo me n fo llo we d some sort
of linear pro gre s s io n o ut of s lave ry. In s t e ad, we mus t look
care fully at the lives of Black wo me n t hro ugho ut his t o ry in
o rde r to de fin e the pe culiar in t e ract io n of race , class, and
ge n de r at part icular his t o rical mo me n t s .
In an s we r to the que s t io n of whe re Black wo me n fit into
the curre n t an alyt ical frame wo rks for race and clas s and ge n -
de r and clas s , I wo uld ask ho w might these frame wo rks be re -
vis e d if they took full acco un t of Black wo me n 's po s it io n in
ho me , family, and marke t place at vario us his t o rical mo me n t s ?
In o t he r wo rds , the an alys is of the in t e ract io n of race ,
ge n de r, and clas s mus t not be s t re t che d to fit the pro crus t e -
an bed of an y o t he r burge o n in g set of t he o ry. It mus t de ve l-
op wit h full co gn izan ce of re lat e d t he o re t ical dire ct io n s ,
bo rro win g whe re appro priat e , cre at in g whe n de s irable , and e n -
light e n in g whe re ve r po s s ible .
The Role of Consciousness
It is wit hin this s pirit , t he re fo re , that I re t urn to Eis e n -
s t e in , be caus e she dis cus s e s a me t ho d for de ve lo pin g s o cial-
ist fe min is t que s t io n s that may pro vide a us e ful po in t of de -
part ure for the s t udy of ge n de r, race , and clas s . Alt ho ugh
re co gn izin g the diale ct ical re lat io n s hips be t we e n ge n de r and
race , race and clas s , and ge n de r and clas s , she po in t s out
that all t hre e are e xpre s s io n s of a mo re fun dame n t al que s -
t io n abo ut the o rgan izat io n and dis t ribut io n of po we r un de r
late capit alis m. In o rde r to un de rs t an d the act ivit y of any
part icular wo man at an y give n his t o rical mo me n t , she argue s ,
we mus t e xamin e "t he re lat io n s of po we r which s hape he r act i-
vit y and the ide o lo gy which de fin e s , pro t e ct s , and main t ain s
it ." This e xamin at io n of s o cial re lat io n s and ide o lo gy is
in t e grally tied to que s t io n s of co n s cio us n e s s (20).
The argume n t for lo o kin g at co n s cio us n e s s as we ll as s t ruc-
ture is als o appro priat e to un de rs t an din g the re lat io n s hip
of ge n de r, race , and clas s fo r Black wo me n . Un fo rt un at e ly,
t he re have be e n ve ry fe w at t e mpt s to in ve s t igat e s ys t e mat ic-
ally the de ve lo pme n t of co n s cio us n e s s amo n g Black wo me n .
The pro file s of Black wo me n that have be e n appe arin g in maga-
zin e s like Es s e n ce , the his t o rical s t udie s of Black wo me n ,
fict io n and po e t ry by and abo ut Black wo me n , and some re ce n t
s o cio lo gical and an t hro po lo gical s t udie s pro vide impo rt an t
dat a for be gin n in g such an an alys is . Ho we ve r, the que s t io n
of ho w Black wo me n pe rce ive t he ms e lve s wit h re gard to the
s t ruct ure s of race , ge n de r, and clas s is s t ill o pe n for s ys -
t e mat ic in ve s t igat io n . The an alys is of co n s cio us n e s s re -
quire s an e xamin at io n of ho w it t ake s varie d fo rms amo n g
diffe re n t s e gme n t s of the po pulat io n in re s po n s e to the s e v-
e ral s t ruct ure s that affe ct t he ir live s . Such an e xamin a-
tion co uld be part icularly us e ful in t ryin g to e xplicat e
differences among women. Black women perceive themselves to
be different from white women; working-class women, Black,
brown, and white, perceive themselves to be different from
middle-class women; and fundamentalist Christian women in
the South perceive themselves to be different from agnostic
Northeasterners. How important are these differences? I t
appears to me that they must be measured on at least two lev-
el s. Analytically, we must examine the ways in which the
structures of class, race, and gender intersect in any wom-
an' s or group of women's lives in order to grasp the con-
crete set of social relations that influence her behavior.
At the same time, we must examine individual and group per-
ceptions, descriptions, and conceptualizations of their
lives so that we may understand the ways in which different
women experience the same and different sets of social struc-
tural constraints, and how social ideology influences the de-
velopment of consciousness among them.
Concretely, and from a research perspective, this suggests
the importance of looking at both the structures that shape
women's lives and their self-presentations. This would pro-
vide us, not only with a means of gaining insight into the
ways in which raci al , class, and sexual oppression are
viewed, but with a means of generating conceptual categories
that will aid us in extending our knowledge of their si t ua-
tion. At the same time, this new knowledge will broaden and
even reform our conceptualizations of women's situation.
For example, how would our notions of mothering and part i c-
ularly mother-daughter relationships be revised if we consid-
ered the particular experiences and perceptions of Black wom-
en on this topic? Would overmothering be so pervasive an
issue in situations where mothers have had a relatively high
rate of labor force participation? Historians Louise Tilly
and Joan Scott, who studied working-class women in early mod-
ern France and England, have already suggested that we must
modify our notion that industrialization automatically re-
sulted in the loss of an economically productive role for
al l women. Their research suggests that for working-class
women there was, perhaps, more continuity than change accom-
panying industrialization. The changes that did occur were
not in the economic role of working-class women but in the
conditions and types of labor in which they were engaged
(21). If we were to look at the labor force experiences of
Afro-American women before and after industrialization, how
might we further modify this notion?
There are many different questions we might ask in order
to gain insight into the consciousness of Black American wom-
en. I would argue for beginning this process by examining
the lives of particular women and searching for patterns
in the ways in which they describe themselves and their rel a-
tionship to the society. Such an approach has been enlight-
ening with regard to questions of class consciousness among
Black women, although very l i t t l e has been done on this
topic.
For example, Elizabeth Higginbotham, in a study of col-
lege-educated Black women, has explored the impact of class
origin upon the women's strategies for educational at t ai n-
ment. She found that class background made an important dif-
ference in these Black women's educational experiences as
well as in the ways in which they saw their lives and ca-
reers once they had graduated from college.
According to Higginbotham, the middle-class women in her
study had access to better schools and more positive school-
ing experiences than did their lower-middle-class si st er s.
Repeatedly, the lower-middle-class women credited their par-
ents' willingness to struggle within the public school sys-
tem as a key component in their own educational achievement.
Social class also affected college selection and experi-
ence. Lower-middle-class women were primarily concerned
with finances when selecting a college and spent most of
their time adjusting to the work load and the new middle-
class environment once they had arrived. Middle-class wom-
en, on the other hand, were freer to select a college that
would meet their personal as well as their academic needs
and abi l i t i es. Once there, they were better able to balance
their work and social lives and to think about integrating
future careers and family lives (22).
In my own research on private household workers, al l of
whom were working classthough some were closer to the low-
er margins of this group than othersI found that the women
had a very clear sense that the social inequities that rel e-
gated them and many of their peers to household service l a-
bor were based upon their race, their poverty, and their gen-
der. Yet different women, depending upon their job, family
situations, and overall outlook on l i f e, coped with this rec-
ognition in different ways. One woman described the rel a-
tionship between her family and her employer's as follows:
Well for their children, I imagine they wanted them to
become like they were, educators or something that-like
[ si c]. But what they had in for my children, they saw
in me that I wasn't able to make al l of that mark but
raised my children in the best method I could. Because
I wouldn't have the means to put my_ children through
like they could for their children. (23)
When asked what she liked most about the work she did, she
said,
Well what I like most about i t , the things that I
weren't able to go to school to do for my children. I
could kinda pattern from the families that I worked for,
so that I could give my children the best of my
abi l i t i es. (24)
A second woman expressed much more anger and bitterness
about the social differences that distinguished her life
from that of her female employer. She said,
They don't know nothing about a hard l i f e. The only
hard life will come if they getting a divorce or going
through a problem with their children. But their hus-
band has to provide for them because they' re not soft.
And if they leave and they separate for any reason or
(are) divorced, they have to put the money down. But we
have no luck like t hat . We have to leave our children;
sometime leave the children alone. There's times when I
have to ask wino's to look after my children. It was
just a t erri bl e life and I really thank God that the
children grow up to be nice. (25)
Although she ultimately acknowledged her fate as an op-
pressed person, she used her knowledge of the anomalies in
her employers' livesparticularly in those of the womento
help her maintain her sense of self-respect and determina-
tion and to overcome feelings of despair and immobilization.
When asked if she would like to switch places with her em-
ployers, she replied,
I don't think I would want to change, but I would like
to live differently. I would like to have my own nice
l i t t l e apartment with ray husband and have my grandchil-
dren for dinner and my daughter and just live comfort-
able. But I would always want to work. . . But if I
was to change life with them, I would like to have just
a l i t t l e bit of they money, t hat ' s al l . (26)
These are only two examples of the many different ways that
the women who participated in my research study internalized
and talked about differences that the structures of race,
sex, and class made in their l i ves. Although the women
adopted different personal styles of coping with the
inequities, they were al l clearly aware that being Black,
poor, and female placed them at the bottom of the social
structure, and they, like the women in Higginbotham's study,
used the resources at their disposal to make the best of
what they recognized as a bad situation.
These selections suggest some of the ways in which some
Black wo me n vie w t he ir diffe re n ce s and s imilarit ie s wit h
some o t he r wo me n : Black, whit e , rich, and po o r. It in di-
cat e s a co n cre t e bas is for un de rs t an din g the po t e n t ial lin k-
age s and barrie rs to an all-in clus ive s is t e rho o d.
To n i Mo rris o n , in The Blue s t Eye , pro vide s the image ry
that e xpre s s e s ve ry we ll the ways in which clas s and race in -
t e ract in the lives of man y Black wo me n . In a s e n t e n ce from
which the title of this pape r is bo rro we d, she s ays ,
Be in g a min o rit y in bo t h cas t e and clas s , we mo ve d abo ut
an yway on the he m of life , s t rugglin g to co n s o lidat e o ur
we akn e s s e s and han g o n , or to cre e p s in gly up into the
majo r folds of the garme n t . (27)
The Prosp ects of Sisterhood
Give n the diffe re n ce s in e xpe rie n ce s amo n g Black wo me n , the
diffe re n ce s be t we e n Black and whit e wo me n , be t we e n wo rkin g
and middle -clas s wo me n , be t we e n all of us , what then are the
pro s pe ct s for s is t e rho o d? Alt ho ugh this pape r has sought to
e mphas ize the need to s t udy and e xplicat e these diffe re n ce s ,
it is bas e d on the as s umpt io n that the kn o wle dge we gain in
t his pro ce s s will als o he lp e n light e n us as to o ur s imilari-
t ie s . Thus , I wo uld argue for the aban do n me n t of the co n -
cept of s is t e rho o d as a glo bal co n s t ruct bas e d on un e xamin e d
as s umpt io n s abo ut o ur s imilarit ie s and wo uld s ubs t it ut e a
mo re pluralis t ic appro ach which re co gn ize s and acce pt s the
o bje ct ive diffe re n ce s be t we e n wo me n . Such an appro ach re -
quire s that we co n ce n t rat e o ur po lit ical e n e rgie s on build-
ing co alit io n s aro un d part icular is s ue s of shared in t e re s t .
Thro ugh jo in t wo rk on part icular is s ue s , we may co me to a
be t t e r un de rs t an din g of one an o t he r's n e e ds and pe rce pt io n s
and be gin to o ve rco me s o me of the s us picio n s and mis t rus t
that co n t in ue to haun t us . The limit at io n s of s is t e rho o d as
bo urge o is in dividualis m and the po lit ics of pe rs o n al e xpe ri-
e n ce pre s e n t ly po s e a ve ry re al t hre at to co mbin e d po lit ical
act io n .
Fo r e xample , wit h re gard to the field of ho us e ho ld e mplo y-
me n t , a fo cus o n the n e e ds of a gro win g n umbe r of middle -
clas s wo me n to part icipat e in the wo rk force and t hus find
ade quat e as s is t an ce wit h their do me s t ic dut ie s co uld all too
e as ily be co me s uppo rt for pro po s als like the one made by wri-
ter An n e C o lamo s ca in a re ce n t art icle in the Ne w Re public
(28). She s ugge s t s an e s s e n t ially bo urge o is fe min is t s o lu-
t io n to the pro ble m of limited s upply by pro po s in g go ve rn -
me n t t rain in g for un e mplo ye d alie n wo me n so that they co uld
de ve lo p into "go o d ho us e ho ld wo rke rs ." Alt ho ugh this may
he lp middle -clas s wo me n purs ue t he ir care e rs , it will do so
while co n t in uin g to main t ain and e xplo it a po o rly paid, un -
pro t e ct e d lower clas s and leave the pro ble m of do me s t ic re -
s po n s ibilit y virt ually un addre s s e d for the majo rit y of mo t h-
ers in the wo rk fo rce who can n o t affo rd to hire pe rs o n al
ho us e ho ld he lp. A mo re s o cialis t fe min is t pe rs pe ct ive re -
quire s an e xamin at io n of the e xplo it at io n in he re n t in ho us e -
ho ld labor as it is curre n t ly o rgan ize d for bo t h the paid
and un paid wo rke r. The que s t io n is , what can we do to up-
grade the s t at us o f do me s t ic labo r fo r all wo me n , to facil-
it at e the adjus t me n t and pro duct ivit y of immigran t wo me n ,
and to e n s ure that t ho s e who cho o s e to e n gage in paid pri-
vat e ho us e ho ld wo rk do so be caus e it re pre s e n t s a po t e n t ial-
ly in t e re s t in g, viable , and re wardin g o pt io n for t he m?
At the same t ime , the wo me n 's mo ve me n t may need to mo ve be -
yo n d a limited fo cus on "wo me n 's is s ue s " and ally it s e lf
wit h gro ups of wo me n and me n who are addre s s in g o t he r as -
pe ct s of race and clas s o ppre s s io n . One such e xample is
s cho o l de s e gre gat io n , an is s ue that is e n gagin g the time and
e n e rgie s of man y urban Black wo me n t o day. The s t ruggle s
o ve r s cho o l de s e gre gat io n are rapidly mo vin g be yo n d the is -
sues of bus in g and racial balan ce . In man y large cit ie s ,
whe re s cho o l dis t rict s are be t we e n 60 and 85 pe rce n t Black,
His pan ic, or Third Wo rld, racial balan ce is be co min g less of
a co n ce rn . In s t e ad, que s t io n s are be in g raised abo ut the
o ve rall qualit y of the e ducat io n al e xpe rie n ce s lo w-in co me
childre n of all racial and e t hn ic gro ups are re ce ivin g in
the public s cho o ls . This is an is s ue of vit al co n ce rn to
man y racially and e t hn ically dis t in ct wo me n be caus e t he y see
their childre n 's fut ure abilit y to s urvive in this s o cie t y
as large ly de pe n de n t upo n the curre n t dire ct io n of public e d-
ucat io n . One way in which fe min is t s may in vo lve t he ms e lve s
in this is s ue is by re co gn izin g that fe min is t que s t io n s are
o n ly one gro up of que s t io n s amo n g man y o t he rs that are be in g
rais e d abo ut public e ducat io n . To the e xt e n t that Blacks ,
His pan ics , Nat ive Ame rican s , and As ian -Ame rican s are mis e du-
cat e d, so are wo me n . Fe min is t act ivis t s mus t wo rk to e xpan d
t he ir co n ce pt ualizat io n of the pro ble m be yo n d the n arro w co n -
fin e s of s e xis m. Fo r e xample , e ffo rt s to de ve lo p and in -
clude n o n s e xis t lit e rat ure in the s cho o l curriculum are im-
po rt an t . Yet t his wo rk can n o t e xis t in a vacuum, ign o rin g
the fact that s cho o lchildre n o bs e rve a ge n de r-bas e d divi-
s io n of labor in which aut ho rit y and re s po n s ibilit y are he ld
primarily by me n while wo me n are co n ce n t rat e d in n urt uran t
ro le s . The pro ble m mus t be addre s s e d as a s t ruct ural o n e .
We mus t e xamin e n o t o n ly the kin ds of dis crimin at io n that
o ccur wit hin in s t it ut io n s but the ways in which dis crimin a-
t io n be co me s a fun dame n t al part of an in s t it ut io n 's o rgan iza-
tion and imple me n t at io n of its o ve rall purpo s e . Such an
an alys is wo uld make the lin kage s be t we e n diffe re n t fo rms of
s t ruct ural in e qualit y, like s e xis m and racis m, mo re re adily
appare n t .
While an alyt ically we mus t care fully e xamin e the s t ruc-
t ure s that diffe re n t iat e us , po lit ically we mus t fight the
s e gme n t at io n of o ppre s s io n into cat e go rie s such as "racial
is s ue s ," "fe min is t is s ue s ," and "clas s is s ue s ." This is , of
co urs e , a task of almo s t o ve rwhe lmin g magn it ude , and yet it
s e e ms to me to be the o n ly viable way to avo id the e rro rs of
the pas t and to mo ve fo rward to make s is t e rho o d a me an in gful
fe min is t co n ce pt for all wo me n , acro s s the bo un darie s of
race and clas s . Fo r it is t hro ugh e n gage me n t in s t ruggle s
that are not part icularly shaped by o ur o wn imme diat e pe rs o n -
al prio rit ie s that we will be gin to e xpe rie n ce and un de r-
stand the n e e ds and prio rit ie s of o ur s is t e rs be they
Black, bro wn , whit e , po o r, or rich. Whe n we have re ache d a
po in t whe re the diffe re n ce s be t we e n us e n rich o ur po lit i-
cal and s o cial act io n rat he r t han divide it , we will have
go n e be yo n d the pe rs o n al and will, in fact , be "po lit ical
e n o ugh."
Notes
1. Ro bin Mo rgan , e d., Sis t e rho o d Is Po we rful (Ne w Yo rk:
Vin t age Bo o ks , 1970).
2. Elizabe t h Fo x-Ge n o ve s e , "The Pe rs o n al Is Not Po lit ical
En o ugh," Marxis t Pe rs pe ct ive s 2 (Win t e r 1979-80):94-
113.
3. Ibid., p. 98.
4. Ibid., pp. 97-98.
5. Ibid., p. 112.
6. Fo r a dis cus s io n of the club mo ve me n t amo n g Black wo me n ,
see Alfre da Dus t e r, e d., Ida Barn e t t , C rus ade fo r Jus -
t ice : The Aut o bio graphy o f Ida B. We lls (C hicago :
Un ive rs it y of C hicago Pre s s , 1970); Rackham Ho lt ,
Mary McLe o d Be t hun e : A Bio graphy (Garde n C it y,
N.Y.: Do uble day & C o ., 1964); Ge rda Le rn e r, Black
Wo me n in Whit e Ame rica: A Do cume n t ary His t o ry (New
Yo rk: Ran do m Ho us e , 1972); Je an n e L. No ble , Be aut i-
ful, Als o , Are the So uls o f My Black Sis t e rs (En gle -
wo o d C liffs , N.J.: Pre n t ice -Hall, 1978); Mary C hurch
Te rre ll, A C o lo re d Wo man in a Whit e Wo rld (Was hin g-
t o n , D.C .: Ran s de ll Publis hin g C o ., 1940).
7. C aro l St ack, All Our Kin (New Yo rk: Harpe r & Ro w,
1970); Elme r P. Mart in and Jo an Mart in , The Black
Ext e n de d Family (C hicago : Un ive rs it y of C hicago
Pre s s , 1977).
8. C he ryl Gilke s , "Black Wo me n 's Wo rk as De vian ce : So cial
So urce s of Racial An t ago n is m wit hin C o n t e mpo rary Fe min -
is m," pape r pre s e n t e d at the 74th An n ual Me e t in g of
the Ame rican So cio lo gical As s o ciat io n , Augus t 1979, p.
21.
9. Adrie n n e Rich, "Dis lo yal to C ivilizat io n ," C hrys alis ,
n o . 7, pp. 9-29.
10. Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, "Discrimination against Afro-Ameri-
can Women in the Woman's Movement, 1830-1920," in The
Afro-American Woman, ed. Sharon Harley and Rosalyn
Terborg-Penn (Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press,
1978), p. 17.
11. Gilkes, "Black Women's Work," p. 19. In t hi s quotation,
Gilkes ci t es Jay S. Walker, "Frederick Douglass and
Woman Suffrage," Black Scholar 4 (7 June 1973).
12. Rich, "Disloyal, " p. 14.
13. Te rbo rg-Pe n n , "Dis crimin at io n ," p. 27.
14. Elizabe t h Higgin bo t ham, "Is s ue s in C o n t e mpo rary So cio -
lo gical Wo rk on Black Wo me n ," Human it y and So cie t y
4, n o . 3 (No ve mbe r 1980):226-42.
15. Rich, "Dis lo yal," p. 15.
16. Zillah Eis e n s t e in , C apit alis t Pat riarchy and the C as e
fo r So cialis t Fe min is m (Ne w Yo rk: Mo n t hly Re vie w
Pre s s , 1979), pp. 46-47.
17. This argume n t has be e n s ugge s t e d by Ro be rt Blaume r in
Racial Oppre s s io n in Ame rica (New Yo rk: Harpe r &
Ro w, 1972), and William J. Wils o n in The De clin in g
Sign ifican ce o f Race (C hicago : Un ive rs it y of C hicago
Pre s s , 1978).
18. "The C o mbahe e Rive r C o lle ct ive : A Black Fe min is t St at e -
me n t " in Eis e n s t e in , C apit alis t Pat riarchy, p. 365.
19. An ge la Davis , "Re fle ct io n s on the Black Wo man 's Ro le in
the C o mmun it y of Slave s ," Black Scho lar 2 (De ce mbe r
1971). Re prin t e d by Ne w En glan d Free Pre s s , So me r-
ville , Mas s .
20. Eis e n s t e in , C apit alis t Pat riarchy, p. 47.
21. Lo uis e A. Til ley and Jo an W. Sco t t , Wo me n , Wo rk and Fam-
ily (New Yo rk: Ho lt , Rin e hart & Win s t o n , 1978).
22. Elizabe t h Higgin bo t ham, "Educat e d Black Wo me n : An Ex-
plo rat io n in Life C han ce s and C ho ice s " (Ph.D. dis s .,
Bran de is Un ive rs it y, 1980).
23. Bo n n ie Tho rn t o n Dill, "Acro s s the Bo un darie s of Race and
C las s : An Explo rat io n of the Re lat io n s hip be t we e n
Wo rk and Family amo n g Black Fe male Do me s t ic Se rvan t s "
(Ph.D. dis s ., Ne w Yo rk Un ive rs it y, 1979), p. 53.
24. Ibid., p. 54.
25. Ibid., p. 62.
26. Ibid., p. 76.
27. To n i Mo rris o n , The Blue s t Eye (New Yo rk: Po cke t
Bo o ks , 1974), p. 18.
28. An n e C o lamo s ca, "C apit alis m and Ho us e wo rk," Ne w
Re public, 29 March 1980, pp. 18-20.
NANCY BOYD-FRANKLIN
Black Family Life-Styles: A Lesson in
Survival (1981)
It is an important step toward a theory of women's emancipa-
tion that the concept of family l i fe-st yl es and the issues
of ethnic difference are being addressed at major feminist
conferences. Many explanations have been offered as to why
Black women have not been active in large numbers in the wom-
en' s movement, including the fact that the movement has been
seen by many as having a white middle-class image (1).
Black women often rank the elements of their feminism differ-
ently than white women, citing the struggle against racial
oppression as being of equal or greater pri ori t y. Another
possible reason for the nonparticipation of minority women
in the women's movement may well be that i t has been per-
ceived by many as rejecting or opposing the family. For
Black women, given our legacy of complex family support net-
works and extended family relationships, this has been an im-
portant area of difference in perception and consciousness.
Because of the pattern of racism and oppression that Black
families have experienced in this country, they have had to
develop strengths or survival mechanisms which have required
al l family members to assume a variety of roles within our
family structures. In fact, many of these survival ski l l s
provide a model of coping which could be examined by women
of other ethnic groups who may be faced for the fi rst time
with the reality of having to support themselves and their
children.
The Myths about Black Famil ies
Any effort to correct the racist stereotypical images of the
Black family perpetrated by white social scientists and jour-
nalists must make special efforts not to replace one set of
stereotypes with another. The first myth that must be dis-
pelled is the myth of a typical Black family. Black communi-
ties in this country are extremely diverse; geographic ori -
gin, class, age, and other variables can produce different
life-styles and family configurations. Although there have
been recent immigrations of Black people from the West In-
dies and Africa in the last century, this article will ad-
dress itself primarily to the life-styles of Black people of
African descent, whose ancestors were brought to this coun-
try during the era of slavery.
My own family background is i l l ust rat i ve of the diversity
that can be found among Black families. I was born in Har-
lem and raised in the Bronx in a Black family with both Car-
ibbean and southern-Black roots. My mother's family is from
Jamaica, West Indies; my father' s family moved to New York
and New Jersey from North and South Carolina. My work as a
clinical psychologiist and as a family therapist has rein-
forced my respect for the difference and diversity in Black
communities and has emphasized the caution one must exercise
in making unwarranted stereotypical generalizations.
A number of pejorative, or defi ci t , views of Black family
life have been based on a pathology model. Daniel Patrick
Moynihan in 1965 looked at Black families from a white, eth-
nocentric viewpoint and labeled the strong role of women in
our families as evidence of a "Black matriarchy" (2). Black
women were represented as domineering, and Black families
were characterized as depressed, deprived, and disadvant-
aged. Joyce Ladner in 1972 in her excellent rebuttal of
this viewpoint made the following statement:
The problem is that there has been a confusion of the
terms dominant and strong. All dominant people must ne-
cessarily be strong, but al l strong people are not neces-
sarily dominant. Much of this misconception comes from
the fact that women in American society are held to be
the passive sex, but the majority of black women have
perhaps never fit this model, and have been liberated
from many of the constraints that society has t radi t i on-
ally imposed on women. Although this emerged from
forced circumstances, it has nevertheless allowed the
black woman the kind of emotional well-being that Wom-
en' s Liberation groups are calling for. (3)
This art i cl e will offer a look at Black family life-styles
from the perspective of their strengths and will highlight
the strategies that have helped our families to survive
through generations of oppression and racism.
With the economic and social pressures that are operating on
the family today, the high divorce and separation rat es, and
the new economic and family roles for women brought about by
the unprecedented rate of female participation in the paid
B lack Family Life-Styles 191
wo rk fo rce , main s t re am Ame rica is e xpe rie n cin g chan ge s in
family life -s t yle s and alt e rn at ive family fo rms o n ce as s o ci-
ated o n ly wit h margin al gro ups . As familie s chan ge fo rm,
bre ak up, divide , and re gro up, the co pin g s kills and s urviv-
al me chan is ms of Black familie s pro vide a mo de l for o t he rs
in s imilar circums t an ce s . The s t re n gt hs of Black wo me n and
their abilit y to s t ruggle for libe rat io n for t he ms e lve s and
their familie s pro vide an in s pirat io n for wo me n of all e t h-
n ic gro ups and clas s le ve ls . It is impo rt an t to clarify
that the e xpre s s io n "s t ruggle for libe rat io n " do e s not imply
that wo me n have achie ve d libe rat io n from racial o ppre s s io n
in the s o cie t y at large or that they have achie ve d s e xual
libe rat io n in male -fe male re lat io n s hips . It do e s , ho we ve r,
imply a co mmit me n t to this s t ruggle that has be e n appare n t
for ge n e rat io n s . This is man ife s t e d in the s t ro n g and in flu-
e n t ial role that Black wo me n have always played in the s up-
po rt and s urvival of their familie s and in familial re lat io n -
s hips .
The Strengths of B lack Families
In recent ye ars , a n umbe r of Black aut ho rs , in cludin g Ro be rt
Hill (4), An dre w Billin gs le y (5), Ro be rt St aple s (6), and
Jo s e ph Whit e (7), have be gun to re je ct the de ficit mo de ls of
the 1960s and to e xamin e Black familie s in t e rms of their
s t re n gt hs . Ro be rt Hill, in his bo o k The St re n gt h o f Black
Familie s (8), has pro vide d the fo llo win g frame wo rk for e xam-
in in g t he s e s t re n gt hs : (1) s t ro n g kin s hip bo n ds , (2) adapt a-
bilit y of family ro le s , (3) e ducat io n al o rie n t at io n , (4) re -
ligio us o rie n t at io n , and (5) wo rk o rie n t at io n . Alt ho ugh
this art icle will fo cus primarily on the firs t two crit e ria,
some at t e n t io n will als o be give n to the o t he r are as .
Our s t ro n g family o rie n t at io n is a le gacy from o ur African
he rit age and the wre n chin g and o ft e n dis rupt in g e xpe rie n ce
of s lave ry, bo t h of which led Black pe o ple to place a t re me n -
do us e mphas is on main t ain in g family t ie s . Family me mbe rs
we re o ft e n the only s o urce s of s uppo rt and co mfo rt in an o p-
pre s s ive wo rld. It is als o impo rt an t to re co gn ize that in
o rde r to un de s t an d the co n ce pt of family amo n g Black pe o ple ,
one mus t be pre pare d to aban do n the limited n o t io n of a mo t h-
e r, fat he r, and two childre n . Our familie s tend to be co m-
ple x e xt e n de d n e t wo rks co mpo s e d of blo o d re lat ive s and n o n -
blo o d frie n ds who may have e qual impo rt an ce wit h each o t he r
wit hin the family s t ruct ure . This mo de l is co n s is t e n t with
the African t ribal co n ce pt of family. It can als o t race its
be gin n in gs to the e xpe rie n ce durin g s lave ry of familie s be -
ing pulle d apart and me mbe rs be in g s o ld s e parat e ly. In re -
s po n s e to this t rage dy, adult in dividuals and childre n we re
o ft e n abs o rbe d into n e w familie s .
As Ro be rt Hill has n o t e d, one of the gre at e s t s t re n gt hs of
Black familie s is their s t ro n g kin s hip bo n ds (9). The re is
a gre at de al of re lian ce on e xt e n de d family for he lp wit h
fin an ce s , child re arin g, advice , and ho us e ho ld he lp. Be -
caus e of e co n o mic burde n s and limited re s o urce s , it is not
un us ual for a family me mbe r who can pro vide mo re he lp to
rais e a s is t e r or bro t he r's child. The re is a s t ro n g mat e r-
n al in s t in ct in o ur familie s and the re arin g of childre n is
a majo r prio rit y. The re is als o a n e t wo rk and s uppo rt s ys -
t e m amo n g o ur wo me n which o ft e n pro vide s the backbo n e for
family s urvival. For e xample , a gran dmo t he r or an aunt may
be calle d upo n to he lp rais e the childre n so that a mo t he r
and fat he r can bo t h wo rk. In t ime s of t ro uble , family me m-
be rs are o ft e n the first pe o ple calle d upo n for he lp.
Be caus e ado pt io n age n cie s his t o rically did not cat e r to
the n e e ds of Black childre n , an in fo rmal ado pt io n n e t wo rk de -
ve lo pe d in the Black co mmun it y. C aro l Stack re fe rs to this
pro ce s s as "childke e pin g" (10). This me an t that in t ime s of
t ro uble , re lat ive s or family frie n ds wo uld o ft e n take in
childre n un t il t he ir o wn pare n t s we re able to care for t he m.
This in fo rmal ado pt io n pro ce s s is one that I have o ft e n had
to ut ilize in my clin ical wo rk wit h Black familie s . An e x-
t e n de d family me mbe r can be mo bilize d to in t e rve n e and care
for a child in lieu of a fo s t e r ho me or in s t it ut io n al place -
me n t .
C hildke e pin g is rare ly a pe rman e n t arran ge me n t . It is not
un us ual for a mo t he r or fat he r to leave their childre n wit h
o t he r family me mbe rs while they mo ve to a n e w city in search
of a jo b. This was a co mmo n fe at ure in the migrat io n pat -
t e rn from the South to the cit ie s of the No rt h. Fre que n t ly,
whe n yo un g pe o ple wis he d to s e t t le in a n e w cit y, they wo uld
co n t act a family frie n d who had o rigin ally co me from their
ho me t o wn and mo ve in wit h that family un t il they co uld s up-
po rt t he ms e lve s . The n e wco me rs wo uld then be co me bo arde rs
wit hin the ho me and a part of a n e w e xt e n de d family n e t wo rk.
My pat e rn al gran dmo t he r, for e xample , fre que n t ly took in as
bo arde rs yo un g wo me n from No rt h C aro lin a who came to Ne w
Yo rk to live . Man y of t he s e wo me n s t ill vis it he r wit h
t he ir familie s .
Alt ho ugh wo me n 's ce n t e rs t hro ugho ut the co un t ry are just
be gin n in g to pro vide he lp for wo me n who are t ryin g to re lo -
cat e , such e ffo rt s are rare . Black familie s long ago de ve l-
oped an in fo rmal me t ho d for han dlin g this cris is which
he lpe d migran t s to avo id the s e n s e of lo n e lin e s s and is o la-
t io n that are part of s t art in g a n e w life .
An o t he r e xample of the t akin g-in pro ce s s can be seen in
Black Family Life-Styles 193
the role of the elderly in Black communities. Partly in re-
sponse to economic necessity, elderly Black people have tend-
ed to continue to work and to remain contributing and valued
members of the community for many more years than is common
in other communities in America. A woman, for example, may
raise her own children, work at a job al l her l i f e, raise
her grandchildren, and make a significant contribution to
the rearing of her great-grandchildren. Black people do not
tend to abandon their elderly in nursing homes. Black peo-
ple form a very low percentage of the population in these
f aci l i t i es. The philosophy of mutual responsibility common
to Black families precludes the removal of a senior citizen
from the family as a f i r st , or primary, option. Since women
tend to live longer than men in Black as well as white popu-
lations, i t is a significant fact that the women's movement
has given relatively l i t t l e attention to the plight of older
women when they can no longer care for themselves. The key
point here is that for a woman raised in a Black family
where mutual support and responsibility are highly valued,
the individualism expressed in the rhetoric of the women's
movement may be perceived as running counter to family bonds
and collective notions of survival. Once again, Joyce
Ladner has eloquently stated the feelings of many Black wom-
en in this regard: "Success is measured by the degree to
which one can care not only for her family but her extended
family as well. Young children are encouraged to provide
assistance to other family members when i t is needed. One
must stick to one's own and never turn one's back to them"
(11). Within this framework, many Black women have had to
struggle to meet their needs as women within the extended
family context.
It has been difficult for proponents of the women's move-
ment who have primarily individualistic notions of survival
to comprehend the col l ect i vi st i c concept of sacrifice for
family survival that many Black women have been forced to
struggle with. This has been an area of conflict for many
Black women today. On the one hand, a Black woman often ben-
efi t s from the support of the extended family, which often
lessens the burden on the individual working mother who in
the Black community is usually less isolated than women in
the traditional white nuclear family. On the other hand,
many young Black women have had to struggle with their own
needs for self-development and a family ethic that often
calls upon them to "sacri fi ce." In my clinical work with
Black women, i t has been my experience that a system frame-
work and treatment called "family therapy with one person"
is often required in which the task is to help her to differ-
entiate herself as a woman while also helping her to rede-
fine her role within a complex family network. For example,
some years ago, I worked with a Black woman of thirty-five
who was the mother of nineteen- and twenty-one-year-old
adult children and the grandmother of a three-year-old boy.
She was a very central person in her extended family. In
family-system terminology, she was a "switchboard" for al l
communications within her family. This meant that other fam-
ily members would call upon her for everything. She was so
overwhelmed by this role that she became extremely depressed
and was increasingly unable to function at home and at work.
My task as her therapist was first to help her recognize
this process and then to change it by helping her make her
family aware of her pain. Eventually, she was able to dele-
gate some responsibilities, such as the care of an aging
grandmother, to other family members, and she was able to in-
volve family members in other crucial family tasks. She was
ultimately helped to deal with her own need to be central in
her family and was able to accept the help of other family
members and be clear about her own needs.
Adap tability of Family Roles
One of the most misunderstood aspects of Black family life
is the concept of role adaptability. Robert Hill points out
that because of economic necessities, male-female and moth-
er-father roles are often more flexible and less rigid than
in other cultural groups (12). Black women have had to be
strong and have often been called upon to work outside of
the home and provide for their families. Often household
chores and child-rearing responsibilities are shared, and it
is a fact of life that men and women participated in these
tasks. Although the majority of Black American families are
two-parent households, economic necessity forced both par-
ents to work. Therefore, certain structures emerged. An
older child often took on the responsibility of caring for
the younger children until the parent returned home. Unlike
Hispanic families, for example, in which this role is often
filled by the oldest gi r l , who may have two or three older
brothers, in Black families, the oldest, whether boy or
gi r l , could assume this rol e. In many Black homes, chores
and household training are not divided st r i ct l y along sex
l i nes. Boys as well as girls are taught to cook, clean, and
take care of younger children.
Women today from many cultures are struggling with the
pressures inherent in attempting to work and raise a family.
Black women have always had to struggle to f i l l both roles
and their efforts at handling this can provide useful l es-
sons. It was this fact that made having an extended family
of both blood and nonblood kin an absolute necessity.
A mother with young children would take in a neighbor's
children while she worked. Or the problem of finding an ap-
propriate caretaker for children was often solved by seeking
the aid of a grandmother or an older aunt. In black fami-
lies today, older women may continue to work, and grandmoth-
ers and older aunts may not be available. Therefore, there
is s t i l l a cri t i cal need for day care and infant care f aci l i -
ties that can supplement the traditional extended family sup-
ports. The concept of adaptable roles in terms of child
care and household responsibilities does not imply the ab-
sence of sex-role stereotyping in Black families. Nor does
i t imply that Black men do not have their share of male
chauvinism. Black women continue to struggle for sexual
equality with their men. Michele Wallace has described the
dual myths of Black macho and the Black superwoman (13).
Both of these stereotypes are products of a history of
racism and oppression which has mislabled the relationships
between Black men and women. It has perpetuated an ongoing
psychological struggle within male-female relationships
among Blacks over basic issues such as respect, dignity, and
equality.
Religious Orientation
Re ligio n has always playe d an impo rt an t role in Black fam-
ilie s , part icularly in o lde r ge n e rat io n s , and it pro vide d a
majo r s urvival me chan is m for Black pe o ple in the Un it e d
St at e s . Part icular me n t io n is made of the ro le of re ligio n
in the lives of Black familie s be caus e man y in o ur ge n e ra-
tion tend to dis mis s re ligio n and the churche s as an o t he r in -
s t it ut io n co n t ribut in g to the o ppre s s io n of wo me n in a pre -
do min an t ly male e s t ablis hme n t . Alt ho ugh this has ce rt ain ly
be e n t rue to some de gre e , the church has als o pro vide d an
o ut le t for man y Black wo me n and an are n a in which they co uld
de ve lo p t he ir in dividual s kills and t ale n t s , which might
have had no o t he r o ppo rt un it y fo r e xpre s s io n . Wit hin Black
churche s , wo me n who wo rke d as do me s t ics all day or me n who
might wo rk as po rt e rs found a place whe re they co uld be re -
s pe ct e d for t he ir un ique co n t ribut io n s . The ro le s of de aco n -
n e s s in the church o r le ade r of the cho ir we re o ft e n the
firs t le ade rs hip ro le s for wpme n in Black co mmun it ie s . For
me n and wo me n who had daily n e gat ive fe e dback on t he ir value
from the large r s o cie t y, the Black churche s pro vide d an o p-
po rt un it y to e xpe rie n ce a true s e n s e of s e lf-wo rt h. Prio r
to the Black mo ve me n t of the 1960s , the churche s we re o ft e n
the o n ly place s o ut s ide the ho me whe re Black wo me n co uld e x-
pe rie n ce a s e n s e of s is t e rho o d and the s at is fact io n of wo rk-
ing t o ge t he r for a co mmo n go al.
Black churche s can als o s e rve a ve ry impo rt an t s o cial s e r-
vice fun ct io n . In my clin ical wo rk in Ne wark, I t re at e d a
family who had be e n burn t out in a t ragic fire in which they
lost all t he ir po s s e s s io n s . All the family me mbe rs s ur-
vive d. Mo t he r was an act ive me mbe r of a Bapt is t church and
he r s uppo rt n e t wo rk of church me mbe rs quickly mo bilize d to
pro vide the family wit h fo o d, s he lt e r, and clo t hin g.
Work Orientation
In re s po n s e to the "we lfare me n t alit y" co n ce pt of the 1960s
whe re by Black pe o ple we re o ft e n accus e d of havin g no de s ire
to wo rk by re s e arche rs such as Dan ie l Pat rick Mo yn ihan (14),
Ro be rt Hill has do cume n t e d the de gre e to which wo rk and e arn -
ing a living has always be e n an impo rt an t value in Black fam-
ilie s (15). Wo rk o ut s ide of the ho me has be e n an o t he r are a
in which Black wo me n have o ft e n felt t he ms e lve s at cro s s pur-
po s e s wit h me mbe rs of the wo me n 's mo ve me n t , which has fo -
cused a gre at de al of at t e n t io n on the pro ble ms of the wife
who is e co n o mically de pe n de n t on he r hus ban d. As Jan e To r-
rey has so vividly s t at e d, this idea is "s imply un imagin able
to wo me n who have n e ve r de pe n de d on a man " (16). Fo r t he m,
said He rn an de z (1974), "libe rat io n may me an be in g able to
cho o s e not to take a jo b o ut s ide the ho me " (17). Be caus e of
the high rate of divo rce , in flat io n , and e co n o mic re ce s s io n
in t his co un t ry, whit e wo me n are be in g forced to face a re al-
ity that Black wo me n have s hare d for ge n e rat io n s , that is ,
be in g the sole s uppo rt of t he ir childre n . Eve n in t wo -par-
ent Black familie s , it was and s t ill is co n s ide re d a luxury
for a wo man to be s o le ly a ho us e wife . As Jo yce Ladn e r
(1972) s t at e s , "The pro t e ct ive s he lt e rs which the s o cie t y
has impo s e d on whit e wo me n have n e ve r be e n pro ble mat ic to
black wo me n , be caus e the s o cie t y has re fus e d to o ffe r them
the same pro t e ct ive n e s s " (18). This "pro t e ct ive n e s s " car-
ried wit h it a ce rt ain level of o ppre s s io n on the part of
whit e me n who he lpe d to pe rpe t uat e the pat t e rn of de pe n de n cy
in t he ir wo me n . For Black me n , who have co n t ro lle d an al-
mo s t n o n e xis t e n t po rt io n o f the e co n o mic we alt h of this co un -
t ry, this form of o ppre s s io n of wo me n has not be e n po s s ible .
The re fo re , Black wo me n have o ft e n s hare d the burde n of o p-
pre s s io n by an o ut s ide s o cie t y wit h t he ir me n . Miche le
Wallace has challe n ge d the us e of e mplo yme n t o ut s ide the
ho me as e vide n ce of the "libe rat io n " of Black wo me n . She ac-
curat e ly s t at e s that "t he fact was that the 'black wo me n 's '
libe rat io n co n s is t e d of be in g bo un d to the mo s t un ple s an t ,
un re wardin g kin d of wo rk, wo rk that did not e n large he r un i-
ve rs e or in cre as e he r fulfillme n t . The black wo man had not
cho s e n he r wo rk. It was s o me t hin g she had to do , e it he r be -
caus e of the whip or to ke e p he r family from s t arvin g" (19).
Lest we be co me t rappe d in the argume n t that these are
clas s is s ue s that do not in vo lve race , it is impo rt an t to re -
alize that be co min g middle clas s o r achie vin g a ce rt ain
amo un t of e co n o mic s t abilit y do e s n o t have the same e ffe ct
for Black familie s as it do e s for man y whit e familie s . For
one t hin g, it has o ft e n me an t that two adult s had to be wo rk-
ing if a Black family we re to rise abo ve the po ve rt y line or
achie ve middle -clas s s t at us . Ro be rt Hill has re fe rre d to
this phe n o me n o n as "one payche ck away from po ve rt y" (20).
This is not to imply that whit e familie s today have not
e xpe rie n ce d a s imilar phe n o me n o n . Ho we ve r, be caus e of the
re alit ie s of racis m and o ppre s s io n in t his co un t ry, Black
pe o ple have carrie d an addit io n al burde n which can be illus -
trated by the e co n o mic in s e curit y e vide n t in the s t at e me n t
"las t hire d first fire d." Als o , o ft e n be caus e of the e xt e n d-
ed family s uppo rt s ys t e m, a middle -clas s family me mbe r who
is wo rkin g may be calle d upo n to he lp s uppo rt an e lde rly
mo t he r or o t he r re lat ive .
Educational Orientation
In Black familie s , e ducat io n has always be e n seen as an e x-
t re me ly impo rt an t value . It was s e e n s in ce the days of
s lave ry as the way to a be t t e r life , so gre at s acrifice s
we re o ft e n made for the e ducat io n of a child. Oft e n the fam-
ily (in cludin g the e xt e n de d family) wo uld po o l re s o urce s to
send one child to co lle ge . That yo un g pe rs o n , who pro bably
had to bo rro w co n s ide rable mo n e y to fin is h, is t he n e xpe ct e d
to co n t ribut e to the co lle ge e xpe n s e s of yo un ge r s iblin gs .
On ce again , as me n t io n e d abo ve , the n o t io n of middle clas s
may be quit e diffe re n t for Black pe o ple be caus e of t he s e pat -
t e rn s of mut ual in t e rde pe n de n cy and s uppo rt . Man y Black fam-
ilie s in the South e ducat e d t he ir daught e rs by s e n din g them
to s t at e t e ache rs ' co lle ge s , which led t he m to t e achin g po s i-
t io n s in a s e gre gat e d s cho o l s ys t e m. This was seen as the
o n ly way to pro t e ct a daught e r from the po s s ible abus e s in -
he re n t in do me s t ic wo rk. This pat t e rn has led to the s t e re o -
typed n o t io n that as a gro up, Black wo me n are be t t e r e du-
cated t han Black me n . As Jacque lin e Jacks o n (1973) has
po in t e d o ut , if we re e xamin e the s t at is t ics and dis re gard
the large po o l of Black wo me n sent to s t at e t e ache rs ' co l-
le ge s , it be co me s cle ar that Black wo me n have had far less
acce s s to e ducat io n for care e rs in law, me dicin e , and bus i-
n e s s than Black me n (21). This pat t e rn may have chan ge d
s light ly in the last six to ten ye ars as e ducat io n al in s t it u-
t io n s , in re s po n s e to the Black mo ve me n t of the 1960s , have
be co me fright e n e d of as s e rt ive Black me n . As a part of this
backlas h, Black wo me n may have be e n give n some s light e duca-
t io n al advan t age s be caus e of s t e re o t ypical n o t io n s that pe r-
ce ive them as less of a t hre at .
Man y Black wo me n and me n who have s pe n t t he ir e arly lives
rais in g a family and wo rkin g have be gun to re t urn to s cho o l
to co n t in ue t he ir e ducat io n . The co mmun it y co lle ge s ys t e ms
in large cit ie s , for e xample , have wit n e s s e d an e xpan s io n in
their s t ude n t bo die s that in clude such in dividuals .
The pro ce s s of s e e kin g a highe r e ducat io n or pro fe s s io n al
de gre e is one that can o ft e n caus e co n flict s for a Black man
or wo man . The s e co n flict s can be re lat e d to fe e lin g diffe r-
ent or fe arin g be in g pe rce ive d as diffe re n t by family me m-
be rs . This pro ble m is o ft e n pre s e n t e d by Black wo me n who m I
have seen in t he rapy. Man y of t he s e yo un g wo me n s t ruggle
wit h the re alit y of havin g bo t h few role mo de ls and a fear
of ve n t urin g into un chart e d t e rrit o ry bo t h pro fe s s io n ally
and s o cially.
Lessons in Surv iv al
In co n clus io n , wo me n t hro ugho ut this co un t ry are facin g a
n e w e ra in which the t radit io n al family mo de ls no lo n ge r ap-
ply. Black familie s have had to de ve lo p alt e rn at ive s t ruc-
t ure s in o rde r to pro vide mut ual s uppo rt in t ime s of s t rug-
gle . It is ray co n t e n t io n that man y of those s t ruct ure s can
and s ho uld s e rve as mo de ls of alt e rn at ive s to t radit io n al
n ucle ar family ro le s . Fo r e xample , o ur familie s have had to
de ve lo p e xt e n de d kin s hip n e t wo rks which can he lp wit h vit al
s urvival n e e ds , such as child care , fin an cial s uppo rt , and
so o n . The n o t io n of a family that in clude s mo re than blo o d
re lat ive s is a mo de l that wo me n mus t ado pt if they are to
co n t in ue to pro vide n urt uran ce for e ach o t he r and re ce ive
he lp in the o ft e n co n flict in g dual ro le s of wo rkin g wo man
and mo t he r. This type of mut ual s uppo rt s ys t e m, bas e d on
s t ro n g in dividuals , is e s s e n t ial if familie s are to s urvive .
Black familie s als o pro vide us wit h a mo de l of ho w a libe r-
ated s t ro n g wo man can co n t ribut e gre at ly to he r o wn family
and e xt e n de d family s ys t e m.
The co n ce pt of a s uppo rt s ys t e m mus t go be yo n d the family,
ho we ve r; it mus t apply to the de man ds of the wo me n 's mo ve -
me n t for day care , mat e rn it y le ave , male part icipat io n in
child re arin g, and e co n o mic be n e fit s that will he lp all worn-
en and provide some of the basic supports that are necessary
if families are to survive.
Notes
Some of the ide as pre s e n t e d in this pape r have appe are d in
o t he r art icle s by the aut ho r.
1. Jan e To rre y, "Racis m and Fe min is m: Is Wo me n 's Libe ra-
tion for Whit e s On ly?" Ps ycho lo gy o f Wo me n Quart e rly
20, n o . 4 (1979):281-93.
2. Dan ie l Pat rick Mo yn ihan , The Ne gro Family: The C as e
fo r Nat io n al Act io n (Was hin gt o n , D.C .: Office of Po l-
icy Plan n in g and Re s e arch, State De pt . of Labo r,
1965).
3. Jo yce Ladn e r, To mo rro w's To mo rro w: The Black Wo man
(New Yo rk: Do uble day An cho r Bo o ks , 1972).
4. Ro be rt Hill, The St re n gt h o f Black Familie s (Ne w Yo rk:
Nat io n al Urban Le ague , 1972).
5. An dre w Billin gs le y, Black Familie s in Whit e Ame rica
(En gle wo o d C liffs , N.J.: Pre n t ice -Hall, 1968).
6. Ro be rt St aple s , The Black Family: Es s ays and St udie s
(Be lmo n t , C alif.: Wads wo rt h Publis hin g C o ., 1971).
7. Jo s e ph Whit e , "To ward a Black Ps ycho lo gy," in Black Ps y-
cho lo gy, e d. R. Jo n e s , 2d e d. (Ne w Yo rk: Harpe r &
Ro w, 1980), pp. 5-12.
8. Hill, St re n gt h.
9. Ibid., p. 5.
10. C aro l St ack, All Our Kin : St rat e gie s fo r Survival in a
Black C o mmun it y (Ne w Yo rk: Harpe r & Ro w, 1975).
11. Ladn e r, To mo rro w's To mo rro w, p. 126.
13. Miche le Wallace , Black Macho and the Myt h o f the Supe r-
Wo man (Ne w Yo rk: Warn e r Bo o ks , 1979).
14. Mo yn ihan , Ne gro Family.
16. To rre y, "Racis m and Fe min is m," p. 285.
17. A. He rn an de z, "Small C han ge for Black Wo me n ?" Ms . 3
(1974):16-18.
18. Ladn e r, To mo rro w's To mo rro w, p. 277.
19. Wallace , Black Macho , p. 179.
20. Ro be rt Hill, pe rs o n al co mmun icat io n .
21. Jacque lin e Jacks o n , "Black Wo me n in a Racis t So cie t y,"
in Racis m and Me n t al He alt h, e d. C . Willie , B.
Krame r, and B. Bro wn (Pit t s burgh: Un ive rs it y of Pit t s -
burgh Pre s s , 1973).
ELIZABETH HIGGINBOTHAM
Laid Bare by the System: Work and
Survival for Black and
Hispanic Women (1981)
Feminist theory, women's studies, and the women's movement
more generally, have focused almost exclusively on white mid-
dle-class women in defining womanhood. Black, Hispanic, and
other minority women have been variously ignored, treated as
interesting asides, and viewed as deviant (1). The neglect,
di st ort i on, and devaluation of their histories and life si t u-
ations has led many women of color to question the relevance
of the women's movement (2). In addition, the lack of ser i -
ous consideration given to the experiences of minority women
by white feminists tends to duplicate the real -l i fe si t ua-
tions of racial ethnic women (3). The work and life-styles
of racial ethnic women are often out of step with dominant-
culture women, and so the former group has often been de-
fined as "unfeminine" (4). Lately there is recognition that
racial ethnic women need to be included in women's studies
if only to generate a more solid alliance to fight regres-
sive forces. Yet a close examination of the life experi-
ences of women of color is also necessary if we ever hope to
understand the nature of sexism. We cannot develop theories
of sex oppression if we do not incorporate the experiences
of a large segment of women. Investigating the interplay of
gender and race can further our understanding of the common-
al i t i es among al l forms of oppression, as well as sensitize
us to the unique character of race or sex oppression. It is
in the spi ri t of this quest that I examine employment for
Black and Hispanic women in the United States.
Racial Op p ression
Black, bro wn , ye llo w, and red pe o ple have to live wit hin
bo un darie s de fin e d by o t he rs be caus e of t he ir co lo r. Racis m
is an ide o lo gy that jus t ifie s the e xclus io n of pe o ple of co l-
o r fro m ce rt ain are as of e co n o mic and s o cial life . It als o
o pe rat e s to pro mo t e the t o le ran ce of these in e quit ie s on the
part of o t he r me mbe rs of s o cie t y. His t o rically and to this
Black an d Hispanic Wo me n 201
day, racis m is in s t it ut io n alize d in the Un it e d St at e s and
has a daily impact on the lives of racial e t hn ic pe o ple .
The e xplo it at io n of racial e t hn ic wo me n in forced and paid
labor has be e n and co n t in ue s to be a ke y to their o ppre s s io n
as wo me n .
The e mplo yme n t s phe re has be e n ide n t ifie d by the s o cio lo -
gis t , Ro be rt Blaun e r, as a ce n t ral are a of diffe re n t iat io n
be t we e n immigran t whit e e t hn ics and the racial e t hn ics who
e n t e re d the co un t ry in vo lun t arily (5). C o mparin g t he ir his -
t o rie s in the labor marke t , Blaun e r found whit e e t hn ic male s
we re co n s ide re d "fre e labo r," be caus e they co uld mo ve abo ut
fre e ly and take a varie t y of wage labor jo bs . In the same
t ime pe rio d, racial e t hn ics we re e it he r e n s lave d o r s uffe re d
s e ve re re s t rict io n s on e mplo yme n t o pt io n s . The use of Afro -
Ame rican s as s lave labor to de ve lo p and s us t ain the agricul-
ture of the South is the fo re mo s t e xample of the diffe re n -
ce s . In the So ut hwe s t , Me xican -Ame rican s we re paid wage s
lower than whit e s for their wo rk in min e s , railro ads , lumbe r
camps , o il e xt ract io n , and agricult ure (6).
The e xplo it at io n of the labor of pe o ple of co lo r has
s hape d the live s of the wo me n in t he s e gro ups . Firs t , the
co n s t rict e d o pt io n s for racial e t hn ic me n me an t their fami-
lies in curre d a lower s t an dard of living than whit e familie s
and varie d fro m do min an t pat riarchal fo rms . Se co n d, the e co -
n o mic s it uat io n of racial e t hn ic pe o ple s forced the wo me n in -
to the labor marke t , whe re at the same time they we re limit -
ed by t he ir co lo r to the least de s irable and re mun e rat ive
jo bs . Furt he rmo re , the o rgan izat io n of e mplo yme n t has re -
sulted in diffe re n t iat in g racial e t hn ics from whit e e t hn ics
in s phe re s be yo n d e mplo yme n t . Racial e t hn ic pe o ple s we re
give n the challe n ge of s urvivin g as familie s and co mmun it ie s
on e it he r s ubs is t e n ce or no wage s . Blaun e r sees these cir-
cums t an ce s as the me an s by which racial e t hn ic pe o ple s ' cul-
t ure s we re s e ve re ly as s ault e d.
The labor s ys t e ms t hro ugh which pe o ple of co lo r be came
Ame rican s t e n de d to de s t ro y or we ake n their cult ure s and
co mmun al t ie s . Re gro upin g and n e w in s t it ut io n al fo rms
de ve lo pe d, but in s it uat io n s wit h e xt re me ly limited po s -
s ibilit ie s . The t ran s fo rmat io n of gro up life that is
ce n t ral to the co lo n ial cult ure dyn amic took place mo s t
co mple t e ly on the plan t at io n . (7)
Racial e t hn ic pe o ple 's cult ure s did not de ve lo p as they
might if un hampe re d, t he re fo re the is s ue of cult ural as -
s ault s has to be addre s s e d (8). In the face of s e ve re e m-
plo yme n t re s t rict io n s , me mbe rs of racial e t hn ic co mmun it ie s
are forced to cho o s e wit hin a limited ran ge of s urvival
s t rat e gie s . Oft e n t ho s e s t rat e gie s to e n s ure s ubs is t e n ce
and s urvival als o have n e gat ive co n s e que n ce s and make co mmun -
ity me mbe rs vuln e rable in o t he r are as of life . Fo r e xample ,
the pe rs is t e n ce of the Black e xt e n de d family s t ruct ure can
be seen as a un ique adapt at io n to we lfare re s t rict io n s , a du-
al labor marke t wit h irre gular jo b o pt io n s , and the man y fam-
ily cris e s as s o ciat e d wit h po ve rt y. Ye t , as the re s e arch of
C aro l Stack and the Mart in s re ve als , the co mple x in t e rde pe n -
de n t s uppo rt n e t wo rk co me s at the e xpe n s e of an in dividual's
de ve lo pme n t (9).
The crit ical ro le of racial o ppre s s io n me an s it has to be
t ake n s e rio us ly whe n e xamin in g racial e t hn ic wo me n . We are
be yo n d the argume n t s abo ut which fo rm of o ppre s s io n is pri-
mary. The task ahead calls for e labo rat in g the his t o rical,
s o cial, and cult ural co n t e xt of racial o ppre s s io n and wit hin
that co n t e xt , e xplo rin g ge n de r and clas s diffe re n ce s . On ly
by e xamin in g the t o t al co n t e xt wit hin which racial e t hn ic
wo me n live can one un rave l the re lat io n s hip of the fact o rs
impin gin g on t he ir live s . The ir e n t ran ce into the Un it e d
St at e s , t he ir right s as cit ize n s , t he ir e xpe rie n ce s as wo rk-
e rs , and the cult ural as s ault upo n them s hape the parame t e rs
wit hin which racial e t hn ic fe male s de ve lo p into wo me n and
then co n t ribut e to the s urvival of t he ir co mmun it ie s . Al-
t ho ugh mo s t e xamin at io n s of racial o ppre s s io n fo cus on the
s it uat io n s of me n , we can build upo n the co lo n ial mo de l to
e xamin e the e xpe rie n ce s of wo me n as we ll. This re quire s a
s e n s it ivit y to is s ue s of ge n de r in addit io n to t ho s e of race
and clas s .
Work for B lack and Hisp anic Women
Gras pin g ho w the n at ure of wo rk shaped the lives of racial
e t hn ic wo me n re quire s an an alys is of s pe cific his t o rical s it -
uat io n s . Alt ho ugh the s carcit y of his t o rical acco un t s of
Black and His pan ic wo me n hampe rs this e ffo rt , some pre limin -
ary o bs e rvat io n s can serve as dire ct ive s for fut ure re -
s e arch. Fo r e xample , An ge la Davis 's e arly s t at e me n t abo ut
slave wo me n e xe mplifie s the sort of an alys is that n e e ds to
be e xt e n de d to e xplain the po s it io n s of Black and His pan ic
wo me n durin g o t he r e ras (10). Black wo me n 's labor was e s s e n -
tial fo r the de ve lo pme n t of the agricult ural e co n o my and the
pe rfo rman ce of hard and he avy ho us e wo rk as s o ciat e d wit h the
e ight e e n t h and n in e t e e n t h ce n t ury plan t at io n . Black wo me n
we re als o re s po n s ible for pro ducin g and rais in g fut ure labo r-
e rs for the s lave s ys t e m. The s t ruct ure of the plan t at io n
e co n o my re le as e d Black wo me n from the myt h of fe min in it y:
in o ppre s s io n , wo me n wo rke d hard alo n gs ide me n . Black worn-
Black and Hispanic Women 203
en, like Black men, suffered severely in slavery, but also
faced sexual exploitation. The structure of slave labor in
this country extracted work from both Black women and men in
such a way as to make community survival precarious. Given
this real i t y, Davis demonstrates that staying alive and con-
tinuing the community were signs of resistance.
Rural life continued to be difficult for Black people,
even after slavery was abolished. In sharecropping, the
post-Reconstruction method of keeping Black people tied to
the land, men and women worked side by side to support the
owners of the land. In fact, the entire family worked very
hard. Social institutions reinforced this l i fe-st yl e. Jim
Crow laws limited the citizenship rights of Blacks. Black
public schools taught l i t t l e and were organized around farm
schedules (11). The exclusion of Blacks from industrial
jobs in most areas of the South limited their employment op-
tions to agriculture. On these farms, oppressive economic
conditions replaced the overseer. Again, resistance is vi si -
ble in the struggles to survive and keep the family togeth-
er .
The lives of independent Black farm families were also dif-
fi cul t . The end of Reconstruction left them with few legal
ri ght s. As the federal government actively intervened in
farm production in the twentieth century, benefits dispropor-
tionately went to the richest farmers. Along with national
di sast ers, such policies played a significant role in driv-
ing Blacks off the land and into urban centers (12).
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Mexican
and Mexican-American men were instrumental in developing the
railroad, lumber, mining, and oil industries in the South-
west. Under a dual wage system, they made l i t t l e money.
The differences between Chicano and Anglo wages ranged from
one to three dollars. Employment in extracting industries
required living in work camps and company towns in otherwise
unsettled t er r i t or i es. Prior to 1870 few Mexican-American
women worked outside of their homes (13). Living in company
towns, Mexican-Americans were forced to spend their wages in
overpriced company stores. These living conditions meant
Chicanas had the difficult task of cooking, cleaning house,
and raising a family under harsh circumstances. For them,
as for Blacks, the exploitation of work and i t s structure
resulted in conditions that made family life and community
survival di ffi cul t .
After 1870, the economic conditions forced many Chicanas
into paid employment. Mexican-American women were found in
domestic and laundry work in the 1880 census. During this
decade, women and children began to be incorporated into ag-
ricultural work in some parts of the Southwest (14). Yet
growers in other areas, especially Colorado, preferred to
continue hiring male agricultural workers and did not employ
the entire family until after World War I. In spite of hi r -
ing practices, male workers would often bring their families
along when imported to work in certain areas (15).
As the Southwest developed and more Anglos were recruited
into the region, Mexican-Americans were pushed out of many
industrial jobs. Discrimination increasingly limited them
to agricultural work. In 1930, 35 percent of Chicanos and
20 percent of Chicanas employed in the Southwest were farm
laborers (16). A few were able to hold on to individual
farms, but the Anglo plots to acquire their land were numer-
ous. As the twentieth century progressed, a vast majority
of the Chicano agricultural work force was migrant laborers
moving with the crops. In this set t i ng, women had the multi-
ple tasks of housework, childbearing and rearing, and work-
ing in the fields (17).
The structure of migrant farm work took a t ol l on the en-
t i re family. Adults usually died before they reached their
f i f t i es. Poor housing and health conditions also resulted
in high infant and child mortality. Jessie Lopez de la
Cruz, a farm organizer, provides an excellent account of mi-
grant work patterns in her autobiographical sketch in Mov-
ing the Mountain (18). Bora in 1919, Jessie began working
in the fields as a child when her family's economic si t ua-
tion deteriorated (19). Migrant farm labor is not a tempo-
rary solution to a family cr i s i s , but a l i fe-st yl e that is
difficult to al t er once adopted.
Jessie Lopez de la Cruz married and continued to do mi-
grant farm work with her husband. She describes conditions
for Chicana migratory farm workers in the 1940s, which i l l us -
trates the "double day":
We always went where the women and men were going to
work, because if i t were just the men working i t wasn't
worth going out there because we wouldn't even earn
enough to support a family. . . . We would start around
6:30 a.m. and work for four or five hours, then walk
home and eat and rest until about three-thirty in the af-
ternoon when i t cooled off. We would go back and work
until we couldn't see. Then we'd get home and rest , vi s-
i t , t al k. Then I' d clean up the kitchen. I was doing
the housework and working out in the fields and taking
care of two children. (20)
The hi st ori es of racial ethnic people in rural areas re-
veal the harsh conditions they faced working for developing
industries. A racist ideology made it easier for employers
Black and Hispanic Wo me n 205
to o ve rlo o k t he ir wo rke rs ' human it y and to rat io n alize poor
wo rkin g co n dit io n s and lower labor co s t s . The wo rk s it ua-
t io n s of Black and Me xican -Ame rican s co mpo un de d the pro ble ms
of rais in g familie s . Alo n g wit h racis m, s e xis m from bo t h
the do min an t cult ure and the s ubcult ure re s t rict e d the mo ve -
me n t s of racial e t hn ic wo me n .
The s t ruggle to s urvive was not the only bat t le racial e t h-
nic pe o ple wage d. The y we re co n t in ually e xpo s e d to the ra-
cist ide o lo gie s of the s o cie t y in an addit io n al e ffo rt to
co n t ro l t he m. Racial e t hn ics living in rural are as in the
late n in e t e e n t h and e arly t we n t ie t h ce n t urie s we re familiar
wit h e co n o mic need and brut e fo rce in s hapin g t he ir live s ,
but less e xpo s e d to the ide o lo gical as s ault s than their
urban co un t e rpart s . The level of t e chn o lo gy was lo w, but
rural wo rk als o s hie lde d the co mmun it y. In t he s e s e t t in gs ,
me n and wo me n did much of the same wo rk and we re in clo s e
t o uch wit h e ach o t he r. Furt he rmo re , in s t able rural are as ,
Blacks and Me xican -Ame rican s built in s t it ut io n s (e s pe cially
the church) that he lpe d them to s urvive and pre s e rve a s e n s e
of dign it y in the face of a s o cie t y that failed to re co gn ize
t he ir human it y. Tran s ie n t racial e t hn ics we re mo re de pe n -
de n t upo n the family as the sole buffe r be t we e n them and the
do min an t cult ure . Yet these gro ups we re mo re is o lat e d from
in s t it ut io n s that made fo s t e rin g and s us t ain in g t he ir o wn
cult ural de fin it io n s e as ie r (21).
Surv iv al in the City
Exploitative work, with i t s detrimental impact on the family
and community, continues in urban areas, even though the spe-
cific forms of oppression might change. Today, the over-
whelming majority of Blacks and Hispanics are urban dwell-
er s. This process began for Blacks around World War I, and
around World War II for Mexican-Americans. The Puerto Rican
population on the mainland United States has always been pre-
dominantly urban.
Like raci al ethnic men, Black and Hispanic women are used
as a reserve labor force in urban areas (22). They are de-
nied access to "good" jobs and either move into employment
sectors that white women have left or into newly developed
low-wage sectors (like hospital and other service work).
Hi st ori cal l y, these have been the options for al l raci al et h-
nic women who do not have higher education. Insights into
their plight can be gained from looking at Black women in do-
mestic work.
David Katzman in Seven Days a Week documents the chang-
ing color of domestic workers as the nation became more in-
TABLE 1. Occupational Status of Women by Race for 1910, 1940, 1950,
1960, 1970, and 1977
Occupational Category
1910 1940
Black White Black White
Professional & Technical
Managers, Officials & Proprietors,
except Farm
Clerical and Sales
Craftsmen and Foremen
Operatives
Nonfarm Laborers
Private Household Workers
Service Workers (except Private Household)
Farmers & Farm Managers
Farm Laborers & Foremen
1.5 11.6 4.3 14.7
.2
.3
2.0
1.4
.9
38.5
3.2
4.0
48.0
1.5
17.5
8.2
21.2
1.5
17.2
9.2
3.1
9.0
1
6
59
11
3
12
.7
.3
.2
.2
.8
.9
.1
.0
.9
4.3
32.8
1.1
20.3
.9
10.9
12.7
1.1
1.2
So urce : U.S. De part me n t of Labo r, Bure au of Labo r St at is -
t ics , The So cial an d Eco n o mic St at us o f t he Black Po pula-
t io n in the U.S.: An His t o ric Ove rvie w 1790-1978, Table
164, p. 128. Dat a for 1977 are ro un de d to the n e are s t pe r-
cent and re pre s e n t wo me n s ixt e e n ye ars and o lde r. All o t he r
dat a are for wo me n aged fo urt e e n and o ve r. Addit io n ally, da-
ta for 1977 are not s t rict ly co mparable to 1970 s t at is t ics
as a re s ult of chan ge s in the o ccupat io n al clas s ificat io n
s ys t e m for the 1970 C e n s us of the Po pulat io n that we re in t ro -
duce d in Jan uary 1971. For an e xplan at io n of these chan ge s ,
see Bure au of the C e n s us , Te chn ical Pape r No . 26. Dat a
from 1910 to 1970 from Aldridge (1975). He r s o urce s we re :
Dat a for 1910 fro m U.S. Bure au of the C e n s us , 1940 C e n s us of
Po pulat io n , C o mparat ive Occupat io n St at is t ics fo r the
1950 I960 1970 1977
Black White Black White Black White Black White
5.3
1.3
5.4
.7
15.2
1.6
42.0
19.1
1.7
7.7
United
13.3
4.7
39.3
1.7
21.5
.7
4.3
11.6
.6
2.3
7.7
1.1
9.8
.7
14.3
1.2
38.1
23.0
.6
3.5
14.1
4.2
43.2
1.4
17.6
.5
4.4
13.1
.5
1.0
States 1870-1940,
10.0
1.4
21.4
.8
16.8
.9
19.5
28.5
.2
.3
15.5
4.7
43.4
1.1
14.5
.4
3.7
15.1
.3
1.3
Tabl e 15 ,
13.0
3.0
27.0
1.0
16.0
1.0
10.0
27.0
-
1.0
pp.
16.0
6.0
43.0
2.0
12.0
1.0
2.0
17.0
-
1.0
166-72. D. for
1940 fro m U.S. Bure au of the C e n s us , 1940 C e n s us of Po pula-
t io n , vo l. 3, The Labo r Fo rce , Table 52, pp. 87-88. Dat a
for 1950 from U.S. Bure au of the C e n s us , 1950 C e n s us of Po pu-
lat io n , Occupat io n al C haract e ris t ics , Table 3 (Was hin gt o n ,
D.C ., 1963), pp. 11-21. Dat a for 1970 fro m U.S. Bure au of
the C e n s us , So cial and Eco n o mic C haract e ris t ics o f the Po pu-
lat io n in Me t ro po lit an an d No n me t ro po lit an Are as : 1970 and
1960 C urre n t Po pulat io n Re po rt s (Was hin gt o n , D.C .: U.S.
Go ve rn me n t Prin t in g Office , 1971), and U.S. Bure au of the
C e n s us , The So cial and Eco n o mic St at us of the Black Po pula-
t io n in the Un it e d St at e s , 1972, C urre n t Po pulat io n Re -
po rt s , Series P-23, n o . 46 (Was hin gt o n , D.C .: Go ve rn me n t
Prin t in g Office , 1972).
dus t rialize d (23). In 1870 and 1880, do me s t ic s e rvice co n -
s t it ut e d the majo r o ccupat io n for wo me n , wit h the e xce pt io n
of agricult ure . As in dus t rial de ve lo pme n t led to in cre as e d
cle rical wo rk and o t he r o ccupat io n s we re fe min ize d, whit e
wo me n mo ve d into jo bs in t he s e s phe re s . Do me s t ic wo rk was
left to immigran t and racial e t hn ic wo me n . In 1940, 60 pe r-
cent of e mplo ye d Black wo me n we re privat e ho us e ho ld wo rke rs
(see Table 1) (24). The mo ve me n t o ut of do me s t ic wo rk has
be e n much quicke r for whit e immigran t s than for racial e t h-
nic wo me n . Tho s e whit e wo me n s t ill in do me s t ic wo rk tend to
have the highe r pre s t ige , be t t e r payin g po s it io n s (25). The
lo we rin g of dis crimin at o ry barrie rs in the 1960s fo llo win g
the civil right s and Black Po we r mo ve me n t s has e n able d s ig-
n ifican t n umbe rs of Black wo me n to leave ho us e ho ld wo rk and
e n t e r those t radit io n ally fe male o ccupat io n s of cle rical and
s ale s wo rke rs .
Black and o t he r racial e t hn ic wo me n have had to adapt to
the pat t e rn s of dis crimin at io n in urban labor marke t s . For
Black wo me n , this is re fle ct e d in an o ccupat io n al dis t ribu-
tion which has chan ge d o ve r time wit h the s hift s in the in -
dus t rial bas e of the e co n o my, but which has always be e n ve ry
diffe re n t fro m that for whit e wo me n . In 1919, 86.5 pe rce n t
of all e mplo ye d Black wo me n wo rke d as privat e ho us e ho ld wo rk-
e rs or farm labo re rs , whe re as o n ly 26.2 pe rce n t of wo rkin g
whit e wo me n we re so e mplo ye d. By 1950, Black wo me n we re al-
so found in s ign ifican t n umbe rs in o t he r s e rvice wo rk (19.1
pe rce n t ) and fact o ry (o pe rat ive ) wo rk (15.2 pe rce n t ). Me an -
while , whit e wo me n have always be e n mo re co n ce n t rat e d in
highe r payin g jo bs . In the e arly part of the ce n t ury, those
o ccupat io n s we re fact o ry o pe rat ive , pro fe s s io n al, cle rical,
and s ale s po s it io n s . By 1977, 43 pe rce n t of all e mplo ye d
whit e wo me n wo rke d in cle rical and s ale s po s it io n s , but e ve n
aft e r t riplin g t he ir co n ce n t rat io n in cle rical and sales
wo rk s in ce 1960, o n ly 27 pe rce n t of all Black wo me n we re so
e mplo ye d by 1977. In co n t ras t to the rat he r large re main in g
gap be t we e n the race s in cle rical and s ale s wo rk, the s ign if-
icant diffe re n ce be t we e n Black and whit e wo me n in pro fe s s io n -
al e mplo yme n t e arly in the ce n t ury had be e n virt ually e limin -
ated by the 1970s . In 1977, 13 pe rce n t of e mplo ye d Black
wo me n and 16 pe rce n t of wo rkin g whit e wo me n we re co n ce n t rat -
ed in pro fe s s io n al and t e chn ical jo bs .
The abo ve dat a illus t rat e that one ave n ue to highe r wage s
t radit io n ally o pe n to whit e wo me n , that of cle rical and
s ale s wo rk, has be e n s e ve re ly re s t rict e d for Black wo me n .
Es s e n t ially, Black wo me n have had to seek highe r e ducat io n
to e s cape wo rkin g in s o me o n e 's kit che n or do in g o t he r lo w-
wage wo rk. Wit h an e ducat io n , Black wo me n e n t e re d pro fe s -
s io n al po s it io n s s e rvin g pre do min an t ly Black clie n t s . The y
have been particularly active as teachers, social workers,
l i brari ans, and nurses. Although these significant numbers
in the professions have often been attributed to high levels
of motivation, racial discrimination closed alternative
paths to stable and remunerative employment (26). This pat-
tern is similar for other racial ethnic women, but Black wom-
en presently have higher levels of educational attainment
than Mexican-American and Puerto Rican women (27).
The success of a small number of Black and Hispanic profes-
sional women is often used to obscure the work situations of
the majority of their groups in the labor market. This view
both ignores the di ffi cul t i es racial ethnic women face as
professionals and also avoids a careful examination of the
plight of their si st er s. Even though there has been some
gross improvement in the labor force situation of racial eth-
nic women, the gains have been limited. In the past two dec-
ades Black and Hispanic women have increased their numbers
in cl eri cal and sales positions. This trend makes the
occupational distribution of women of color look more like
that of white women. Yet, one needs to be cognizant of the
fact that the entrance of racial ethnic women into "women's
jobs" is coinciding with technological innovations that are
altering the nature of clerical and sales work (28). Frag-
mentation and increasing management control over the work
process, along with efforts to block unionization, are mak-
ing clerical work less desirable to white women. Clerical
work continues to be, on the whole, low paying, although i t
is an improvement over many types of service work. For many
racial ethnic women who worked hard to get an education in
racist high schools, white-collar work is not delivering al l
that i t once promised.
A very high percentage of the females working as factory
operatives in this country are women of color. Only about
11 percent of al l white women do semiskilled or unskilled
factory work, but one-quarter of Hispanic women and 16 per-
cent of Black women are found in this sector (see Table 2).
Unlike the proverbial high-wage industrial jobs, which often
go to males, Black and Hispanic women in operative positions
are employed in low-wage, labor-intensive, light industries.
This demanding work exploits women's labor and also limits
their lives in other areas.
To i l l ust r at e how these working conditions affect the qual-
ity of life for racial ethnic women, let us take a closer
look at the lives of Puerto Rican women working in the New
York garment industry. During World War II and the Korean
War, Puerto Rican men were inducted into the armed forces.
The women were simultaneously recruited into the garment in-
dustry and cut off from more desirable work by discrimina-
TABLE 2.
Occupational Status of Black, White, and Hispanic
Women for 1977
Occupational Category White Black Hispanic
Professional & Technical 16 13 7.7
Managers & Administrators
(except Farm)
Sales Workers
Clerical Workers
Craft and Kindred Workers
Operatives, Except Transport
Transport Equipment Operatives
Nonfarm Laborers
Service Workers
Farm Workers
So urce : Fo r Black and whit e wo me n , U.S. De part me n t of La-
bo r, Bure au of Labo r St at is t ics , The So cial and Eco n o mic
St at us o f the Black Po pulat io n in the U.S.: An His t o ric
Ove rvie w 1790-1978, Table 162, p. 128. Fo r His pan ics , Mo r-
ris Ne wman , "A Pro file of His pan ics in the U.S. Wo rk Fo rce ,"
Mo n t hly Labo r Re vie w 101 (De ce mbe r 1978):3-14.
6
7
36
2
11
-
1
19
1
3
2
25
1
16
1
1
37
1
3.1
4.7
30.0
1.9
24.7
.4
1.3
23.6
2.6
Black an d Hispanic Wo me n 211
t io n in e ducat io n and the labor marke t (29). Mo re re ce n t ly,
the garme n t in dus t ry in the No rt he as t has faced difficult
co mpe t it io n from s ho ps in o t he r re gio n s in s ide and o ut s ide
the Un it e d St at e s . This has me an t the loss of jo bs for Pue r-
to Rican wo me n and a de clin e in t he ir labor fo rce part icipa-
t io n rat e (30). For those s t ill e mplo ye d in this highly
un io n ize d in dus t ry, we e kly and an n ual e arn in gs have de clin e d
in re al t e rms . Furt he rmo re , wo rkin g co n dit io n s are not on a
par wit h o t he r un io n ize d light in dus t rie s , and the s e as o n al
n at ure of the wo rk n e ce s s it at e s pe rio ds whe n s urvival re s t s
upo n un e mplo yme n t co mpe n s at io n (31).
De t ails of the co n s e que n ce s for Pue rt o Rican wo me n and
t he ir familie s are re ve ale d in an in t e rvie w wit h a wo man
who s e mo t he r wo rke d in the Ne w Yo rk garme n t in dus t ry be t we e n
the 1950s and the 1970s . Maria Diaz, a ps e udo n ym for the
re s po n de n t , vividly re calle d he r mo t he r t alkin g abo ut he r
wo rk. Whe n Maria was e ight ye ars o ld, Mrs . Diaz be gan e m-
plo yme n t in a fact o ry located in Eas t Harle m, El Barrio .
The shop was not un io n ize d at the t ime . In the s afe t y of
he r ho me , Mrs Diaz co mplain e d abo ut the dirt , the in s e n s i-
tive bo s s , and po o r wo rkin g co n dit io n s . But mo s t o ft e n she
talked abo ut he r fe ars . She was re ally afraid of losing he r
jo b. The re fo re , she was n e ve r late for wo rk, co mplie d wit h
re que s t s to wo rk o ve rt ime , and we n t to wo rk e ve n whe n she
was ill. Maria he ard he r mo t he r t e ll s t o rie s abo ut the acci-
de n t s and illn e s s e s in the fact o ry and co mplain abo ut the
in e ffe ct ive n e s s of the un io n o n ce it was e s t ablis he d. Ham-
pered by kn o win g little En glis h, Mrs . Diaz re main e d in the
garme n t in dus t ry. Ove r he r t we n t y-ye ar care e r, she wo rke d
at only t hre e diffe re n t s ho ps . She us ually re t urn e d to the
same shop whe n re calle d aft e r he r s e as o n al layo ffs .
Alo n g wit h he r hus ban d, a ho t e l wo rke r, Mrs . Diaz was able
to pro vide for he r four childre n . The Diaze s s t ruggle d for
the e co n o mic s e curit y n e ce s s ary to rais e their family and
again s t the low prio rit y give n their co mmun it y by city age n -
cie s . Alt ho ugh man y garme n t s ho ps are un io n ize d, un io n le ad-
e rs hip has cho s e n to s acrifice the wage s and wo rkin g co n di-
t io n s of an in cre as in gly n o n whit e rank and file to ke e p
in dus t rie s lo cat e d in Ne w Yo rk C it y. Un de r s e ve re co n di-
t io n s , Pue rt o Rican and o t he r racial e t hn ic familie s are e x-
pe ct e d to "make it " as o t he r e t hn ic gro ups have in the pas t .
Ye t , they re ce ive little s uppo rt from e xt e rn al in s t it ut io n s
and o ft e n use all t he ir re s o urce s s imply to ke e p the family
t o ge t he r. As pare n t s wo rke d long and o ft e n irre gular ho urs ,
re s po n s ibilit y fo r child care and ho us e wo rk o ft e n fe ll o n
the o lde s t daught e rs , as in the Diaz family. In this way
the e n t ire family s uffe re d the o n us of the e xplo it at ive wo rk
available to racial e t hn ic pe o ple .
As this co un t ry face s e co n o mic and s o cial hards hips , all
in dicat io n s are that the fut ure will be hars h for wo me n and
racial e t hn ic pe o ple . The re kin dlin g of racis t rat io n ale s ,
the at t acks on the fe w gain s wo me n and racial e t hn ics have
achie ve d since the 1960s , and the ge n e ral re vival of e xplan a-
t io n s that blame the vict im s ign al the end of an e ra. As a
co n s e que n ce , the n e xt few ye ars look part icularly dim for ra-
cial e t hn ic wo me n . It is e s s e n t ial that t ho s e pe o ple in -
vo lve d in s cho lars hip and o rgan izin g be s e n s it ive to the mul-
t iple barrie rs racial e t hn ic wo me n face . Not o n ly are they
o ft e n o ppre s s e d in t he ir in dividual ho me s , but they at t e n d
racis t s cho o ls which o ft e n dire ct them to a limited job mark-
e t . In this capit alis t labor marke t , t he ir wo rk will be e x-
plo it e d at the lowest wage po s s ible .
Conclusion
Mo re re s e arch on the his t o rical and co n t e mpo rary s it uat io n s
of Black and His pan ic wo me n is n e e de d. Explo rat io n s into
t he ir wo rk and o t he r e xpe rie n ce s are e s s e n t ial for de ve lo p-
ing fe min is t t he o ry that als o acco un t s for racial e t hn ic wo m-
e n . In this t as k, re s e arche rs have to look be yo n d pat ri-
archy and s ubs e rvie n ce in the ho me . I pro po s e that s cho lars
take the co n t e xt of racial o ppre s s io n s e rio us ly. Racial e t h-
n ic wo me n live wit h addit io n al re s t rict io n s and pre s s ure s
that mo s t do min an t -cult ure wo me n n e ve r e n co un t e r. This re al-
ity has to be addre s s e d.
This pape r has brie fly e xplo re d wo rk and ackn o wle dge d that
racial e t hn ic wo me n have first and fo re mo s t be e n e xplo it e d
by capit alis t s in the labor marke t . The limited e mplo yme n t
o pt io n s for racial e t hn ic wo me n are in t imat e ly co n n e ct e d
wit h the difficult t as ks of s urvival and co mmun it y main t e n -
an ce . Furt he rmo re , the de human izin g impact of racial o ppre s -
sion has t ake n its t o ll on t he ir ro le s as daught e rs and
wive s .
Racial e t hn ics ' s it uat io n s have be e n qualit at ive ly diffe r-
ent from those of whit e e t hn ics , who have e xpe rie n ce d clas s
o ppre s s io n . His t o rically, whit e wo rke rs fought diffe re n t
bat t le s at diffe re n t pe rio ds . In the t we n t ie t h ce n t ury,
while racial e t hn ics s t ruggle d for s ubs is t e n ce , whit e wo rk-
ers fo ught for a living wage . Barre d from in dus t rial wo rk
whe re a family wage was in s t it ut e d, racial e t hn ic me n we re
not in a po s it io n to de man d that t he ir wo me n re main in the
ho me . The wage s of wo me n of co lo r we re e s s e n t ial for family
s urvival. In man y cas e s , e s pe cially in urban are as , t he ir
e mplo yme n t co uld be mo re re gular than that of t he ir s po us e s .
This fact diffe re n t iat e s them from do min an t -cult ure wo me n ,
whose earnings were indeed supplementary to their husbands'
earnings. Even though racial/ethnic women earn less, their
earnings are a higher percentage of the family income than
white women's (32). Therefore, explanations that link wom-
en' s exploitation in paid employment with their roles in sup-
plementing the earnings of men are inadequate for addressing
the plight of racial ethnic women.
The forces at work indicate that more than sexual oppres-
sion is involved for racial ethnic women. Their color is an
additional stigma and a devaluing factor which makes them
vulnerable to more intense forms of exploitation. The brief
historical material revealed here suggests that employers ex-
hibit l i t t l e concern for the actual survival of racial eth-
nic families. Economic profit is made off the backs of ra-
cial ethnic women, and the obstacles to family and community
survival are ignored, because the people are devalued. Fail-
ing to recognize this reality further complicates racial eth-
nic women's struggle. That is the struggle that feminist
scholarship must see.
Notes
The aut ho r wis he s to t han k Lyn n We be r C an n o n , Bo n n ie
Tho rn t o n Dill, and Ruth Zambran a for their co mme n t s and
s ugge s t io n s . Appre ciat io n is als o e xpre s s e d to the Ford
Fo un dat io n for the po s t -do ct o ral re s e arch fe llo ws hip that
e n able d me to do this wo rk.
1. Elizabe t h Higgin bo t ham, "Is s ue s in C o n t e mpo rary So cio -
lo gical Wo rk on Black Wo me n ," Human it y and So cie t y 4
(No ve mbe r 1980):226-42; Jo yce Ladn e r, To mmo rro w's To -
mo rro w (Ne w Yo rk: An cho r Bo o ks , 1972).
2. Fran ce s Be ale , "Slave to a Slave No Mo re ," Black Scho l-
r 6 (March 1975):2-10; Mae C . Kin g, "Oppre s s io n and
Po we r: The Un ique St at us of Black Wo me n in the Ame ri-
can Po lit ical Sys t e m," So cial Scie n ce Quart e rly 56
(June 1975):116-28; In e z Smit h Re id, To ge t he r Black
Wo me n (Ne w Yo rk: Eme rs o n Hall, 1972).
3. Richard Burke y, Et hn ic and Racial Gro ups (Menlo Park,
C alif.: C ummin gs Publis hin g C o ., 1978). A racial e t h-
n ic gro up is de fin e d as an e t hn ic gro up that is phe n o -
t ypically dive rge n t from the do min an t gro up in a s o cie -
ty.'
4. Higgin bo t ham, "Black Wo me n ," pp. 231-35.
5. Ro be rt Blaun e r, Racial Oppre s s io n in Ame rica (New
Yo rk: Harpe r & Ro w, 1972), e s pe cially pp. 51-81.
6. To mas Almague r, "C las s , Race and C hican o Oppre s s io n ,"
So cialis t Re vo lut io n 25 (July-Se pt e mbe r 1975):71-99;
Mario Barre ra, Race an d C las s in the So ut hwe s t (No -
tre Dame : Un ive rs it y of No t re Dame Pre s s , 1979), e s -
pe cially pp. 34-103.
7. Blaun e r, Racial Oppre s s io n , p. 66.
8. See Min a Davis C aulfie ld, "C ult ure and Impe rialis m: Pro -
po s in g a Ne w Diale ct ic," in Re in ve n t in g An t hro po lo -
gy, e d. De ll Hyme s (Ne w Yo rk: Pan t he o n Bo o ks , 1972),
and "Impe rialis m, the Family and C ult ure s o f Re s is t an -
ce s ," So cialis t Re vo lut io n 20 (Oct o be r 1975):67-85.
9. C aro l St ack, All Our Kin (New Yo rk: Harpe r & Ro w,
1974), and Elme r Mart in and Jo an n e Mit che ll Mart in ,
The Black Ext e n de d Family (C hicago : Un ive rs it y of
C hicago Pre s s , 1979).
10. An ge la Davis , "The Black Wo me n 's Ro le in the C o mmun it y
of Slave s ," Black Scho lar 2 (De ce mbe r 1971). Re -
prin t e d by Ne w En glan d Fre e Pre s s , So me rville , Mas s .
11. He n ry Alle n Bullo ck, A His t o ry o f Ne gro Educat io n in
the So ut h (Ne w Yo rk: Prae ge r, 1967).
12. Ge o rge A. Davis and 0. Fre d Do n alds o n , Blacks in the
Un it e d St at e s (Bo s t o n : Ho ught o n Mifflin C o ., 1975),
pp. 53-93.
13. Bare rra, Race and C las s , pp. 41-43, 53.
14. Ibid., pp. 98-99.
15. He rbe rt B. Pe t e rs o n , "Twe n t ie t h-C e n t ury Search for C ibo -
la: Po s t -Wo rld War I Me xican Labo r Explo it at io n in
Arizo n a," in An Awake n in g Min o rit y: The Me xican Ame r-
ican s , e d. Man ue l Se rvin , 2d e d. (Be ve rly Hills , C al-
if.: Gle n co e Pre s s , 1974).
16. Bare rra, Race and C las s , p. 131.
17. Elle n C an t aro w, Mo vin g the Mo un t ain (Old We s t bury,
N.Y.: Fe min is t Pre s s , 1980),p. 108.
18. Ibid., pp. 94-151. Fo r an o t he r acco un t of a Black wo m-
an , see Ro be rt C o le s and Jan e Hallo we ll C o le s , Wo me n
in C ris is (Ne w Yo rk: De lt a/Se ymo ur Lawre n ce , 1978),
pp. 13-69.
19. Migran t farm wo rk is an are a in which child labor was
quit e co mmo n un t il the s t rike s and co n t ract s of the
1970s . Fo r an e xamin at io n o f this is s ue , see Ro n ald
B. Taylo r, Swe at s ho ps in the Sun : C hild Labo r o n the
Farm (Bo s t o n : Be aco n Pre s s , 1973).
20. C an t aro w, Mo un t ain , pp. 119-20.
21. Barre ra, Race an d C las s ; Juan Go me z-Quin o n e s , "The
Firs t St e ps : C hican o Labo r C o n flict and Organ izin g,
1900-1920," in An Awake n in g Min o rit y, e d. Se rvin ;
Mart in and Mart in , Ext e n de d Family, pp. 95-100.
22. Almague r, "C las s , Race and C hican o Oppre s s io n ."
23. David Kat zman , Se ve n Days a We e k (New Yo rk: Oxfo rd
Un ive rs it y Pre s s , 1978), e s pe cially pp. 44-94.
24. De lo re s Aldridge , "Black Wo me n in the Eco n o mic Marke t -
place ," Jo urn al o f So cial and Be havio ral Scie n t is t s
21 (Win t e r 1975):48-61.
25. Allys o n She rman Gro s s man , "Wo me n in Do me s t ic Wo rk:
Ye s t e rday and To day," Mo n t hly Labo r Re vie w 103
(August 1980):17-21.
26. E. Wilbur Bo ck,"Farme r's Daught e r Effe ct : The Case of
the Ne gro Fe male Pro fe s s io n als ," in The Pro fe s s io n al
Wo man , e d. At he n a The o do re (C ambridge , Mas s .:
Sche n kman Publis hin g C o ., 1971).
27. Mo rris J. Ne wman , "A Pro file of His pan ics in the U.S.
Wo rk Fo rce ," Mo n t hly Labo r Re vie w 101 (De ce mbe r
1978):3-14.
28. Ro s lyn Fe ldbe rg and Eve lyn Nakan o Gle n n , "St ruct ural
C han ge and Pro le t arian izat io n : The Case of C le rical
Wo rk," mime o graphe d (Bo s t o n : Bo s t o n Un ive rs it y).
29. Sally Bake r Hills man and Be rn ard Le ve n s o n , "Job
Oppo rt un it ie s of Black and Whit e Wo rkin g-C las s Wo me n ,"
So cial Pro ble ms 22 (April 1975):510-33.
30. Ro s e mary San t an a C o o n e y and Alice C o lo n , "Wo rk and
Family: The Re ce n t St ruggle s of Pue rt o Rican
Fe male s ," in The Pue rt o Rican St ruggle , e d.
Ro drigue z, Ko rro l, and Ale rs (Ne w Yo rk: Pue rt o Rican
Migrat io n Re s e arch C o n s o rt ium, In c., 1980).
31. Michae l Mye rs o n , "The ILGWU: A Un io n That Fight s for
Lo we r Wage s ," Rampart s (1969). Re prin t e d by Ne w
En glan d Fre e Pre s s , So me rville , Mas s .
32. Ho ward Hayghe , "Wo rkin g Wive s ' C o n t ribut io n to Family
In co me in 1977," Mo n t hly Labo r Re vie w 101 (Oct o be r
1979):62-64.
ANGELA JORGE
Issues of Race and Class
in Women's Studies: A Puerto Rican
Woman's Thoughts (1981)
At the State University of New York College at Old Westbury,
where I am a tenured assistant professor, I am teaching for
the fi rst time a course called Machismo and the Changing
Role of Women in Hispanic Culture. This course is also the
fi rst and only one of i t s kind, although Old Westbury has
had a women's studies program since 1971. This limited ex-
perience in women's studies in no easy way earns me the t i -
tle of Puerto Rican feminist. Since my l i f e- st yl e, my in-
come, and my professional life separate me from my community
and i t s daily struggle for survival, I do not even speak for
the masses of Puerto Ricans. Nevertheless, I wish to share
some thoughts on issues of class and race in women's stud-
ies .
My perception of women's studies is that i t is focused pr i -
marily on white middle-class women, with some few courses on
the struggles of Black and other non-European women. There-
fore, I perceive two basic needs in women's studies: the in-
tegration of al l women into the field and the redefinition
of the goals of women's studies so as to address the needs
of al l women. In the course of this essay, I will raise sev-
eral questions and, finally, attempt to answer the question:
Is there merit in compartmentalizing the problems of minori-
ty women? Is i t significant to separate (and label) their
problems as women, as racial minorities, as poor people?
Naturally, as a Puerto Rican woman, I am most concerned
with what is happening to Puerto Rican women within the
broader picture of what is happening to Hispanic women gener-
al l y. Recent st at i st i cs give a sense of urgency to what I
and others perceive, that i s , that Puerto Ricans, and Puer-
to Rican women in particular, can easily become a minority
among minorities. I am in no way trying to suggest that
there should be a Puerto Rican women's struggle versus a Mex-
ican-American women's struggle versus a Cuban-American wom-
en' s struggle versus a Dominican-American women's struggle
versus a Latin American women's struggle. I am, however,
Issues in Wo me n 's Studies 217
t ryin g to call at t e n t io n to the n e e ds and the diffe re n ce s
wit hin the o ve rall His pan ic wo me n 's s t ruggle to o ve rco me
clas s , race , and sex o ppre s s io n in t his co un t ry.
The His pan ic po pulat io n of the Un it e d St at e s is not mo n o -
lit hic. To co mpare one His pan ic gro up wit h an o t he r wit ho ut
t akin g into acco un t t he ir diffe re n ce s be fo re co min g to the
Un it e d St at e s and wit hin the Un it e d St at e s is to do an in jus -
tice to bo t h gro ups . Fo r in s t an ce , it wo uld be who lly un -
fair to co mpare C uban s who are po lit ical e xile s , are pri-
marily of the lo we r, middle , and uppe r clas s e s , and are
Euro pe an (many of t he m) in lo o ks wit h Pue rt o Rican s . The
C uban s re ce ive d t re me n do us e co n o mic s uppo rt fro m the Un it e d
St at e s go ve rn me n t and the Ame rican pe o ple whe n they fled the
C as t ro re gime , but the Pue rt o Rican s , a majo rit y of who m are
racially mixe d and re pre s e n t an upro o t e d pe as an t clas s , have
had quit e a diffe re n t re ce pt io n in the Un it e d St at e s . Man y
of the upro o t e d arrive at o ur main lan d airpo rt s wit h n o t hin g
mo re than a cardbo ard s uit cas e , the n ame and addre s s of a
friend or re lat ive , and the e xpe ct at io n of fin din g a jo b as
an un s kille d labo re r.
Un fair, t o o , wo uld be a co mparis o n be t we e n wo me n who have
had diffe re n t life e xpe rie n ce s . Fo r in s t an ce , ho w do e s a
His pan ic wo man who has lived he r childho o d and t e e n age ye ars
in an in dige n o us cult ural s e t t in g pe rce ive he rs e lf an d/o r re -
act to race and clas s co n flict in this Ame rican s o cie t y?
Ho w do e s a His pan ic wo man who s e e n t ire childho o d and yo ut h
was lived in an in n e r-cit y co mmun it y in the Un it e d St at e s
whe re pe o ple like he r do not co n t ro l the s cho o ls or the
e co n o mic life of the co mmun it y pe rce ive he rs e lf an d/o r react
to race and clas s co n flict ? Fin ally, ho w do e s a His pan ic
wo man who s e e xpe rie n ce has be e n primarily of living o n one
migran t farm aft e r an o t he r re act ? That diffe re n t que s t io n s
need to be asked abo ut diffe re n t wo me n is not o n ly a t ruis m
for His pan ic wo me n but als o for o t he r min o rit y wo me n acro s s
e t hn ic and racial lines and for whit e wo me n as we ll. This
was made appare n t to me a fe w ye ars ago .
At that t ime , I was an advis e r to a yo un g whit e wo man of
po o r wo rkin g-clas s backgro un d. She be came my s t ude n t in a
bas ic Span is h co urs e an d, un like any o t he r s t ude n t be fo re or
s in ce , pre s e n t e d me wit h a un ique challe n ge . This yo un g wo m-
an was han dicappe d, s uffe rin g fro m a s e ve re he arin g impair-
me n t . He r han dicap re quire d that we me e t for addit io n al t u-
t o rin g, brin gin g us t o ge t he r for four to five ho urs a we e k.
It was durin g this time that we be gan to t alk and s hare wit h
e ach o t he r as wo me n . As I be gan to find o ut mo re abo ut he r,
I be gan to see the paralle ls be t we e n he r life and min e .
Amo n g t ho s e s imilar e xpe rie n ce s we re be in g on we lfare , liv-
ing in a fo s t e r ho me , re ce ivin g po o r he alt h care , re ce ivin g
an in ade quat e public e ducat io n , and the o t he r hun dre d and
one t hin gs in life that co n s t an t ly remind yo u that yo u be -
long to the "have n o t s ." Our e n co un t e rs durin g the ye ar
gave me an o ppo rt un it y to "s e e " ho w o ppre s s e d the po o r whit e
wo rkin g clas s is and un de rs t an d ho w s imilar are o ur plight s
in t his capit alis t s o cie t y. The o n e bas ic diffe re n ce be -
t we e n the whit e po o r wo rkin g clas s and the min o rit y gro ups
is that the whit e s can be made to be lie ve in the s upe rio rit y
of t he ir s t at us be caus e of t he ir privile ge d po s it io n as
whit e Ame rican s .
Fe w His pan ics have the o ppo rt un it y to e n gage in s o cial in -
t e rco urs e wit h whit e s . To o o ft e n whit e s are o ur s upe rvis o rs
if we are in the labor force or o ur lan dlo rds if we are t e n e -
me n t dwe lle rs . The y are als o the po lice o ffice rs who pro -
tect the life and pro pe rt y of t ho s e who o wn o ur co mmun it ie s
but do not live in t he m. C o n s e que n t ly, the vas t majo rit y of
the His pan ic po pulat io n "kn o ws " whit e Ame rica o n ly t hro ugh
co n flict or the dis t o rt e d pict ure pre s e n t e d o n t e le vis io n .
The myt h we are pre s e n t e d wit h is that all whit e Ame rican s
are e co n o mically co mfo rt able , living in luxury apart me n t s or
s uburban co mmun it ie s wit h pe rfe ct ly man icure d lawn s , pe rfe ct
s po us e s , and pe rfe ct childre n . The mo s t s e rio us family pro b-
lems of whit e s seem to be the s e le ct io n of the be s t soap to
use on gle amin g whit e s kin , o r the be s t t o o t hpas t e to use on
s e e min gly pe rfe ct t e e t h, or the be s t family de o do ran t or
mo ut hwas h. That t he re are whit e we lfare re cipie n t s , alco ho l-
ics , de lin que n t s , pro s t it ut e s , and wife be at e rs is s o me t hin g
rare ly ackn o wle dge d in the whit e me dia. Our public s cho o l
and public ho us in g s e gre gat io n o n ly e n s ure s this is o lat io n
and re in fo rce s the dis t o rt io n . Thus , the que s t io n mus t be
as ke d, ho w do pe o ple who live in diffe re n t re alit ie s , in clud-
ing the dis t o rt e d re alit y that is pro je ct e d t hro ugh the
me dia, be gin to co mmun icat e , to see the s imilarit ie s , the
co mmo n bo n d to t he ir s t ruggle to o ve rco me clas s o ppre s s io n ?
En t win e d wit h que s t io n s of clas s and cult ure is the que s -
tion of co lo r. As a gro up, His pan ic wo me n are wo me n of co l-
o r. Some are re dhe ade d, some are blo n de , but mo s t are bru-
n e t t e s who s e hair t e xt ure is mo re than jus t wavy or
s t raight . Some have blue e ye s or gre e n , but the majo rit y
have black or bro wn e ye s . Man y have s t raight n o s e s and thin
lips , but man y o t he rs have bro ad n o s e s and full lips . Ho w
do e s the His pan ic wo man who looks like the "dre am girl" of
e ve ry whit e Ame rican man feel abo ut he rs e lfco mpare d to the
His pan ic wo man who is phys ically in dis t in guis hable fro m the
Black Ame rican wo man ? Ho w do the vas t majo rit y of His pan ic
wo me n , re pre s e n t in g in n ume rable hue s , pe rce ive t he ms e lve s ?
In re gard to the que s t io n of co lo r, t he re is a vo cabulary
co n n o t in g s o cial s t at us that is rare ly used in Ame rican En g-
Issues in Wo me n 's Studies 219
lis h. In fact , the amo un t of mis ce ge n at io n amo n g In dian , Af-
rican , and Euro pe an pe o ple s that took place in the C aribbe an
and Lat in Ame rica, and its at t e n dan t co n n o t at io n of s o cial
s t at us , is alie n to the U.S. e xpe rie n ce . Mo s t Ame rican s pe r-
ce ive pe o ple as Black or whit e wit h limited re co gn it io n of
mulat t o e s . His pan ics , on the o t he r han d, pe rce ive t he m-
s e lve s as whit e , as Black, and as e ve ryt hin g in be t we e n .
That diffe re n t que s t io n s abo ut race and clas s mus t be
as ke d is by n o w e vide n t . In addit io n to these que s t io n s ,
o t he rs mus t be asked abo ut the his t o rical, po lit ical, e co n o m-
ic, and s o cial diffe re n ce s or s imilarit ie s e ach gro up makin g
up the His pan ic co mmun it y has in re lat io n to the o t he rs and
in re lat io n to Ame rican s o cie t y. Fo r in s t an ce , acco rdin g to
a 1976 go ve rn me n t re po rt , whe re as 42.1 pe rce n t of Me xican -
Ame rican wo me n and 49.7 pe rce n t of all o t he r His pan ic wo me n
we re part of the labo r fo rce , only 33.7 pe rce n t of Pue rt o
Rican wo me n s ixt e e n ye ars of age and o ve r we re act ive ly par-
t icipat in g in the labor fo rce (1). Since 33.2 pe rce n t of
Pue rt o Rican familie s are he ade d by wo me n , co mpare d to 14.4
pe rce n t of Me xican -Ame rican familie s , a dis pro po rt io n at e pe r-
ce n t age of Pue rt o Rican wo me n and t he ir familie s seem locked
in t o de pe n de n cy on we lfare . Why is this s o , whe n bo t h
gro ups of wo me n are po o r and s hare a co mmo n lan guage and cul-
t ure ? Se ve ral re as o n s not t radit io n ally o ffe re d may he lp to
e xplain why the diffe re n ce s e xis t .
Firs t , un like Me xican -Ame rican s who s e an ce s t o rs lived in
the s o ut hwe s t re gio n hun dre ds of ye ars be fo re the arrival of
the Ame rican o s , Pue rt o Rican s upro o t e d t he ms e lve s to co me to
a s t ran ge lan d, s e e kin g to adapt to a s t ran ge climat e , t o po g-
raphy, habit at io n , and life -s t yle . Se co n d, the Pue rt o Rican
co mmun it y in Ne w Yo rk was the vict im of an un pre ce de n t e d ur-
ban re n e wal pro gram in the 1950s and 1960s . Urban re n e wal
de s t ro ye d local Pue rt o Rican -o wn e d bus in e s s e s , primarily gro -
cery s t o re s , and forced pe o ple to live in t we n t y-s t o ry build-
in gs . Furt he rmo re , in o rde r to acquire an apart me n t in pub-
lic ho us in g, the e xt e n de d-family co n ce pt had to be give n up.
The e xt e n de d family as we had kn o wn it and s o me t ime s re co n -
s t ruct e d it in the o lde r t e n e me n t buildin gs co uld not s ur-
vive the n e w ho us in g. It be came n e ce s s ary to e xplain and
jus t ify e ve ry me mbe r of the family un it . Ext e n din g a he lp-
ing han d to a frie n d, n e ighbo r, or re lat ive who had arrive d
from the island wit h no jo b or place to live had to be do n e
guarde dly.
A third re as o n to be co n s ide re d is that the Me xican -Ame ri-
can be lo n gs to an appare n t ly ho mo ge n o us gro up, the re s ult of
Nat ive Ame rican and Euro pe an in t e rmin glin g. The African e l-
e me n t in the Me xican -Ame rican is not as vis ible as amo n g
Pue rt o Rican s . The Pue rt o Rican un ique ly re pre s e n t s "a
large migrat io n of cit ize n s fro m o ffs ho re , dis t in ct in cul-
ture and lan guage and als o facin g the pro ble m of co lo r pre ju-
dice " (2). Fin ally, Pue rt o Rican wo me n have be e n vict ims of
an o rgan ize d campaign of s t e rilizat io n . A 1976 re po rt on
the s t e rilizat io n of wo me n in Pue rt o Rico s t at e s that "mo re
than 35 pe rce n t of Pue rt o Rican wo me n of childbe arin g age
have be e n s t e rilize dt he highe s t rate of fe male s t e riliza-
tion in the wo rld" (3). As if t his we re not e n o ugh, Pue rt o
Rican wo me n we re als o the human guin e a pigs used in e xpe ri-
me n t s in vo lvin g the birt h co n t ro l pill. We are only in re -
cent ye ars be gin n in g to learn abo ut the de t rime n t al e ffe ct s
of ho rmo n al t he rapy on wo me n and t he ir childre n .
In this e s s ay, I have raised que s t io n s abo ut race and
clas s wit h re s pe ct to Pue rt o Rican wo me n , a gro up vie we d co l-
le ct ive ly as Black and po o r. I have be e n in t e re s t e d in pro -
vidin g mat e rial he lpful to an s we r the que s t io n I rais e d in
the be gin n in g: Is t he re an y me rit in the in t e lle ct ual co m-
part me n t alizin g of the pro ble ms of min o rit y wo me n ? Should
one s e parat e t he ir pro ble ms as wo me n , as a racial min o rit y,
as po o r pe o ple ? Alt ho ugh t he re is me rit in un de rt akin g such
an an alys is , I be lie ve that t ho s e co mpart me n t alizin g the
pro ble ms and the n e e ds of min o rit y wo me n s ho uld avoid judg-
ing t he ir impo rt an ce or at t e mpt in g to e s t ablis h prio rit ie s
amo n g them or amo n g the s t at e gie s de ve lo pe d to e limin at e
t he m. Similarly, I be lie ve that pro grams of wo me n 's s t udie s
need to addre s s is s ue s of clas s and race mo re me an in gfully
and mo re bro adly. Fo r if it do e s n o t , the wo me n 's mo ve me n t
will re main e s s e n t ially two mo ve me n t s : one of n o n -Euro pe an
wo me n rais in g que s t io n s that are fun dame n t al to t he ir s urvi-
val, and an o t he r of whit e middle -clas s wo me n at t e mpt in g to
make some s upe rficial chan ge s but e s s e n t ially s uppo rt in g a
s o cial s t ruct ure that pe rpe t uat e s racis m, s e xis m, and clas s
bias .
Notes
"Table 6: Emplo yme n t St at us of Span is h-Origin Wo me n 16
Ye ars of Age and Ove r, by Type of Origin , March 1974,"
in Wo me n of Span is h Origin in the Un it e d St at e s
(Was hin gt o n , D.C .: U.S. De pt . of Labo r, Wo me n 's Bur-
e au, 1976), p. 9.
Pue rt o Rican s in the C o n t in e n t al Un it e d St at e s : An Un -
ce rt ain Fut ure (Was hin gt o n , D.C .: U.S. C o mmis s io n o n
C ivil Right s , Oct o be r 1976), p. 145.
"St e rilizat io n of Pue rt o Rican Wo me n ," Pue rt o Rico : A
Pe o ple C halle n gin g C o lo n ialis m (Was hin gt o n , D.C .:
EPIC A Task Fo rce , 1976), p. 62.
ROSALIND POLLACK PETCHESKY
Reproduction and Class Divisions among
Women (1980)
When I first began to think about how I would relate class
to women's reproductive lives, I imagined a catalogue l i s t -
ing the different ways in which working-class women, poor
women, and middle-class women experience abortion, st er i l i za-
tion, and birth control. The catalogue would reveal how cer-
tain commonalities bridge their experiences, making of repro-
duction, as Linda Gordon has said, an experience "more basic
even than class" (1). But instead, I'm going to ask you to
leave this predictable discourse aside and follow me into
deeper waters. For as I began to see, "class" is a category
that has eluded feminist theory; we're not always sure whom
we mean when we talk about working-class women and middle-
class women and what the relevant differences between them
are. So what I want to do is look for a moment at how femin-
i st s have thought about women and the class structure and
suggest how we need to press beyond broad definitions in or-
der to understand the really intricate divisions that exist
between women and women. Yet this inquiry will not take us
outside of the terrain of reproductionincluding i t s most
biological aspects, f er t i l i t y and childbearingbut, on the
contrary, right to the center of i t . I will argue that, in
fact, production and reproduction intersect in women's lives
not only to influence but actually to construct their
class position. What constitutes class for women is quite
different from what constitutes class for men and is also
structurally different for different groups of women.
Why has class continued to be such a slippery phenomenon for
feminist theory? Fi rst , as many Marxist feminists have
pointed out, because women's class situation has t radi t i onal -
ly been locatedby social sci ent i st s, traditional Marxists,
labor historians, and individual women themselvesin rel a-
tion to their connections with men and their position in the
family. Thus, the specific economic contribution of women's
labor, paid and unpaid, has been obscured. On the other
hand, to define class st ri ct l y in terras of the relations .of
pro duct io n , as Marxis m do e s , o ve rlo o ks the co mplicat e d
ways in which wo me n 's clas s po s it io n is me diat e d by s e xual,
familial, and re pro duct ive act ivit ie s that in e ve ryday t hin k-
ing tend to be de fin e d as o ut s ide of e co n o mics . C o n fro n t in g
the implicit ge n de r bias of n arro wly e co n o mic t he o rie s of
clas s , Gayle Rubin t ake s Marx hims e lf to task for re ducin g
to a co uple of lines in C apit al the "his t o rical and mo ral
e le me n t " t hro ugh which clas s s t ruct ure s are re pro duce d, cul-
t urally e labo rat e d, and s e x and race -s t rat ifie d (2). Do cu-
me n t in g Rubin 's in s ight s t hro ugh the his t o rical e xpe rie n ce
of wo me n , fe min is t s cho lars such as Laura Ore n , He idi
Hart man n , Lo uis e Tilly, and Jo an Scott have ve rifie d that
pro duct io n and re pro duct io n can ce rt ain ly not be vie we d as
two s e parat e s phe re s for wo me n (3). Thus Tilly and Scott
pre face t he ir Wo me n , Wo rk and Family wit h an o bs e rvat io n
of majo r t he o re t ical impo rt an ce , for all its s implicit y:
The age at which a wo man marrie s , the n umbe r of childre n
she be ars , the size of the ho us e ho ld in which she live s ,
and the value of childre n to the family all dire ct ly af-
fect he r wo rkin g life . The amo un t of time re quire d for
ho us e ho ld and childbe arin g act ivit ie s affe ct s the amo un t
of time s pe n t in pro duct ive wo rk. A his t o ry of wo me n 's
wo rk mus t t he re fo re als o be a his t o ry of the family.
(4)
The pe rce pt io n of fe min is t his t o rian s and o t he rs that
wo me n and me n e xpe rie n ce clas s in diffe re n t ways has not
o n ly co n t ribut e d to o ur un de rs t an din g of wo me n 's co n cre t e
re lat io n to pro duct io n , but has als o co n t ribut e d to the
de ve lo pme n t amo n g Marxis t s of a bro ade r co n ce pt io n of clas s
it s e lf. This bro ade r co n ce pt io n e mphas ize s s o cial re la-
t io n s , his t o rical pro ce s s , and cult ure as in t e gral, not pe r-
iphe ral, to the accumulat io n of capit al. As Rayn a Rapp put s
it , ". . . what are act ually be in g accumulat e d are chan gin g
cat e go rie s of pro le t arian s . C las s fo rmat io n and co mpo s it io n
is always in flux; what ge t s accumulat e d in it are re lat io n -
s hips " (5). By lo o kin g in de t ail at wo me n 's chan gin g re la-
tion to mo de s of pro duct io n , as Tilly and Scott do wit h
re gard to in dus t rializat io n in En glan d and Fran ce , fe min is t
an alys is co n t ribut e s to an un de rs t an din g of the pro ce s s
t hro ugh which re pro duct io n as fe rt ilit y, child-re arin g and
marit al pat t e rn s in t e rs e ct s the re lat io n s of pro duct io n and
the divis io n of labo r. Tilly and Scott in the wo rks cited
e arlie r s ho w ho w marriage whe t he r, whe n , to who mn o t o n ly
re fle ct s but de t e rmin e s in ce rt ain ways wo me n 's clas s po s i-
t io n in pre in dus t rial Euro pe . This is an impo rt an t step
t o ward t hin kin g abo ut clas s in ge n e ral as part ly co n s t it ut e d
Reproduction and Class Divisions 223
by, not separate from, kinship systems. Moreover, this way
of thinking has helped feminist theory to move beyond ear l i -
er attempts to link up production and reproduction, such as
the belabored housework l i t erat ure of the early 1970s which
strained to authenticate women's membership in the working
class by arguing that what housewives did was "real work"
(6). The abstract typing of woman as Household Worker obl i t -
erated real class di st i nct i ons, since obviously not al l
housewives are part of the same social universe nor are al l
women housewives. It also diminished the complexity of what
women do, and are, as reproducers, sexual beings, childbear-
ers and child rearers.
But the housework l i t er at ur e, for al l i t s crudeness, was
an attempt to show that women's relationship to cl ass, or
production, is fundamentally different from men's and grows
out of a different objective si t uat i on. In this respect,
discussions of housework are akin, not so much to a Marxist,
as to a radical feminist theoretical tradition that defines
women themselves as a "cl ass, " or a "sex-cl ass." This defin-
ition is based on woman's social construction through family
and reproductive rol es. Radical feminists such as Shularaith
Firestone and Mary Daly view gender relations as not only
prior to class relations in a hi st ori cal sense but also as
subsuming class in an ontological sense (7). By collapsing
class into gender, the notion of sex as class ignores the
obvious, piercing differencesof power, authority, and re-
sourcesamong and between women. A domestic worker i nt er-
viewed by Robert and Jane Coles evokes these differences in
hard-hi t t i ng, straightforward terms:
I hear her talking about al l of us women, who have such
a "poor l i f e. " Then she comes and sees me watching a
program on t el evi si on, and she decides I'm not spending
my time the way she doesand besides, she wants me to
be doing al l her work for her, so that she can spend her
time any way she wants. . . . I ' l l t el l you what she
doesn' t know about the worldthat because of who she is
and who I am, we're not just two women, the way she pre-
tends we are sometimes when she t ri es to be nice to me;
we're something elsethe boss and the one who's being
bossed. (8)
Women have power over other women, class power. That
i s , some women control how other women must spend their
time; they control other women's capacity to meet their own
material needs and those of their children or to pursue
their dreams. Feminist thinking sometimes obscures this r e-
al i t y. There is a milder form of the radical feminist view
that has affe ct e d e ve n Marxis t fe min is t s , aware of clas s as
an impo rt an t s o cial fo rce . Its implicit pre mis e go e s s o me -
t hin g like t his : wo me n , like me n , are divide d by the re la-
t io n s of pro duct io n , by e co n o mic diffe re n ce s , but un de rn e at h
all that o ur re pro duct ive e xpe rie n ce s e xualit y, mo t he r-
ho o d, the familybrin gs us clo s e r t o ge t he r. In o t he r
wo rds , pro duct io n divide s us but re pro duct io n un it e s us .
This vie w, ho we ve r, as Ve ro n ica Be e che y has caut io n e d, co n -
ce pt ualize s clas s re lat io n s and s e xual re lat io n s , pro duct io n
and re pro duct io n , s t ill as two aut o n o mo us s phe re s rat he r
than as in t e grally re lat e d s o cial pro ce s s e s and re lat io n -
s hips . Mo re o ve r, it allo ws fe min is t s to e vade the hard task
of lo o kin g crit ically at the Marxis t an alys is of pro duct io n
and capit alis t re lat io n s of pro duct io n fro m a fe min is t po in t
of vie w (9).
A diffe re n t appro ach to t hin kin g abo ut the re lat io n be -
t we e n s e x and clas s has be e n de ve lo pe d by Marxis t fe min is t
s o cio lo gis t s in En glan d. In re ce n t e s s ays , Be e che y, Jackie
We s t , and Elizabe t h Garn s e y all argue s t ro n gly again s t vie ws
of wo me n 's clas s po s it io n as de rivin g from me n 's or from the
family t hro ugh marriage . Wo me n de rive t he ir clas s po s it io n
in the same way me n do t hro ugh t he ir o ccupat io n , t he ir
place in pro duct io n ; but that place is s pe cific and has its
o wn his t o rical t raje ct o ry. As We s t put s it ,
Wo me n , or for that mat t e r an y o t he r gro up, do not need
to co n s t it ut e a s e parat e clas s in o rde r to have a clas s
po s it io n in t he ir o wn right or havin g (it s ) o wn s pe cifi-
cit y. . . . C las s e s are e xt re me ly bro ad and co mple x
gro upin gs . The y are n o t ho mo ge n e o us e n t it ie s , they are
divide d by age , s kill, s e x, and e t hn icit y. (10)
The ge n de r-s pe cific charact e r of wo me n 's re lat io n to clas s
is made cle ar, acco rdin g to We s t , by t hre e impo rt an t co n di-
t io n s : (1) the rapidly gro win g n umbe r of wo me n who are
he ads of ho us e ho lds , livin g alo n e , or livin g wit h o t he r wo m-
e n ; (2) the highly s e x-s e gre gat e d co mpo s it io n of the labor
marke t wo me n and me n are not the same "wo rke rs " an y way yo u
s lice it ; and (3) the s e xual divis io n of labor wit hin the
family. But it is , in We s t 's vie w, the third co n dit io n
abo ve allt hat wo me n primarily are s t ill re s po n s ible for do -
me s t ic t as ks and child re arin gt hat re s t rict s all wo me n to
an in variably lo we r paid, s e x-s e gre gat e d, s ubo rdin at e place
in the re lat io n s of pro duct io n (11).
The re are two majo r pro ble ms I see in this an alys is .
Firs t , it s t ill le ave s the in t e rco n n e ct io n s be t we e n clas s
and ge n de r, be t we e n pro duct io n and re pro duct io n , un de ve l-
o pe d. What do e s it me an co n cre t e ly to say that the s e xual
division of labor at home conditions women's place in the la-
bor market? Won't this be different for different groups of
women, depending on whether or not they are married, whether
or not they have kids, their age or stage in the female life
cycle, and, of course, their class and race? And doesn't
the relative weight of these intrusions of reproductive life
on work change historically? Second, how does this abstract
analysis of women's separate position in the labor market
and their (cross-class) double day encompass the important
divisions within gender? Do women enjoy class privileges ,
one of which may be having power over other women, only in
their capacity as bosses or professionals? If reproduction
structures class for women, doesn't it also structure the
divisions among women?
I think we have to acknowledge that class divides women
from women, or, to put it another way, women have a gender-
specific relation to the class system and a class-specific
relation to the gender system. And we have to examine the
subtle and complex grids these relations generate with much
greater attentiveness and rigor than we have heretofore. On
the one hand, the almost universal reality of women's double
responsibility for family and wage labor has qualitatively
different meanings for different groups of women in ways
that themselves reproduce and fortify the barriers between
classes. For the southern factory worker interviewed by
Robert and Jane Coles, being a full-time housewife appears a
life of ease, the subject of wistful daydreams:
She is rather glad to imagine herself without a job.
She would get up at 7:30, not 5:30. She would see her
husband off, her children off, maybe drive the l at t er to
school herself, then have a quiet breakfast. She would
delight in her alonenessno one on either side of her,
working on the assembly l i ne. She would watch t el evi -
sion, meet a friend at a shopping mall, have lunch with
her, come home and do some planting or weeding or "fix-
ing" food or "just plain relaxing." This last option is
the one she favors most when she evokes her daytime
dreams while standing and inspecting an endless stream
of towels. (12)
Behind this romanticized fantasy of middle-class womanhood
lurks her own daily reality: kids rarely seen or enjoyed,
meals rushed and frantic and merely edible, no time to muse
and dream. It goes without saying, too, that, unlike the
middle-class housewife, she will have neither time nor re-
sources to enroll in some course in adult learning or any
other amenity supposedly designed to buy people's way into
the "privileged l i f e. " And, in this respect, her situation
may not be so different from her husband's, who also envied
the ladies rambling about the shopping mall.
On the other hand, neither can we regard this t ext i l e work-
er and her husband as a homogeneous unit; the view of class-
es as composed of families or households as their basic
units will just not do, given what we know about the very
different ways that women and men, young and old, are re-
cruited into, sustained by, and ejected from the labor mark-
et (13). Indeed, these fundamental, socially structured
cleavages leave us wondering whether it i sn' t more appropri-
ate to regard class as something that is assigned to individ-
uals in ways that differ by gender and age rather than to
families or households as col l ect i vi t i es. The work of Tilly
and Scott and a ground-breaking doctoral dissertation by Har-
old Benenson on the American working class emphasize the im-
portance of a complex set of social processes within the
family structure for determining women's and men's differing
relationships to the wage economy. For example, the di vi -
sion of labor regarding housework and child care, age and
circumstances of marriage, f er t i l i t y patterns (particularly
one's number of children and one's age when they are born),
patterns of consumption and household production, and, fi nal -
ly, the very flow of the life-cyclehow al l these events
articulate with, or collide against, work outside the home,
must be considered (14). What is important to repeat is
that this relationship between household processes and class
structure is not only different for women and for men but
also changing historically for women themselves. Tilly and
Scott document how a new character emerged on the prol et ari -
an stage during the Industrial Revolution in England and
France: the mother who worked away from home. Her accommo-
dation to the conflicting pulls of domestic responsibilities
and economic necessitywhich meshed neatly with capi t al -
ism's need for a st rat i fi ed labor forcewas to work only in
cases of urgency, and then as near to home as possible.
Even in the early factory towns, married women tended to
become cotton pickers. Cleaning and beating the cotton
with sticks was done by hand, not machine, and the pick-
ers worked near but not in the mi l l s. The work was per-
formed intermittently and was not subject to factory di s-
cipline. "It appears to have been the custom to allow
them to come and go as they pleased. . . This degree
of liberty attracted . . . women whose domestic duties
prevented them from leaving their homes for 12 hours a
day."
In general, married women tended to be found in l ar-
gest numbers in the least industrialized sectors of the
labor force, in those areas where the least separation
existed between home and workplace and where women could
control the rhythm of their work. (15)
Needless to say, the price for this fl exi bi l i t y and so-
called liberty was the lowest status and wages. The working
wife of the Industrial Revolution was in a structurally and
materially different position within the working class from
that of her working husband (or, for that matter, of her
teenaged si st er or daughter).
Today this structural specificity of women's relationship
to class i s , if anything, more developed, more refined. It
affects a much larger mass of women, many of whom are on
their own in the struggle for economic survival. How, when,
and where women are recruited into the labor force bears l i t -
t l e resemblance to the patterns for men. The 62 percent of
al l women between the ages of twenty-five and fifty-five who
work outside the homemany of them the sole support of chi l -
drenstill earn 60 percent of what men earn. These women
were increasingly concentrated in deskilled clerical and ser-
vice sector jobs during the 1970s, and there is no reason to
expect that patterns of sex segregation and female subordina-
tion in the labor force will diminish during the 1980s (16).
Not unlike their nineteenth-century counterparts, they too
seek, and are recruited into, jobs near homein corporate
offices, bank branches, department stores, and fast-food out-
l et s, now conveniently dispersed to the suburbs near the
available pool of cheap housewife labor.
On the domestic side of the production-reproduction nexus,
there are no visible signs that what economists call "alloca-
tion of household time" between women and men is likely to
change in the near future. If so, in married-couple house-
holds where both partners work full time, husbands will con-
tinue to average between 0 and a few hours of housework per
week, and the wife's work week will be substantially longer
than her husband's because of her disproportionate assump-
tion of household burdens (17). According to one study, the
impact of the two-job syndrome on a woman's daily life has
been "a sacrifice, for her, of 14 hours a week from other ac-
t i vi t i es such .as gardening, vi si t i ng, eating, sleeping, and
T.V. viewing" (18). This assymetry becomes particularly
striking when seen in the context of the changing work-life
cycle for women and for men. It is well known that women's
labor force participationparticularly that of married wom-
enhas increased tremendously in the past two decades,
whereas men's labor force participation has declined. These
shifts represent not so much an increase or a decrease in
absolute numbers, but rather a change in the respective life
cycles of women and men. Women are working more continuous-
ly for more of their l i ves, whereas men are working l ess.
One way to look at this is t hat , within married-couple house-
holds (and s t i l l , today, they make up the great majority of
al l households), a woman's increased hours, days, and years
of wage labor are buying more leisure time for some man in
her familylonger time in school as a young man; longer va-
cations and less overtime, or no second shi ft , in the middle
years; or early retirement (19). If i t weren't for the per-
si st ent , grossly unequal division of labor in housework and
child care, this shifting pattern might be seen as a kind of
equalization. As i t i s , women are working an average of be-
tween sixty-five and seventy-six hours a week, reducing
their access to leisure and increasing their risk of coro-
nary disease, and men are finding the "working wife" a bl ess-
ing in disguise. No wonder one of the husbands interviewed
by Lillian Rubin admits t hat , though he doesn't want his
wife to work, if she quit he'd have to "get a second job" to
keep up the payments on the car, and (he says) "working two
jobs with hardly any time off for yourself i sn' t my idea of
how to enjoy l i f e" (20). Indeed! Women's work earns men
"time for themselves"; time at home for a married woman with
kids is rarely "time for herself."
The most t el l i ng evidence that families cannot be under-
stood as uni t s, that women and men within families are dif-
ferentially situated in relation to cl ass, comes with div-
orce (the fate, as we know, of one out of three marriages).
Then the illusion of class homogeneity within the family
fal l s away and the bare facts of gender division as a part
of class structure are stunningly revealed. Janet Kohen,
Carol Brown, and Rosalyn Feldberg, in interviews with a
cross-section of divorced women in the Boston area, found
t hat , on the average, the family incomes of these women
dropped by over half after divorce. (This figure accords
with 1978 data from the Department of Labor, which showed
the median income for white married-couple families was
$18,370, whereas the median income for al l female-headed fam-
i l i es was $8,537.) Moreover, report Kohen, Brown, and Feld-
berg of their sample of women:
This overall average obscures an important class differ-
encethe higher they s t ar t , the farther they f al l . The
8 highest income families dropped 60 percent, the 8 low-
est income families dropped only 19 percent. The less
the husband had contributed, the less he could take
away. ( 21)
Re pro duct io n an d Class Divisions 229
In o t he r wo rds , we might say that divo rce is a kin d of le ve l-
e r for wo me n . Eve n man y wo me n from middle -clas s familie s up-
on divo rce find t he ms e lve s faced wit h wage dis crimin at io n ,
jo b s e gre gat io n , little t rain in g or s kills , re le gat io n to
lo w-payin g cle rical and s e rvice s e ct o r jo bs , difficult y in
fin din g child care , and o ft e n little child s uppo rt .
All t his s ugge s t s that the curre n t n o t io n of wo me n as "s e c-
o n dary e arn e rs " who s e wage s magically pro pe l t he ir familie s
into the s afe , s e cure middle clas s o bs cure s a mo re co mple x
re alit y. It mys t ifie s bo t h the n at ure of clas s as a s o cial
re lat io n s hip, n o t a s um of mo n e y, and the man ifo ld ways that
wo me n and me n wit hin the family have a diffe re n t re lat io n -
ship to the clas s s t ruct ure as a who le . In s ho rt , I am argu-
ing that we have to look at ho w in dividuals are re cruit e d in -
to and de fin e d by clas s e s , not as part s of ho mo ge n e o us
family "un it s " n o r as dis cre t e in dividuals , but as me mbe rs
of ge n de r, age , racial/e t hn ic, and als o s e xual pre fe re n ce
gro ups , who s e s o cial co n s t ruct io n me diat e s clas s it s e lf.
The fact , for e xample , that le s bian s as a gro up re main pe rma-
n e n t ly wit ho ut acce s s to a male wage to s hare make s t he ir
clas s po s it io n o bje ct ive ly diffe re n t from that of e it he r me n
or he t e ro s e xual wo me n . In part icular, wit h re gard to wo me n
we n e e d to an alyze the pre cis e in t e rco n n e ct io n s be t we e n vari-
o us as pe ct s of re pro duct ive life and wage labor and be gin to
un de rs t an d t he m as a t o t alit y, "t o un de rs t an d," as Ve ro n ica
Be e che y writ e s , "t he in t e rre lat io n s hips be t we e n pro duct io n
and re pro duct io n as part of a s in gle pro ce s s . . . [that
has ] be e n t ran s fo rme d his t o rically" (22).
In the same e s s ay, Be e che y als o urge s us to be mo re pre -
cise abo ut the co n ce pt of re pro duct io n it s e lf. That co n ce pt
has at least t hre e diffe re n t me an in gs which tend to be co n -
fused in fe min is t t hin kin g: s o cial re pro duct io n , or re pro -
duct io n of the re lat io n s and co n dit io n s of pro duct io n as a
who le ; re pro duct io n o f t he labo r fo rce , fo r e xample ,
t hro ugh ho us e wo rk and child care ; an d, fin ally, the n arro we r
co n ce pt of bio lo gical re pro duct io n . In the s pace re main -
in g, I s hall fo cus on t his last me an in g, the n arro we s t and
least o bvio us ly "e co n o mic" o n e , and argue that re pro duct io n
e ve n in t his s e n s e has a dire ct , imme diat e be arin g on wo m-
e n 's clas s po s it io n . In fact , I will s ugge s t that what Be n -
e n s o n calls the "majo r t ran s it io n al e ve n t s " in wo me n 's re pro -
duct ive live s marriage , s e xual act ivit y, childbe arin g, and
mo t he rho o daffe ct wo me n 's re lat io n s hip to the clas s s t ruc-
ture and pro duct io n in ways so pe n e t rat in g, so life lo n g,
that t he s e e ve n t s mus t co me to be seen as part o f that
s t ruct ure as it is s o cially co n s t ruct e d for wo me n .
To make this po in t cle ar, let us take one such in de x or
e ve n t , n ame ly fe rt ilit y. What I wan t to look at in s o me
de t ail is the re lat io n s hip be t we e n fe rt ilit y and wo me n 's
labor fo rce part icipat io n , as a way of givin g s ubs t an ce to
the ide a of "pro duct io n and re pro duct io n as part of a s in gle
pro ce s s ." It is cle ar fro m the o ut s e t , firs t , that pat t e rn s
of fe rt ilit y affe ct wo me n 's o wn re lat io n s hip to clas s , par-
t icularly t he ir dire ct part icipat io n in paid labo r, in a way
that is ut t e rly n e gligible for me n , and s e co n d, that they do
so diffe re n t ly for diffe re n t gro ups of wo me n . As Bo n n ie
Tho rn t o n Dill has e lo que n t ly s t re s s e d, race and clas s are
bo t h in de pe n de n t from and in t e ract ive wit h ge n de r. De mo g-
raphe rs have long po in t e d to the clo s e , in t e ract ive re lat io n -
ship be t we e n lowered fe rt ilit y amo n g wo me n and t he ir highe r
labor fo rce part icipat io n rat e s . The impo s s ibilit y of s o rt -
ing o ut caus e and e ffe ct (in fact , wo me n have fewer babie s
in o rde r to be able to wo rk or whe n wo rk o ppo rt un it e s
e xpan d, and mo re re adily seek wo rk whe n there are fe we r
childre n to care fo r) s imply un de rlin e s the clo s e co n n e ct io n
fo r wo me n be t we e n childbe arin g and paid labor (23). This
re lat io n s hip, of co urs e , is n o t hin g that advan ce d capit alis m
in ve n t e d. It is as o ld as the s e xual divis io n of labor it -
s e lf. But it chan ge s form un de r chan gin g his t o rical co n di-
t io n s and n e ve r in a s imple , me chan ical way. Sco t t and
Tilly me n t io n that a de clin in g birt h rate in Fran ce aft e r
1820 (in part due to the wide s pre ad use of birt h co n t ro l,
e s pe cially co it us in t e rrupt us ) re s ult e d in an o lde r age
s t ruct ure of the Fre n ch po pulat io n by mid-ce n t ury, which in
t urn me an t that Fre n ch wo me n we re less in vo lve d in mo t he r-
ho o d and mo re e n gage d, "fo r lo n ge r pe rio ds of t he ir live s ,"
in labo r fo rce act ivit y (24). Yet an e arlie r ge n e rat io n ,
burde n e d wit h much highe r fe rt ilit y be caus e of high in fan t
and child mo rt alit y rat e s , did not t he re fo re pull back from
wage labo r whe n co mpe lle d by e co n o mic n e ce s s it y to wo rk. To
acco mmo dat e the n e e d to wo rk or s t arve , s ilk wo rke rs in
Lyo n s , for e xample , t ypically "s e n t their in fan t s o ff to
n urs e s rat he r than bre ak the rhyt hm of wo rk in the s ho p";
and urban s t re e t pe ddle rs , be lo n gin g to what Scott and Tilly
call the "e co n o my of make -s hift ," s imply dragge d their
babie s alo n g (25).
To day, the ge n e ral availabilit y of e as y, e ffe ct ive birt h
co n t ro l me t ho ds (aside fro m their hazards , in co n ve n ie n ce s ,
and vario us in ade quacie s ) re ally do e s make the as s o ciat io n
be t we e n fewer childre n and mo re ye ars s pe n t wo rkin g o ut s ide
the ho me fairly cle ar-cut . It is we ll kn o wn that total fe r-
t ilit y has dro ppe d s harply in the Un it e d St at e s s in ce the
e arly 1960s to the po in t whe re de mo graphe rs n o w warn of the
risk of "n o n re place me n t " (26) (see Figure 1). A n umbe r of
ge n e ral t re n ds charact e rize this o ve rall de clin e , t re n ds
that apply to the majority of American women. For one
thing, the steady drop in the U.S. f er t i l i t y rate refl ect s,
not that fewer women are becoming mothers, but that more wom-
en are having fewer childrenthat i s , a reduction in aver-
age family size. In fact, more women than ever are married
for some part of their l i ves, and more women than ever
become mothers, at least once; childlessness, as a state of
being for women, is increasingly rare (27). Moreover, wom-
en' s childbearing is becoming concentrated within a shorter
time span; i t is usually over by the time they are in their
early t hi rt i es if not sooner, leaving some thirty or forty
years without young children in the home (28). Both of
these trends contribute to a third: that childbearing today
interrupts women's participation in the labor force much
less than it used to. According to a recent Department of
Labor report, "Young women now clearly stay in the labor
force until they are within a few months of the birth of
their fi rst child, and frequently return to the labor force
shortly after the birth" (29). These f er t i l i t y patterns
have been accompanied by a steep rise in women's labor force
participation, especially of mothers of young children, and
also by the rapid rise in woman-headed households. Fifteen
percent of white families today and 42 percent of Black fami-
lies are headed by women (30). What al l these figures sug-
gest is an overall picture in which more and more women are
mothers, but in a social context that is different from the
past. Today mothers are most likely to work outside the
home continuously, or at least for some period, if not perma-
nently. They are also more or less economically independent
of men. (Of course, this is not a new pattern for Black wom-
en with whom white women are just now catching up in their
labor force participation rates and their tendency to head
households.) In other words, working women of childbearing
age today function in a context wherein their relation to
the economy is more direct, more pressing, and less mediated
by men than previously. As a consequence, the need to estab-
lish sure control over their own f er t i l i t y is a major pr i or i -
ty for them.
But these general patterns overlay some very important dif-
ferences. Indeed, if we analyze women's class position in
relation to f er t i l i t y as I am suggesting, it may be the case
that, under present conditions in the United States, there
are really four different classes of women, as measured on
the scales of labor force participation and f er t i l i t y: (1)
a low-fertility, high-labor-force-participation group who
are predominantly working classthat i s , who work for most
of their adult lives in cl eri cal , service, or industrial
jobs; (2) a low-fertility, high-labor-force-participation
group who are predominantly middle classthat i s , who work
in professional or managerial jobs; (3) a hi gh-fert i l i t y,
low-labor-force-participation group who are working class
who never or hardly ever work outside the home and are mar-
ried to working-class men or receiving welfare; and (4) a
hi gh-fert i l i t y, low-labor-force-participation group who are
mostly middle or upper middle classmarried to high-paid
professional men or executives and without the skills or
economic need to make i t worth their while to work outside
the home for pay.
It is important to note that, whether or not the American
female population actually breaks down in precisely this
way, the categories nevertheless point to a distinct r eal i -
ty, one that generates major differences in experience, con-
sciousness, and, I would argue, objective class position for
many if not most women. One cri t i cal factor in this four-
way class/work/fertility division among American women seems
to be the question of early childbearing. Demographers have
established a definite correlation between age at fi rst mar-
riage, age at fi rst childbirth, a woman's total or cumula-
tive f er t i l i t y, and her total participation in the labor
force during her l i f e. Central in this complex set of fac-
tors is the effect on education, assumed by sociologists to
be the most reliable indicator of class for women. The earl -
ier a woman has babies, it seems, the more likely she is to
drop out of school, the less education she gets, the more
likely she is to remain peripheral to the labor market or un-
employed altogether, and the more children she will have (be-
tween one and three more than her working counterpart). In
a study published in 1977, Kristin Moore and Linda Waite
showed that there is a close association between early child-
bearing and educational attainment. They point out that for
every year that passes without the birth of a fi rst child, a
woman gets an additional year of schooling (31). Hal Benen-
son refines this picture further by stressing that "how far
a young woman pursues her formal schooling has decisive im-
portance for her immediate and long-term work l i fe, in terms
of not only the probability of her seeking employment, but
also the kind of job, and earnings, she can obtain" (32).
Missing out on those productive years prior to marriage and
childbearing means that a young woman often forfeits a c r i t i -
cal period of training and experience. This points to the
reality Moore and Waite emphasize, that the effects of early
childbearing and loss of education and work experience in
early life are cumulative. The teenage mothers they fol-
lowed over time "never catch up," never get out from under
the weight of child care and financial responsibilities and
lack of education to improve their situation. The result is
what Benenson calls "a pattern of lifetime exclusion (from
the labor force), which is established very early on" (33).
They become a permanent group of women whose relationship to
the class structure is fundamentally different from that of
the majority who work more or less consistently, either full
time or part time, outside the home (34).
Thus we have to modify the oversimplified model of the
working mother and recognize that, in a very real way, main-
ly working or mainly mothering are alternative courses
for women and result in different structural positions with
regard to class. But at the same time, either of these cour-
ses has very different implications depending on whether you
are part of the working class or the middle-class groups
that I described above. Benenson's analysis makes it clear
that the consequences of early marriage and childbearing and
high f er t i l i t y for the middle-class group of professional
men's wives are very different from those for working-class
women who have similar f er t i l i t y patterns. Among the former
group, the tendency is to marry l at er, marry richer, acquire
resources (such as education and connections) which, after a
long period of withdrawal from the labor force, may be put
to use later on (along with significant material and social
resources acquired through marriage). The working-class
wives who marry and have children early, on the other hand,
are at an absolute disadvantage among the total group of wom-
en who do not work outside the home. They have less educa-
tion, fewer ski l l s, higher cumulative f er t i l i t y, and less
possibility of ever changing their circumstances (35). When
they do work, they find themselves in the lowest paying,
most dead-end jobs, and when they get divorced, they go on
welfare. Lillian Rubin also emphasizes this class differ-
ence, showing how the working-class women she interviewed be-
came pregnant and married early as the only available escape
from their parental households, found themselves rapidly
caught in the net of children, housework, overbearing finan-
cial di ffi cul t i es, and, above al l , total dependence on their
husbands. As one of her respondents remarked:
I felt like I had no freedom, just no freedom. I had to
depend on him for everything. Even poor as we were when
I was growing up, I never had to ask my mother for mon-
ey. She knew I needed lunch money and she gave i t to
me. She knew when I needed a pair of shoes; I didn' t
have to t el l her. Now, al l of a sudden, I had to ask
him for everything, and he couldn't understand why that
bothered me. I felt like I was a charity ward case or
something. (36)
I think, here, of my middle-class and upper-middle-class
suburban students in the Returning Women's Program at Ramapo
C o lle ge . Some of t he m are in s t at e s of de pe n de n cy o n hus -
ban ds that are hard to be lie ve , n o t so diffe re n t from the
wo rkin g-clas s wo me n Rubin in t e rvie ws . The ir hus ban ds may
co n t ro l t he ir use of cre dit cards , t he ir acce s s to a car (in
an are a whe re no o t he r mo de of t ran s po rt at io n e xis t s ), and
t he ir daily s pe n din g mo n e y. Yet they get s uppo rt from their
hus ban ds to hire ho us e ke e pe rs and child care wo rke rs , and
they are able to co me to Ramapo C o lle ge to take co urs e s . Up-
gradin g, or re e n t ry as it is s o me t ime s calle d (a fun n y t e rm,
as t ho ugh s uburban marriage is a kin d of e xit ), is a co mmo di-
ty to be purchas e d, a clas s privile ge . Be n e n s o n clarifie s
t his clas s -bas e d re alit y wit h gre at pre cis io n :
The e xpe rie n ce of daught e rs and wive s [must be s e e n ] as
s hape d by wo rkin g clas s [or middle clas s ] e co n o mic
and s o cial co n dit io n s . The family and clas s dime n s io n s
are in s e parable in the co n cre t e life cycle pro ce s s e s .
. . An ide n t ifiable charact e ris t ic such as n in e ye ars
of s cho o lin g or the be arin g of five childre n do e s not
have e quivale n t me an in g for diffe re n t ly place d wive s .
. . . C las s plays a crit ical ro le in de t e rmin in g whe n
the s urmo un t in g of difficult ie s be co me s po s s ible , and
whe n it re main s be yo n d re ach. (37)
It go e s wit ho ut s ayin g, of co urs e , that the s ame ho lds
true for the diffe re n ce s be t we e n wo rkin g-clas s wo rkin g wo me n
and middle -clas s (i.e ., pro fe s s io n al and man age rial) wo rkin g
wo me n ; the s imilarit ie s in t he ir fe rt ilit y pat t e rn s do not
e fface the majo r s t ruct ural and mat e rial divis io n s be t we e n
t he m in t e rms of e arn in gs , po we r o ve r t he ir lives and o t he r
pe o ple , and the abilit y to "s urmo un t difficult ie s ." At the
same t ime , the grid that divide s the high-e mplo yme n t /lo w-fe r-
t ilit y wo me n , bo t h wo rkin g clas s and middle clas s , from
t he ir o ppo s it e s als o s e e ms impo rt an t and mo re e lus ive . The
re as o n s why t he s e divis io n s amo n g wo me n e me rge wit hin
clas s e s t hat is , why some and not o t he rs marry and have ba-
bie s e arly, have mo re childre n , get less e ducat io n , and so
o n s t ill n e e d to be un de rs t o o d. Pe rhaps the diffe re n ce has
to do wit h diffe re n t value s , diffe re n t pat t e rn s of ge n de r s o -
cializat io n in the family, as Jo yce Ladn e r de s cribe s in he r
an alys is of diffe re n t "image s of wo man ho o d" amo n g yo un g
Black wo me n who s e clas s backgro un d is s imilar (38). But I
as s ume that t his divis io n too is s o cially co n s t ruct e d, not
just a re s ult of in dividual pe rs o n alit ie s or family "pre fe r-
e n ce s ."
What are the s o cial and po lit ical implicat io n s of this an -
alys is of wo me n as "fe rt ilit y clas s e s "? I wo uld like to s ug-
ge s t just t hre e which s e e m to me impo rt an t o n e pe rt ain in g
to Marxis t t he o ry of clas s , one pe rt ain in g to de mo graphy and
wo me n , and one pe rt ain in g to curre n t fe min is t and an t ife min -
ist po lit ics . Firs t , I be lie ve that this an alys is give s
we ight to the t he o re t ical argume n t made e arlie r, that re pro -
duct io n and pro duct io n are in s e parable , that they fo rm part s
of a t o t al s o cial pro ce s s . This can be s e e n quit e cle arly
e ve n if we only s pe culat e abo ut the diffe re n t s e gme n t s of
the capit alis t labor marke t t he
k
"s t able " s e ct o r and the var-
io us "re s e rve armie s ," the "flo at in g," "lat e n t ," and "s t ag-
n an t " po o ls that Marx, and mo re re ce n t ly Harry Brave rman , ar-
gue are n e ce s s ary to capit alis t pro duct io n (39). What is
the re lat io n s hip of the vario us fe rt ilit y pat t e rn s I was
de s cribin g to the co n figurat io n and co n s t ruct io n of t he s e
diffe re n t po o ls ? Do e arly childbe arin g and high fe rt ilit y
pro vide s t ruct ural valve s that chan n e l wo me n into the "s t ag-
n an t " and "lat e n t " po o ls of the un e mplo ye d and the ve ry mar-
gin ally e mplo ye d?
Se co n d, fe min is t t he o ry mus t , I t hin k, co n fro n t the re ali-
ty that childbe arin g and child re arin g as a callin g, as a
lo n g-t e rm pre o ccupat io n , and part icipat io n in pro duct io n ,
may be two diffe re n t co urs e s for wo me n , re pre s e n t in g diffe r-
ent po pulat io n s of wo me n , and that this re alit y cut s
acro s s clas s divis io n s (40). In a 1978 art icle in Family
Plan n in g Pe rs pe ct ive s , Prin ce t o n de mo graphe r C harle s
We s t o ff pre s e n t s such a s ce n ario as t ho ugh it we re in the fu-
ture rat he r than the pre s e n t . We s t o ff is wo rrie d abo ut the
U.S. birt h rate de clin in g to be lo w re place me n t level (be lo w,
that is , the Third Wo rld). As an an s we r to the pro ble m of
"fut ure gro wt h," he s ugge s t s to po licy make rs that wo me n
might be divide d into two gro ups : (1) a clas s of "pro fe s -
s io n al bre e de rs ," for who m "re pro duct io n wo uld be co me the
s pe cialize d fun ct io n " and who , go ade d on by s pe cial "mat e r-
n al in ce n t ive s " (bo n us e s , child care , and so o n ), wo uld be
re quire d "to re pro duce at an ave rage rate of 3 birt hs per
wo man "; and (2) a clas s of wo me n who "wo uld n e ve r have any
childre n " and who , pre s umably, wo uld spend t he ir time wo rk-
ing in pro duct ive jo bs (41). The que s t io n is , has We s t o ffs
s ce n ario alre ady be gun to happe n ? Is the de cis io n of wo me n
wo rke rs e xpo s e d to re pro duct ive ly hazardo us t o xin s on the
jo b to get s t e rilize d rat he r than be fired s ympt o mat ic of
the Ho bs o n 's cho ice be t we e n childre n and wo rk that man y wo m-
e n pe rce ive (42)? Mo re o ve r, is the lack of an y s o cial s up-
po rt s for wo rkin g mo t he rs t hat is , de ce n t , publicly funded
child care , de ce n t jo bs , fle xible wo rkin g ho urs for pare n t s
of bo t h s e xe s pus hin g wo me n to vie w wo rkin g and child re ar-
ing as in co mpat ible ? And will the loss of abo rt io n and the
ris e in s t e rilizat io n furt he r co n t ribut e to t his divis io n
be t we e n wo man as "bre e de r" and wo man as "wo rke r" (43)? What
alternative vision do feminists have to offer that is not a
variation on the "superwoman," the working mother who miracu-
lously does it all?
It may seem as though we have gotten away from the subject
of class divisions among women, and yet what I am arguing is
precisely that an analysis of the relationship between repro-
duction and class for women focuses us on certain real i t i es
that both connect women of different classes and divide wom-
en of the same class (if we think of class in mainly occupa-
tional terms). My final point is that we need to address
the political implications of these real i t i es for the cur-
rent feminist movement and particularly for that branch of
the movement involved in the struggle for reproductive free-
dom. The analysis presented suggests that there is a di s-
tinct subpopulation of women, of al l different ages and per-
haps cutting across classes (though predominantly white),
who may have a very material basis for adhering to tradition-
al family forms and ideologies that certify women's primary
function as homeraakers and childbearersthe profamily, ant i -
abortion, and antifeminist ideology of the New Right. In-
deed, the hi gh-fert i l i t y, low-employment womenboth the
working-class and the middle-class segmentsdepend in a
very real way for their survival on the family and on male
providers, and we would expect them to have a distinct con-
sciousness formed out of this real i t y. This makes it easier
to understand, what to feminists has seemed inscrutable, the
apparently large numbers of women who make up the grass
roots of the anti-ERA, antiabortion, and anti-gay rights for-
ces , the prime recruiting grounds for the organized right in
their buildup for the 1980 elections (44). Given the actual
conditions of these women, their pull to the Right seems not
an anomalous development but predictable. The question is
whether in the current political context of right-wing resur-
gence, or indeed any context, the divisions are not deeper
between these women and the low-fertility, high-employment
majority whose dependence on men is somewhat looser (in r eal -
i t y, if not in imagination) than they are among women divid-
ed along class lines as traditionally understood.
In other words, I am suggesting that reproduction, rather
than uniting al l women, divides them more at this time in
history than production does, and that we have to look at
those divisions strategically in terms of the different
kinds of consciousness they are likely to generate. I do be-
lieve, however, that there is a basis for the majority of
womenthose of us who will be working for most of our
lives, who will probably also have one or two children, for
whom control over reproduction is an absolute necessity, and
whose material survival, even if married, does not depend
wholly on mento unite. We form a "cl ass-fert i l i t y si st er -
terhood," and we include women of color and white women,
lesbians and heterosexuals, young and old, women of differ-
ent classes, cultures, and occupations. Our differences
will continue to surface, but antifeminists, by attacking
al l women's right to decent jobs, sexual autonomy, and re-
productive freedom, will not fail to remind us of our common
condition.
Notes
1. Wo man 's Bo dy, Wo man 's Right : A So cial His t o ry o f Birt h
C o n t ro l in Ame rica (Middle s e x, En glan d: Pe n guin ,
1977), p. 70.
2. Gayle Rubin , "The Traffic In Wo me n ," in To ward an An -
t hro po lo gy o f Wo me n , e d. Rayn a (Rapp) Re it e r (New
Yo rk: Mo n t hly Re vie w Pre s s , 1975), pp. 163-64.
3. Laura Ore n , "The We lfare of Wo me n in Labo rin g Familie s :
En glan d, 1860-1950," in C lio 's C o n s cio us n e s s Rais e d:
Ne w Pe rs pe ct ive s o n the His t o ry o f Wo me n , e d. Mary
Hart man and Lo is W. Ban n e r (New Yo rk: Harpe r & Ro w,
1974), pp. 226-44; He idi Hart man n , "C apit alis m, Pat ri-
archy, and Jo b Se gre gat io n by Se x," in C apit alis t Pa-
t riarchy and the C as e fo r So cialis t Fe min is m, e d. Zil-
lah R. Eis e n s t e in (New Yo rk: Mo n t hly Re vie w Pre s s ,
1979), pp. 206-47; and Lo uis e A. Tilly and Jo an W.
Sco t t , Wo me n , Wo rk, and Family (Ne w Yo rk: Ho lt ,
Rin e hart & Win s t o n , 1978).
4. Tilly and Sco t t , Wo me n , Wo rk, and Family, p. 7.
5. Rayn a Rapp, "Family and C las s in C o n t e mpo ray Ame rica:
No t e s toward an Un de rs t an din g of Ide o lo gy," Scie n ce
and So cie t y 42 (1978):282.
6. We ll-kn o wn e xample s of this lit e rat ure in clude d Margare t
Be n s t o n , "The Po lit ical Eco n o my of Wo me n 's Libe ra-
t io n ," Mo n t hly Re vie w 21 (1969), re prin t e d in Fro m
Fe min is m to Libe rat io n , e d. Edit h Ho s hin o Alt bach
(C ambridge , Mas s .: Sche n kman , 1971), pp. 199-210;
Mariaro s a Dalla C o s t a, The Po we r of Wo me n and t he Sub-
ve rs io n o f the C o mmun it y (Bris t o l, En glan d: Fallin g
Wall Pre s s , 1979); Wally Se co mbe , "The Ho us e wife and
he r Labo ur un de r C apit alis m," Ne w Le ft Re vie w 83
(1974):3-24; Je an Gardin e r, "Wo me n 's Do me s t ic Labo ur,"
in C apit alis t Pat riarchy, e d. Eis e n s t e in , pp. 173-
89; and Is abe l Larguia and Jo hn Dumo ulin , "To wards a
Scie n ce of Wo me n 's Libe rat io n ," NAC LA Ne ws le t t e r 6
(1972):3-20.
7. See Shulamit h Fire s t o n e , The Diale ct ic o f Se x (Ne w
Yo rk: Ban t am, 1971), C h. 1; and Mary Daly, Gyn /
Eco lo gy: The Me t ae t hics o f Radical Fe min is m (Bo s -
t o n : Be aco n Pre s s , 1978), e s pe cially "Namin g the En -
e my," pp. 27-29.
8. Ro be rt C o le s and Jan e Hallo we ll C o le s , Wo me n of C ris is
(New Yo rk: De lt a, 1978), pp. 271-72.
9. See Ve ro n ica Be e che y, "On Pat riarchy," Fe min is t Re vie w
3 (1979):66-82.
10. Jackie We s t , "Wo me n , Se x, and C las s ," in Fe min is m and
Mat e rialis m, e d. An n e t t e Kuhn and An n Marie Wo lpe
(Lo n do n : Ro ut le dge & Ke gan Paul, 1978), pp. 223, 228.
See als o Elizabe t h Garn s e y, "Wo me n 's Wo rk and The o rie s
of C las s St rat ificat io n ," So cio lo gy 12 (1978):223-
43.
11. We s t , "Wo me n ," pp. 247-48.
12. C o le s and C o le s , Wo me n o f C ris is , pp. 234-35.
13. Rapp, "Family and C las s in C o n t e mpo rary Ame rica," p.
283.
14. Haro ld Be n e n s o n , "The The o ry of C las s and St ruct ural De -
ve lo pme n t s in Ame rican So cie t y: A St udy of Occupat io n -
al and Family C han ge , 1945-1970" (Ph.D. dis s ., Ne w
Yo rk Un ive rs it y, 1980), e s p. C h. 5. I am e n o rmo us ly
in de bt e d to Haro ld Be n e n s o n for man y of the ide as in
t his art icle as we ll as man y of the re fe re n ce s re gard-
ing a t he o ry of wo me n and clas s . Be n e n s o n 's wo rk is
the mo s t impo rt an t re ce n t co n t ribut io n to a Marxis t -
fe min is t t he o ry of clas s in the Un it e d St at e s . The
re ade r is re fe rre d to the co mple t e dis s e rt at io n and to
fo rt hco min g art icle s bas e d on it , for the full me as ure
of the po we r of this wo rk.
16. See U.S. De part me n t of C o mme rce , Bure au of the C e n s us ,
A St at is t ical Po rt rait o f Wo me n in the Un it e d St at e s :
1978, C urre n t Po pulat io n Re po rt s , Series P-23, n o .
100 (Was hin gt o n , D.C .: U.S. Go ve rn me n t Prin t in g Of-
fice , 1980), Table s 8-1 and 8-3; and Emma Ro t hs child,
"Re agan and the Re al Ame rica," Ne w Yo rk Re vie w o f
Bo o ks 8 (5 Fe bruary 1981):12-17.
17. Juan it a Kre ps and Ro be rt C lark, Se x, Age and Wo rk: The
C han gin g C o mpo s it io n o f the Labo r Fo rce (Balt imo re :
Jo hn s Ho pkin s Un ive rs it y, 1975), p. 3.
18. San dra L. Ho ffe rt h and Kris t in A. Mo o re , "Wo me n 's Emplo y-
me n t and Marriage ," in The Subt le Re vo lut io n : Wo me n
at Wo rk, e d. Ralph E. Smith (Was hin gt o n , D.C .: Urban
In s t it ut e , 1979), p. 115.
19. Kre ps and C lark, Se x, Age and Wo rk, pp. 57-58.
20. Lillian Bre s lo w Rubin , Wo rlds o f Pain /Life in the Wo rk-
in g C las s Family (Ne w Yo rk: Bas ic Bo o ks , 1976), p.
174.
21. Jan e t A. Ko he n , C aro l A. Bro wn , and Ro s alyn Fe ldbe rg,
"Divo rce d Mo t he rs : The C o s t s and Be n e fit s of Fe male
Family C o n t ro l," in Divo rce and Se parat io n , e d.
Ge o rge Le vin ge r and Olive r C . Mo le s (New Yo rk: Bas ic
Bo o ks , 1979), p. 234.
22. Be e che y, "On Pat riarchy," p. 79. On this same po in t ,
see Rubin , "The Traffic in Wo me n ," p. 167; Jo an Ke lly,
"The Do uble d Vis io n of Fe min is t The o ry," Fe min is t
St udie s 5 (1979):216-27; Zillah Eis e n s t e in , "De ve lo p-
ing a The o ry of C apit alis t Pat riarchy and So cialis t
Fe min is m," and "So me No t e s on the Re lat io n s of C apit al-
ist Pat riarchy," pp. 5-55, and Ro s alin d Pe t che s ky,
"Dis s o lvin g the Hyphe n : A Re po rt on Marxis t -Fe min is t
Gro ups 1-5," pp. 373-89 in C apit alis t Pat riarchy,
e d. Eis e n s t e in .
23. Ho ffe rt h and Mo o re , "Wo me n 's Emplo yme n t ," p. 129. The re
is an e n o rmo us de mo graphic lit e rat ure on the re lat io n -
ship be t we e n fe rt ilit y and wo me n 's labor fo rce part ici-
pat io n in the co n t e mpo rary Un it e d St at e s . Se e , fo r e x-
ample , the fo llo win g and t he ir biblio graphie s : Fran k
L. Mo t t and David Shapiro , "Pre gn an cy, Mo t he rho o d, and
Wo rk Act ivit y," in Wo me n , Wo rk and Family, e d. Fran k
L. Mo t t et al. (Le xin gt o n , Mas s .: Le xin gt o n Bo o ks ,
1978), pp. 29-53; H. The o do re Gro at , Ran dy L. Wo rkman ,
and Art hur G. Ne al, "Labo r Fo rce Part icipat io n and Fam-
ily Fo rmat io n : A Study, of Wo rkin g Mo t he rs ," De mo g-
raphy 13 (Fe bruary 1976): 115-25; Ro be rt H. We lle r,
"Wife 's Emplo yme n t and C umulat ive Family Size in the
Un it e d St at e s , 1970 and 1960," De mo graphy 14 (Fe bru-
ary 1977):43-65; and St an le y Kupin s ky, "The Fe rt ilit y
of Wo rkin g Wo me n in the Un it e d St at e s : His t o rical
Tre n ds and The o re t ical Pe rs pe ct ive s ," in Fe rt ilit y of
Wo rkin g Wo me n , e d. St an le y Kupin s ky (New Yo rk: Prae -
ge r, 1977), pp. 188-249.
25. Ibid., p. 48.
26. See Maurice J. Moore and Martin O'Connell, Perspectives
on American Fe r t i l i t y, Current Population Reports,
Series P-23, no. 70 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Depart-
ment of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1978), pp.
1-4; and Charles F. Westoff, "Some Speculations on the
Future of Marriage and Fe r t i l i t y, " Family Planning
Perspectives 10 (March-April 1978):79.
27. Twenty-two percent of women born in the 1880s remained
chi l dl ess through t hei r l i ves, whereas only 10 percent
of women born in the 1930s did so; among the cohorts
of women who are in t hei r childbearing years today,
the figure seems to have declined to around 5 percent.
See Hofferth and Moore, "Women's Employment," p. 126;
Mo o re and O'C o n n e ll, Pe rs pe ct ive s , Table s 1-4 and
1 6; and U.S. De part me n t of C o mme rce , Bure au of the
C e n s us , Fe rt ilit y o f Ame rican Wo me n : Jun e 1979, C ur-
rent Po pulat io n Re po rt s , Se rie s P-20, n o . 358 (Was hin g-
t o n , D.C .: U.S. Go ve rn me n t Prin t in g Office , 1980),
Table 9.
28. Ho ffe rt h and Mo o re , "Wo me n 's Emplo yme n t ," pp. 102-3; see
als o Je an n e Mage r St e llman , Wo me n 's Wo rk, Wo me n 's
He alt h (New Yo rk: Pan t he o n , 1977), pp. 21-24.
29. U.S. De part me n t of Labo r, Man po we r Admin is t rat io n ,
Ye ars fo r De cis io n : A Lo n git udin al St udy o f the
Labo r Marke t Expe rie n ce s o f Wo me n , vo l. 4 (Was hin g-
t o n , D.C : U.S. Go ve rn me n t Prin t in g Office , 1979), p.
100; and U.S. De part me n t of He alt h, Educat io n and We l-
fare , Nat io n al C e n t e r for He alt h St at is t ics , Pat t e rn s
of Emplo yme n t Be fo re and Aft e r C hildbirt h, DHEW Publi-
cat io n n o . (PHS) 80-1980 (Was hin gt o n , D.C : U.S. Go v-
e rn me n t Prin t in g Office , 1980).
30. U.S. De part me n t of C o mme rce , Bure au of the C e n s us ,
Ho us e ho ld and Family C haract e ris t ics : March 1980,
C urre n t Po pulat io n Re po rt s , Se rie s P-20, n o . 366 (Was h-
in gt o n , D.C : U.S. Go ve rn me n t Prin t in g Office , 1981).
31. Kris t in A. Mo o re and Lin da J. Wait e , "Early C hildbe arin g
and Educat io n al At t ain me n t ," Family Plan n in g Pe rs pe c-
t ive s 9 (Se pt e mbe r-Oct o be r 1977):222.
32. Be n e n s o n , "The o ry of C las s ," p. 166.
33. Ibid., p. 188; Mo o re and Wait e , "Early C hildbe arin g,"
pp. 223, 225.
34. A majo r e xce pt io n to this pat t e rn , ho we ve r, is yo un g
Black wo me n . Fo r t he m, in man y cas e s , e arly childbe ar-
ing do e s not s e e m to have the s ame damagin g e ffe ct s o n
later e ducat io n or wo rk be caus e of gre at e r s uppo rt for
t e e n age mo t he rs and t he ir babie s in Black familie s and
co mmun it ie s (Moore and Wait e , "Early C hildbe arin g," p.
224).
35. Be n e n s o n , "The o ry of C las s ," pp. 181-82.
36. Rubin , Wo rlds o f Pain , p. 81.
37. Be n e n s o n , "The o ry of C las s ," pp. 185-86.
38. Jo yce Ladn e r, To mo rro w's To mo rro w: The Black Wo man
(Garde n C it y, N.Y.: Do uble day, 1971), C h. 5.
39. Karl Marx, C apit al, vo l. 1 (New Yo rk: In t e rn at io n al
Publis he rs , 1967), pp. 640-45; and Harry Brave rman ,
Labo r and Mo n o po ly C apit al (Ne w Yo rk: Mo n t hly Re -
vie w, 1974), C h. 17.
40. "[Dat a co mparin g fe rt ilit y amo n g curre n t ly e mplo ye d and
n e ve r e mplo ye d wive s ] s ugge s t s that wive s ' re s po n s ibil-
ity for large r t han ave rage familie s , on the one
han d, and their e mplo yme n t , on the o t he r, re main
alt e rn at ive s for man y marrie d wo me n , rat he r than
co mfo rt ably in t e grat e d lo n g-t e rm act ivit ie s "
(Be n e n s o n , "The o ry of C las s ," pp. 173-74).
41. We s t o ff, "Fut ure of Marriage and Fe rt ilit y," p. 82.
42. See "Wo rke rs , Re pro duct ive Hazards , and the Po lit ics of
Pro t e ct io n ," Fe min is t St udie s 5 (Summe r 1979).
43. C o mmit t e e for Abo rt io n Right s and Again s t St e rilizat io n
Abus e , Wo me n un de r At t ack: Abo rt io n , St e rilizat io n
Abus e , and Re pro duct ive Fre e do m (New Yo rk: C ARASA,
1979).
44. See Ro s alin d Pe t che s ky, "An t iabo rt io n , An t ife min is m, and
the Ris e of the Ne w Right ," Fe min is t St udie s 7 (Sum-
me r 1981):206-46.
Total fertility rate
(per woman)
2.5
Number of births
(thousands)
4,000
2.0 - - 3,500
3,000
1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978
Year
FIGURE 1. Total Fertility Rate and Number of Live Births: 1970 to 1978
So urce : U.S. De part me n t of He alt h, Educat io n and We lfare ,
Nat io n al C e n t e r for He alt h St at is t ics , Mo n t hly Vit al St at is -
t ics Re po rt , vo l. 27, n o . 11 (Fe bruary 1979 s upple me n t ).
Dat a for 1978 are pro vis io n al e s t imat e s .
LOURDES BENERIA and GITA SEN
Women's Role in Economic Development:
Practical and Theoretical Implications of
Class and Gender Inequalities (1980)
The de cade of the 1970s was un ique in the e me rge n ce of fe min -
ist issues at the fo re fro n t of s o cial co n s cio us n e s s , t he o re t -
ical co n ce pt ualizat io n , and po lit ical act io n in the advan ce d
capit alis t co un t rie s . Simult an e o us ly, and e s pe cially s in ce
the Un it e d Nat io n s In t e rn at io n al Wo me n 's Ye ar co n fe re n ce in
Me xico C it y in 1975, t he re has be e n a gro win g co n ce rn in
some circle s de alin g wit h de ve lo pme n t is s ue s abo ut the pro b-
lems faced by Third Wo rld wo me n . This co n ce rn can be found
wit hin the Un it e d Nat io n s and in pract ically all the large
in t e rn at io n al in s t it ut io n s (such as the In t e rn at io n al Labo r
Organ izat io n and the Wo rld Ban k) as we ll as wit hin go ve rn -
me n t al aid-givin g age n cie s of the in dus t rialize d co un t rie s ;
the U.S. Age n cy for In t e rn at io n al De ve lo pme n t is a case in
po in t .
Ho we ve r, alt ho ugh ge n e ral co n s cio us n e s s of the s pe cific ac-
t ivit ie s and pro ble ms of wo me n in de ve lo pme n t has ce rt ain ly
in cre as e d, a fe min is t age n da has o ft e n be e n only s upe rficial-
ly added to e co n o mic de ve lo pme n t pro je ct s . In t his art icle ,
we will argue that an e xamin at io n of the in t e ract io n of
clas s and ge n de r fo rmat io n and ge n de r re lat io n s is n e ce s s ary
to an un de rs t an din g of the po s s ibilit ie s and limits of prac-
t ical act io n s un de rt ake n (by wo me n t he ms e lve s or by go ve rn -
me n t al and o t he r in s t it ut io n s ) to impro ve the co n dit io n s in
which Third Wo rld wo me n live .
Two impo rt an t pillars for buildin g such an e xamin at io n are
the co n ce pt s of capit al accumulat io n and re pro duct io n (1).
An an alys is of Third Wo rld wo me n 's pro ble ms that is bas e d on
t he s e co n ce pt s is in co n t ras t wit h t radit io n al mo de rn izat io n
t he o ry. We will argue , firs t , that the s t an dard de ve lo p-
me n t alis t in t e re s t in the pro ble ms of Third Wo rld wo me n (as
o ft e n e xpre s s e d by the in t e rn at io n al age n cie s , fo r e xample )
is primarily mo t ivat e d by a pe rce pt io n that wo me n are in s t ru-
me n t al to pro grams of po pulat io n co n t ro l, in cre as e d food pro -
duct io n , and the pro vis io n of o t he r bas ic n e e ds . The re is
little co n ce rn , at the o fficial le ve l, wit h the s ubo rdin a-
tion of wo me n or wit h the impact of clas s pro ce s s e s o n this
s ubo rdin at io n . Se co n d, while the an alys is of an e co n o mis t
like Es t e r Bo s e rup (2) is mo t ivat e d by co n ce rn for the pro b-
lems faced by wo me n , it s uffe rs from a co n ce pt ual e cle ct i-
cis m that ge n e rat e s po licy pre s cript io n s in dis t in guis hable
from t ho s e of the de ve lo pme n t age n cie s n o t e d abo ve . In par-
t icular, we argue that a co n ce rn for wo me n , un in fo rme d by an
un de rs t an din g of accumulat io n and re pro duct io n , bias e s and
limit s bo t h the an alys is and the po licie s . Third, a clas s
an alys is that ign o re s ge n de r re lat io n s is als o in ade quat e as
it leads to po licie s in s e n s it ive to the s pe cific caus e s of
wo me n 's s ubo rdin at io n . Thus , s o cialis t de ve lo pme n t pro grams
at t e mpt in g to radically t ran s fo rm the clas s bas is of s o cie t y
are o ft e n o blivio us to the impact of re pro duct io n on ge n de r-
bas e d do min at io n . Fro m a fe min is t pe rs pe ct ive , only an
an alys is that in t e grat e s accumulat io n and re pro duct io n can
ge n e rat e pract ical act io n fully ade quat e to the pro ble ms of
wo me n in the Third Wo rld.
Class Analysis and Women
In a s pe e ch give n be fo re the Ame rican As s o ciat io n of Un ive r-
sity Wo me n in 1978, Jo hn Gilligan , the admin is t rat o r of
USAID, s t re s s e d the e ducat io n of Third Wo rld wo me n as the
ke y to re duce d po pulat io n gro wt h rat e s and in cre as e d food
pro duct io n in the Third Wo rld (3). Such a re co gn it io n of
the impo rt an ce of wo me n in Third Wo rld agricult ure , e s pe cial-
ly in food pro duct io n , n o w un de rpin s the in t e rn at io n al age n -
cie s ' po licie s s ummarize d, for e xample , in dis cus s io n s
aro un d the bas ic n e e ds s t rat e gy and the Ne w In t e rn at io n al
Eco n o mic Orde r. The bas ic n e e ds s t rat e gy (4) e vo lve d in the
1970s in re s po n s e to the pe rce ive d in abilit y of two de cade s
of de ve lo pme n t al e ffo rt s to re duce the pre s s ure s o f gro win g
un e mplo yme n t and un de re mplo yme n t , in ade quat e food s upplie s ,
and gro win g abs o lut e po ve rt y amo n g the bro ad mas s e s of Third
Wo rld pe o ple .
As e n un ciat e d by the ILO in 1976, this s t rat e gy gave ce n -
t ral at t e n t io n to alle viat in g the pro ble ms of po ve rt y and un -
e mplo yme n t and to me e t in g "t he min imum s t an dard of living
which a s o cie t y s ho uld set for the po o re s t gro ups of its pe o -
ple ." Thus bas ic n e e ds we re de fin e d as
the min imum re quire me n t s of a family for pe rs o n al co n -
s umpt io n : fo o d, s he lt e r, clo t hin g; it implie s acce s s to
e s s e n t ial s e rvice s , such as safe drin kin g wat e r, s an it a-
t io n , t ran s po rt , he alt h and e ducat io n ; it implie s that
e ach pe rs o n available for and willin g to wo rk s ho uld
have an ade quat e ly re mun e rat e d jo b; it s ho uld furt he r im-
Wo me n 's Role in Eco n o mic Development 245
ply the s at is fact io n of n e e ds of a mo re qualit at ive n a-
t ure : a he alt hy, human e and s at is fyin g e n viro n me n t , and
po pular part icipat io n in the makin g of de cis io n s that af-
fect the lives and live liho o d of the pe o ple , and in divid-
ual fre e do ms . (5)
The ILO s t rat e gy re pre s e n t s the we ake n in g of the be lie f
that in dus t rializat io n s che me s bas e d on fo re ign aid and pri-
vat e capit al, and a Gre e n Re vo lut io n in agricult ure , wo uld
t rickle do wn to the mas s e s t hro ugh in cre as e d e mplo yme n t ,
t he re by le adin g to impro ve d living co n dit io n s . What is not
cle ar fro m the o rigin al fo rmulat io n o f the s t rat e gy is ho w
t he s e o bje ct ive s wo uld be me t ; the po lit ical s ign ifican ce of
this appro ach ran ge s from in t e rpre t at io n s that call for
bas ic s t ruct ural chan ge s , such as land re fo rm and me as ure s
ge are d to re dis t ribut io n of re s o urce s , to me re lip s e rvice
to bas ic n e e ds wit hin the limits of pre s e n t po lit ical and
e co n o mic s t ruct ure s .
The de ve lo pme n t alis t in t e re s t in Third Wo rld wo me n is de -
rived from this s t rat e gy rat he r than fro m an y in he re n t fe min -
ist co n ce rn wit h ge n de r-bas e d in e quit ie s . This is appare n t
in the n arro wn e s s of a fo cus that s t re s s e s the need to make
Third Wo rld wo me n mo re e fficie n t as food pro duce rs , wat e r
carrie rs , co o ks and n ut rit io n is t s , and childbe are rs , but
that n e it he r que s t io n s the e xis t in g s e xual divis io n of labor
n o r calls for its e limin at io n . In de e d, the age n cie s ' e mpha-
sis on po o r wo me n may be seen as a large ly in s t rume n t alis t
one pre mis e d o n the e xis t in g s e xual divis io n o f labo r.
Its go al is not n e ce s s arily the e limin at io n of wo me n 's s ub-
o rdin at io n (6).
An an alys is that is s o me what mo re at t un e d to the un e ve n
ge n de r e ffe ct s of e co n o mic de ve lo pme n t is that of Es t e r Bo s e -
rup, who s e pio n e e rin g role it was to argue that de ve lo pme n t -
al pro ce s s e s have s ys t e mat ically margin alize d wo me n (7). We
have argue d e ls e whe re that de s pit e the man y po s it ive co n t ri-
but io n s of he r bo o k, the abs e n ce of a co he re n t t he o re t ical
frame wo rk limits Bo s e rup's an alys is (8). Furt he r, we s e ri-
o us ly que s t io n he r us e of an e co n o mic varian t of mo de rn iza-
t io n t he o ry that implicit ly acce pt s the dyn amics of capit al
accumulat io n and the marke t , and in which impro ve d t e ch-
n ique s of pro duct io n are pe rce ive d to be the main in s t ru-
me n t s of e co n o mic de ve lo pme n t . This pro ce s s is vie we d as an
in he re n t ly be n e ficial o n e , who s e s o cial co rre lat e is a gro w-
ing e n t re pre n e urial s pirit and achie ve me n t o rie n t at io n amo n g
the pe o ple .
Such an appro ach ign o re s the clas s pro ce s s e s of chan gin g
s o cial re lat io n s of pro duct io n and o wn e rs hip of the me an s of
pro duct io n wit hin which t e chn ical chan ge s are e mbe dde d. C ap-
it al accumulat io n is a s o cial pro ce s s in vo lvin g, on the
one han d, the in cre as in g s e parat io n of dire ct pro duce rs from
the me an s of pro duct io n and s ubs is t e n ce . It in vo lve s als o
the e n t ry of co mme rcial capit al at vario us le ve ls in the pro -
duct io n s t ruct ure , the gro win g re lian ce by large mas s e s of
the po pulat io n on the sale of their labor po we r and on pe t t y
co mmo dit y pro duct io n for t he ir o n go in g s urvival, in cre as e d
migrat io n , and the gro wt h of a large re s e rve army of un e m-
plo ye d pe o ple s we llin g the urban s lums . On the o t he r han d,
t his pro ce s s als o in clude s a gro win g co n ce n t rat io n of mo n e y
we alt h, the gro wt h of e n clave s of e xt ract ive in dus t ry and
mo n o cro p agricult ure , and some de gre e of in dus t rializat io n
do min at e d by mult in at io n al capit al.
The s e pro ce s s e s have be e n the be dro ck of s o cio e co n o mic
chan ge in the Third Wo rld, e s pe cially in the t we n t ie t h ce n t u-
ry, wit h in he re n t ly co n t radict o ry t e n de n cie s ; in cre as e d co m-
me rcializat io n leads to gro win g we alt h for s mall n umbe rs of
pe o ple o ft e n co uple d wit h gro win g impo ve ris hme n t and un e m-
plo yme n t for a large pro po rt io n of the po pulat io n . Bo s e -
rup' s in ade quat e re co gn it io n of the hie rarchical n at ure of
t he s e pro ce s s e s leads he r to fals e as s umpt io n s . Fo r e xam-
ple , she vie ws the co lo n ial impo s it io n of cas h cro ppin g in
Africa as aut o mat ically be n e ficial e xce pt for the co n s e que n t
de clin e in the s t at us of wo me n agricult uralis t s . This vie w
ign o re s the his t o ry of in dige n o us re s is t an ce to forced cult i-
vat io n by bo t h wo me n and me n and the co ro llary chan ge s in
lan dho ldin g pat t e rn s , clas s diffe re n t iat io n , and e xplo it a-
t io n by co mme rcial capit al (9).
Alt e rn at ive pe rce pt io n s (Bo s e rup's and o urs ) o f the act ual
charact e r of e co n o mic chan ge in the Third Wo rld lead to o p-
po s in g vie ws of ho w that chan ge affe ct s wo me n . In Bo s e rup's
an alys is , pat riarchal at t it ude s , whe n s upe rimpo s e d on a be n e -
ficial pro ce s s , caus e s t ho s e be n e fit s to be dis t ribut e d dif-
fe re n t ially be t we e n me n and wo me n . This wo rs e n s wo me n 's
e co n o mic po s it io n re lat ive to me n . Ho we ve r, it fo llo ws from
t his an alys is that the chie f barrie rs to po licie s de s ign e d
to impro ve wo me n 's e co n o mic po s it io n are the po licy make rs '
o wn blin dn e s s to wo me n 's wo rk and t he ir in abilit y to alt e r
e s t ablis he d cult ural pat t e rn s . This co n clus io n and its po li-
cy co rre lat e of "in t e grat in g" wo me n into the de ve lo pme n t pro -
ce s s t hro ugh e ducat io n me s he s ve ry we ll wit h the pro grammat -
ic s t rat e gy of the in t e rn at io n al age n cie s . Thus , alt ho ugh
Bo s e rup is mo re s e n s it ive to the pro ble ms of wo me n pe r s e ,
he r t he o re t ical pe rs pe ct ive le ads he r to po licy co n clus io n s
that are ide n t ical to t ho s e of the in t e rn at io n al age n cie s .
In o ur an alys is , on the o t he r han d, the pro ble ms of Third
Wo rld wo me n do n o t aris e fro m a lack o f in t e grat io n into the
de ve lo pme n t pro ce s s . On the co n t rary, the mas s e s of Third
Wo me n 's Role in Eco n o mic De ve lo pme n t 247
Wo rld wo me n are in de e d in t e grat e d in t o that pro ce s s , but at
the bo t t o m of an in he re n t ly hie rarchical and co n t radict o ry
s t ruct ure of pro duct io n and accumulat io n .
Un de rs t an din g the impact of this pro ce s s on wo me n re quire s
a co he re n t an alys is of the in t e rco n n e ct io n s be t we e n capit al
accumulat io n , clas s fo rmat io n , and ge n de r re lat io n s . The
fo llo win g e xample s illus t rat e some of these co n n e ct io n s .
Firs t , as land and co mmo n s o urce s of wat e r, fue l, and food
are lost to po o re r pe as an t s and lan dle s s labo re rs , wo me n 's
wo rk load in s e archin g for fue l, carryin g wat e r, and pro ce s s -
ing food may be in t e n s ifie d. This is o ft e n e xace rbat e d by
chan ge s in the s e xual divis io n of labor as me n are forced in -
to cas h-e arn in g act ivit ie s and migrat io n , as has happe n e d in
man y part s of s ub-Saharan Africa (10). Se co n d, wit h the e n -
try of co mme rcial capit al, wo me n , as art is an pro duce rs , may
lose co n t ro l o ve r e co n o mic re s o urce s , but may be in t e grat e d
as t e mpo rary and s e as o n al labo re rs at the bo t t o m of the la-
bo r hie rarchy be caus e of t he ir primary re s po n s ibilit y for
the re pro duct ive t as ks of child re arin g and do me s t ic wo rk.
Such a pro ce s s has be e n de t aile d in Yo un g's an alys is of Oaxa-
ca, Me xico (11). Third, alt ho ugh t radit io n al pat riarchal re -
lat io n s may be we ake n e d as s e rvile re lat io n s give way to cap-
it alis t re lat io n s of pro duct io n bas e d on wage labo r, wo me n
may be co me in cre as in gly de pe n de n t on male wage e arn e rs .
This has be e n do cume n t e d for the C ajamarca re gio n of the
Pe ruvian s ie rra by De e re (12). Fo urt h, n e w fo rms of capit al-
ist pat riarchy may e me rge whe re yo un g wo me n are drawn in as
migran t fact o ry wo rke rs in the e le ct ro n ics and t e xt ile in dus -
t rie s in So ut he as t As ia (13).
The s e e xample s illus t rat e the s pe cific ways in which wo me n
are affe ct e d by the hie rarchical and e xplo it at ive s t ruct ure
of pro duct io n as s o ciat e d wit h the pe n e t rat io n of capit alis m
in the Third Wo rld. It is not a n e ut ral pro ce s s of mo de rn i-
zat io n but one that is shaped by the fo rce s of accumulat io n .
C o n t rary to what Bo s e rup implie s , the pro ble m for wo me n is
not jus t a lack of part icipat io n in this pro ce s s as e qual
part n e rs wit h me n . In a s ys t e m that make s use of e xis t in g
ge n de r hie rarchie s so as to ge n e rat e and in t e n s ify in e quali-
t ie s , wo me n tend to be place d in s ubo rdin at e po s it io n s at
the diffe re n t le ve ls of in t e ract io n be t we e n clas s and ge n -
de r. Fo r the po o re r wo me n , the implicat io n is , amo n g o t he r
t hin gs , o ve rwo rk and un de rn o uris hme n t e ve n re lat ive to the
e xplo it e d me n o f t he ir clas s . Fo r highe r clas s e s and s t rat a
of wo me n , co n ce n t rat io n on re pro duct ive wo rk ge n e rally me an s
gre at e r e co n o mic de pe n de n ce on me n .
Two implicat io n s co n ce rn in g diffe re n ce amo n g wo me n fo llo w
fro m o ur dis cus s io n . Firs t , a wo man 's clas s po s it io n s t ruc-
t ure s the co n cre t e me an in g of ge n de r for he r. The varia-
t io n s that e xis t be t we e n wo me n of diffe re n t clas s e s are at
least as impo rt an t for t he ir s o cial po s it io n as the co mmo n -
alit ie s in he re n t in be in g a wo man wit hin a give n s o cie t y.
Se co n d, clas s de fin e s the re lat io n s amo n g wo me n t he ms e lve s .
That is , clas s is not s imply a diffe re n t iat in g me chan is m
that place s wo me n in varyin g s o cial bo xe s . It is an an t ago n -
istic s o cial re lat io n which de fin e s , for e xample , the o ppre s -
sive re lat io n s be t we e n wo me n do me s t ic s e rvan t s and their
mis t re s s e s . It is als o an t ago n is t ic in bro ade r t e rms , go in g
be yo n d the dire ct and o ppre s s ive re lat io n of do me s t ic s e rvi-
t ude . Fo r e xample , wo me n of diffe re n t clas s e s o ft e n have
o ppo s in g in t e re s t s in s o cial o rgan izat io n s and pro grams for
s o cial chan ge . The s e two po in t s are furt he r illus t rat e d
be lo w.
Class and Women's Organizations
The diffe re n t ial impact of capit al accumulat io n de s cribe d
abo ve leads to dive rge n t clas s in t e re s t s amo n g wo me n . In
C hile , for e xample , durin g the t hre e ye ars of the Un idad Po -
pular go ve rn me n t un de r Alle n de in 1970-73, wo me n we re mo bil-
ized in an o rgan izat io n calle d El Po de r Fe min in o (Fe min in e
Po we r) wit h the e xplicit purpo s e of o ve rt hro win g the e le ct e d
go ve rn me n t (14). Wit h in cre as in g milit an cy, o rgan izat io n ,
and publicit y in the mo n t hs be fo re the armed fo rce s ' co up,
El Po de r Fe min in o (EPF) o rgan ize d po t s -an d-pan s de mo n s t ra-
t io n s again s t s ho rt age s of co n s ume r go o ds , at t acke d alle ge d
co mmun is t co n s piracie s to de s t ro y the family and re ligio n ,
and o pe n ly in s t igat e d the army's re be llio n by ridiculin g the
s o ldie rs ' mas culin it y. Who we re these wo me n and what did
EPF re pre s e n t as an o rgan izat io n ?
By and large , the le ade rs hip of EPF co n s is t e d of the wive s
and daught e rs of the C hile an bo urge o is ie , of pro fe s s io n als
such as do ct o rs and lawye rs , and s o me of the pe t t y bo urge o is
s e ct o rs such as in de pe n de n t t rucke rs , cab o wn e rs and s ho p-
ke e pe rs . Alt ho ugh t he re we re un do ubt e dly acut e s ho rt age s in
some co n s ume r it e ms , these we re main ly due to an e co n o mic
cris is e n gin e e re d by s an ct io n s impo s e d by the In t e rn at io n al
Mo n e t ary Fund (IMF) again s t cre dit to C hile and the e co n o mic
and po lit ical pre s s ure s from the U.S. go ve rn me n t and mult i-
n at io n al in t e re s t s (15). In addit io n , ho ardin g and black
marke t e e rin g by pre cis e ly t ho s e who s e wive s we re in EPF' s
le ade rs hip co n t ribut e d in no s mall me as ure to the cris is .
Furt he r, the co n s umpt io n s t an dards of large s e ct io n s of the
wo rkin g clas s in crucial it e ms such as milk had act ually im-
pro ve d wit h be t t e r dis t ribut io n un de r Un idad Po pular. The
rulin g-clas s bias of the "e mpt y po t s " de mo n s t rat io n s was
Women's Role in Economic Development 249
clear despite the fact that domestic servants were often
brought to them to "prove" the mass following of EPF.
Overall, the act i vi t i es and organization of a group like
EPF during a crucial period in the Chilean class struggle
points to the importance of understanding the class basis of
women's organizations. All Third World women do not have
similar material i nt erest s. Yet it is important to di st i n-
guish between the material interests of women and the part i c-
ular ways in which those interests are recruited by class or-
ganizations. Despite conflicting class i nt erest s, it was
possible for EPF to use the traditional woman's role in
domestic work and her responsibilities for household consump-
tion to recruit a large number of middle-class and poor
women. This use of the ideology of domesticity was particu-
larly ironic since the upper-class leadership of EPF was
responsible for household management but not for the work
i t sel f, which was done for them by domestic servants. It
was not, therefore, a common female role in domestic work
that gave EPF i t s strength. Rather, EPF's strength was a
direct corollary of the failure of Left organizations to
recognize women's specific problems and capabilities and to
organize around them.
Our second example shows that when mass organizations do
draw upon poor women, they can become powerful instruments
for addressing the joint problems posed by gender and cl ass.
This example is drawn from Western India, where, in the
1970s, there was a growing militancy among the poorest women
on a variety of fronts (16). During the acute drought and
famine of 1970-73, poor peasant and laborer women were at
the forefront of many demonstrations against corrupt offi-
ci al s, meager and unequal wages, and the back-breaking labor
of government "relief" programs of stonecutting and road
building. "The reason (for the women's militancy) was not
hard to seek: i t was the women who directly faced the prob-
lems of expense and often unavailability of food as the man-
agers of consumption as well as the backbreaking work on the
projects" (17). In ci t i es like Bombay, the United Women's
Anti-Price Rise Front organized pots-and-pans marches
against corrupt government ministers and local capi t al i st s.
Although similar in form to the actions of EPF in Chile, the
class basis of these demonstrations was of poor and working-
class women agitating against the ruling classes.
None of these organizations were feminist as such. Rath-
er, they were preraoveraents, as Omvedt calls them, which in-
creased the interest of poor women in issues related to the
liberation of women. The two examples i l l ust rat e the com-
plexity of the relationship between material interest and po-
l i t i cal organization. What is clear is that the economic
concerns and pressures affecting poor women can be exploited
by either side of the political spectrum. If the Left does
not reshape i t s analysis to reflect those concerns and make
them central to i t s organization, i t leaves room for the
Right to do so.
The modernization approach to women i s , however, a far cry
from these real i t i es of class and gender. Its neglect of
the class correlates of socioeconomic changes affecting wom-
en leads to solutions that are simplistic at best. For exam-
ple, Boserup's and the international agencies' emphasis on
educating women, although important, provides an incomplete
and individualistic solution to social problems of class ex-
ploitation and gender subordination while leaving the social
problems themselves untouched.
Reproduction and Feminist Analysis
In this section we argue that an analysis of women's role in
the development process also requires a full understanding
of their role in reproduction and of i t s consequences for
women's involvement in all aspects of economic l i fe. The em-
phasis on reproduction and the ideological aspects of gender
is in fact a major contribution of the present feminist move-
ment. It has developed in a number of directions including
the analysis of sexuality and reproductive freedom, gender
formation, domestic labor, and the sexual division of labor.
In doing so, i t has made the analysis of the relationships
of dominance/subordination between the sexes in the house-
hold a focal point. It has also posed an important chal-
lenge to those approaches to the so-called woman question
that view the solution to women's oppression as lying in the
sphere of economic and social relations outside the house-
hold. The location of the roots of women's oppression in
the domestic sphere adds a new dimension to traditional anal-
ysesincluding the Marxistthat had neglected this aspect
of human interaction. The following discussion on domestic
work and population policies i l l ust rat es this point.
Domestic work is overwhelmingly performed by women across
countries. This is so despite the fact that a clear di st i nc-
tion can be made between biological reproduction and daily
family maintenance, and between childbearing and child rear-
ing. Family maintenance and child rearing are socially as-
signed; they are not biologically determined tasks. Yet bio-
logical reproduction and the controls exercised over women's
sexuality and reproduction activities in most societies have
resulted in the reduction of women's mobility and in their
concentration in the household as the primary area of their
act ivit y. C o n s e que n t ly, it is als o in the ho us e ho ld that
ge n de r cat e go rie s and po we r re lat io n s are fo rme d. The s e
po we r re lat io n s as we ll as a divis io n of labor that at t ache s
de e ply in grain e d, e ve n if s o cially de t e rmin e d, ro le s to each
sex are pro je ct e d o n t o s o cial re lat io n s o ut s ide the ho us e -
ho ld (18).
The s ign ifican ce of this argume n t is that wo me n 's ro le and
lo cat io n in the de ve lo pme n t pro ce s s is co n dit io n e d by t he ir
role in the re pro duct ive s phe re and its implicat io n s for the
co n s t ruct io n of ge n de r. Wo me n pe rfo rm the gre at bulk o f re -
pro duct ive t as ks ; to the e xt e n t that they are als o e n gage d
in pro duct io n o ut s ide the ho us e ho ld, they are burde n e d wit h
the do uble day. Eve n do me s t ic wo rk it s e lf re quire s long
ho urs of wo rk and phys ically de man din g cho re s . An y at t e mpt
to de al wit h wo me n 's s ubo rdin at e and margin al role in e co n o m-
ic de ve lo pme n t mus t co n fro n t this que s t io n . This re quire s a
de cis ive e ffo rt not o n ly to put an end to the ide o lo gical
and s t at is t ical un de re s t imat io n of wo me n 's wo rk, but als o to
de al wit h all the implicat io n s that the do uble day has for
wo me n .
We n o w turn to a s e co n d as pe ct of re pro duct io n po pulat io n
po licie s and re pro duct ive fre e do man d the abilit y of wo me n
to co n t ro l t he ir o wn fe rt ilit y and its co n s e que n ce s . Most
of the available lit e rat ure on this s ubje ct has not de alt
wit h the po s s ible co n t radict io n s be t we e n clas s and ge n de r.
In the Third Wo rld, t his lit e rat ure has focused on the is s ue
o f po pulat io n co n t ro l; alt ho ugh s o me aut ho r? have po in t e d
out the clas s co n t radict io n s of such po licie s , ve ry little
has be e n said from a fe min is t pe rs pe ct ive (19).
Fo r e xample , Mamdan i and o t he rs have argue d that birt h co n -
trol po licie s are met wit h re s is t an ce in rural are as of
In dia for sound e co n o mic re as o n s : childre n pro vide a crit i-
cal s o urce of labor to po o r pe as an t s s t rugglin g to s ubs is t
and ho ld on to land in the face o f gro win g co mme rcializat io n
of agricult ure , co n ce n t rat io n of lan d, and mas s impo ve ris h-
me n t . Thus the us e s of childre n 's labor bo t h on pe as an t
farms and for wage s can e xplain pro n at alis t t e n de n cie s . In -
de e d, de cis io n s abo ut childbe arin g may affe ct the ho us e -
ho ld's capacit y to s urvive and re pro duce it s e lf.
Alt ho ugh t he s e de cis io n s affe ct all family me mbe rs , wo me n
are affe ct e d in a s pe cific way s in ce they carry the he avi-
e s t burde n s o f childbe arin g and child re arin g. Mult iple
pre gn an cie s affe ct the mo t he r's he alt h, wo rk, and we ll-
be in g as we ll as he r capacit y to part icipat e in act ivi-
ties o ut s ide the ho us e ho ld. The po o r pe as an t ho us e ho ld may
s urvive at the e xpe n s e of the co n t in uo us pre gn an cy and ill-
he alt h of the mo t he r, which are e xace rbat e d by high rat e s
of infant and child mo rt alit y. Thus the mo t he r's clas s
in t e re s t s and he r ro le as a wo man co me in t o s e ve re co n flict .
Fo r po licy make rs , t his implie s that a cle ar-cut dis t in c-
t io n n e e ds to be made be t we e n the s ign ifican ce of po pulat io n
po licie s from the po in t of vie w of ge n e ral de ve lo pme n t is -
s ue s , such as e mplo yme n t o ppo rt un it ie s or labor fo rce plan -
n in g, and que s t io n s of clas s in t e re s t s and wo me n 's we lfare .
As Palme r has po in t e d o ut , "t he be s t s t rat e gy for po pulat io n
co n t ro l re main s the advan ce me n t of the s t at us of wo me n so
that they can make truly free cho ice s " (20).
Yet the co mple xit y o f t his s t rat e gy s ho uld be o bvio us , giv-
en that the advan ce me n t of wo me n has bo t h a ge n de r and a
clas s dime n s io n . Wo me n from po o r pe as an t ho us e ho lds will
be n e fit from pro grams that impro ve their he alt h and that of
t he ir childre n . They will als o be n e fit fro m e ducat io n al pro -
grams that in cre as e t he ir co n t ro l o ve r t he ir e n viro n me n t and
their bo die s . To the e xt e n t that wo me n be ar the gre at e s t
burde n of re pro duct io n , po licie s co n ce rn in g is s ue s such as
co n t race pt io n , limit at io n of family s ize , and pro vis io n of
day care facilit ie s have a s pe cial s ign ifican ce for t he m.
Yet this wo uld only de al wit h o n e side of the pro ble m. The
o t he r side re quire s the re duct io n of bas ic in e qualit ie s and
po ve rt y, that is , the t acklin g of clas s co n t radict io n s . Fo r
wo me n , bo t h dime n s io n s are so t ight ly in t e grat e d that a fe m-
inist pe rs pe ct ive can n o t ign o re e it he r. In fact , ign o rin g
one of t he m dis t o rt s the re s ult s of act io n s aimed at the
o t he r.
Rep roduction and Dev elop ment Strategies
The implicat io n s of the fe min is t e mphas is on re pro duct io n
and ge n de r fo rmat io n are far-re achin g. Fo r e xample , the
o ft -re pe at e d de ve lo pme n t alis t go al of makin g wo me n "e qual
part n e rs wit h me n " in the de ve lo pme n t pro ce s s is un like ly to
be re ache d un le s s po licie s addre s s wo me n 's part icipat io n in
bo t h the pro duct ive and re pro duct ive s phe re s t o ge t he r wit h
the ide o lo gical as pe ct s o f ge n de r in e qualit ie s . In this s e c-
t io n , we wan t to illus t rat e t his po in t by co n s ide rin g t hre e
e xample s fro m the de ve lo pme n t lit e rat ure that s pe ak to the
need to un de rs t an d the in t e ract io n be t we e n pro duct io n and re -
pro duct io n .
Our first e xample de als wit h the s ign ifican ce of the bas ic
n e e ds appro ach to de ve lo pme n t fo r wo me n . The ILO's in it ial
s t at e me n t of the prin ciple s and pro gram of this s t rat e gy
re co mme n de d a fo cus on in cre as in g the in co me s of the po o r
t hro ugh the ge n e rat io n of s e lf-re lian t pro duct ive e mplo y-
me n t . The ILO s t at e me n t made s pe cific me n t io n of wo me n in
this co n t e xt . Wo me n 's co n t ribut io n to the s at is fact io n of
basic needs through household and subsistence production was
recognized, and two aspects of a basic needs strategy for
women were underlined:
One is to enable them to contribute more effectively to
the satisfaction of their families' basic needs, within
the framework of their traditional responsibilities.
The other, which is a fundamental need for women them-
selves, is to ease their work burden while furthering
their economic independence and their more equitable in-
tegration into the community, beyond the narrow circle
of the family. (21)
As mentioned earl i er, the framework of this strategy, al -
though important in i t s recognition of women's economic
role, is limited in that it does not question women's "t radi -
tional responsi bi l i t i es." The objective of a "more equit-
able integration of women into the community" is expected to
be achieved by relieving the drudgery of housework, that i s ,
by an increase in household productivity. This suggests a
picture of women's work in more developed countries where
housework is less time consuming and physically demanding;
however it does not necessarily undermine patriarchal rel a-
tions and the sexual division of labor.
Higher productivity in the household and greater participa-
tion of women outside the "narrow circle of the family" can
take place without dramatically altering the framework of
subordination. Instead the result is usually women's double
responsibility for domestic and nondomestic work. In the
Third World, middle- and upper-class women deal with this
problem by hiring maids to relieve them from domestic work.
For example, in Latin America, domestic service accounts for
the highest proportion of female employment in the urban'
areas. Domestic service in this case reduces gender ten-
sions among the upper classes, at the expense of the double
oppression of the domestic servants.
Although it is possible to argue that the basic needs ap-
proach is an important step toward recognizing women's econ-
omic role, it should be viewed only as a beginning. Since
i t s goals are stated at a fairly general level, their specif-
ic implementation by countries could presumably incorporate
more radical concerns dealing with the roots of women's sub-
ordination.
Our second example is drawn from an i ni t i al evaluation of
the Ethiopian land reform. The Land Reform Proclamation of
March 1975 "brought about significant pol i t i cal , legal and
economic changes" (22). It abolished private ownership of
land, assured peasants' use rights over land worked by them-
s e lve s , and re dis t ribut e d land while un de rcut t in g old in e qui-
ties in land o wn e rs hip. Ne w pe as an t o rgan izat io n s we re cre -
at e d to o ve rs e e t he s e chan ge s and to in cre as e pe as an t s ' po -
lit ical po we r.
Fro m the po in t of vie w of wo me n , the pro clamat io n 's o bje c-
t ive s we re e s s e n t ially e galit arian . Land was to be allo cat -
ed "wit ho ut diffe re n t iat io n of the s e xe s " (23). Ye t , as
Tade s s e has po in t e d o ut , it is "in t e rn ally co n t radict o ry
whe n co un t e rpo s e d to the Et hio pian family s t ruct ure " (24).
Un de r the pro clamat io n , land has be e n allo cat e d to a "farm-
ing family" who s e he ad, in acco rdan ce wit h the co n s t it ut io n ,
is aut o mat ically as s ume d to be the man . The re fo re , land is
e s s e n t ially dis t ribut e d and allo cat e d to me n while wo me n
re ce ive it in dire ct ly and in a re lat io n s hip of de pe n de n cy to
the he ad of the family. In addit io n , the pro clamat io n is
1
bas e d on the as s umpt io n of mo n o gamo us familie s ; as a re s ult ,
the land re fo rm has cre at e d pro ble ms in po lygamo us are as
whe re me n have re gis t e re d one wife while "le avin g the o t he rs
wit ho ut acce s s to land and o t he r re s o urce s " (25). C o n s e -
que n t ly, de s pit e its e galit arian o bje ct ive s , the land re fo rm
is likely to pe rpe t uat e wo me n 's de pe n de n t co n dit io n and po w-
er le s s n e s s . To be s ure , they are likely to s hare wit h me n
the be n e fit s of land re dis t ribut io n as me mbe rs of a ho us e -
ho ldbut wit hin an un chan ge d pat riarchal s t ruct ure . Fur-
t he r, one may pre s ume that divo rce is n o w ve ry t hre at e n in g
for the un re gis t e re d wive s in po lygamo us are as .
Our third e xample is the e galit arian (in clas s t e rms ) mo d-
e ls of de ve lo pme n t that have be e n e s po us e d in a n umbe r of s o -
cialis t co un t rie s such as the USSR, C hin a, and C uba. De s -
pit e dramat ic diffe re n ce s in the pat hs of t ran s fo rmat io n
fo llo we d in e ach of t he s e co un t rie s , for wo me n t he re has
be e n a co mmo n un de rlyin g fo cus on "brin gin g t he m into pro duc-
t io n ." Pro duct ive labor for wo me n o ut s ide the ho me is the
pe rce ive d me chan is m for their e man cipat io n . C o lle ct iviza-
t io n has re quire d and pro vide d for the in co rpo rat io n of
large n umbe rs of wo me n into the wage labor fo rce . Wo me n
have als o made impo rt an t in ro ads in t o public life (26). Yet
they are far fro m havin g achie ve d e qualit y wit h me n and co n -
t in ue to be o ve rre pre s e n t e d at s ubo rdin at e le ve ls of s o cie t y
and un de rre pre s e n t e d in po s it io n s of aut ho rit y, po we r, and
co n t ro l.
The re are two majo r re as o n s fo r t his . One is that the at -
t ain me n t of e qualit y be t we e n the ge n de rs has not be e n , for
the mo s t part , a primary re vo lut io n ary go al; rat he r it has
be e n vie we d as de rivat ive of a s o cialis t o rgan izat io n of s o -
cie t y. It has be e n as s ume d that the co lle ct ivizat io n pro -
ce s s t o ge t he r wit h e ffo rt s to in cre as e wo me n 's part icipat io n
in nondomestic work and in public life will generate equali-
ty between the sexes. Insufficient attention to the issues
of occupational segregation and the sexual division of la-
bor outside the home have led to an instrumentalization of
women' s labora tendency to draw women out of the home or
to push them back as dictated by the overall labor needs of
the development process, without significantly changing the
sexual division of labor i t sel f.
The second reason, which is in part a consequence of the
f i r st , is the relative neglect of the area of reproduction.
To be sure, in Cuba, China, and the Soviet Union, efforts
have been made to socialize domestic production by promoting
social services such as public dining rooms, day care cen-
t er s, and food processing f aci l i t i es. In addition, ideologi-
cal campaigns were launched in both China and Cuba to make
men share the burden of domestic work. Yet community serv-
ices that relieved the pressures of women's work in China
were among the first to be cut back when tensions over the
pace of development appeared. Despite the ideological cam-
paigns, women continue to bear the main burden of domestic
chores in both China and Cuba. In the Soviet Union, such an
ideological campaign has not even taken place.
The tensions raised by women's dual responsibilities in
work inside and outside the home are compounded in the Sovi-
et Union and parts of Eastern Europe by the efforts of the
state to make women bear more children. Women are seen as
essential to the pace of development in both the roles of
workers and childbearers, and yet there is an unwillingness
on the part of the state to increase funds to support serv-
ices for child care or other domestic work. The absence of
genuinely mass-based and autonomous women's organizations
has made it very difficult for women to make reproduction in-
to a serious pol i t i cal issue.
Relative neglect of the sphere of reproduction has thus
placed limits on the progress of women in socialist coun-
t r i es . Despite the advances made in the area of women's par-
ticipation in production and public l i f e, women continue to
"specialize" in unpaid work in the domestic sphere, and this
in turn has placed constraints on their achievements in pub-
lic l i f e.
Concluding Comments
We have fo cus e d o n the an alys is of wo me n 's s ubo rdin at io n
from the pe rs pe ct ive of the in t e rlin kin g of clas s and ge n de r
hie rarchie s , un de rlin in g the pract ical implicat io n s of this
co n n e ct io n . De ve lo pme n t s t rat e gie s fall into s e ve ral cat e -
go rie s alo n g t he s e lin e s . They can (1) ign o re clas s dime n -
s io n s and als o the e ffe ct of de ve lo pme n t on wo me n (the t radi-
t io n al mo de rn izat io n appro ach); (2) s pe cify that mo de rn iza-
tion has be e n de t rime n t al to wo me n and call for po licie s to
make wo me n "e qual part n e rs " to me n in that pro ce s s
(Bo s e rup's appro ach and man y of the re ce n t po licie s de rive d
from the wo rk of in t e rn at io n al age n cie s ); or (3) place e mpha-
sis on clas s co n t radict io n s and the need for co lle ct iviza-
tion and re dis t ribut io n of re s o urce s while at the same time
re lyin g on an e ffo rt to in cre as e wo me n 's part icipat io n in
n o n do me s t ic pro duct io n (t radit io n al s o cialis t po licie s ).
The re is a fo urt h po s s ibilit y s ugge s t e d by o ur crit ique .
It in vo lve s fo cus in g on the in t e ract io n be t we e n clas s and
ge n de r at all s t age s of the s t ruggle for a mo re e galit arian
s o cie t y. The me an in g of wo me n 's mo bilizat io n alo n g t he s e
lines and the at t ack on male privile ge s will un do ubt e dly
take diffe re n t fo rms in diffe re n t s o cie t ie s . In the capit al-
ist Third Wo rld, they wo uld re quire a re s t ruct urin g of mas s
o rgan izat io n s to re fle ct wo me n 's ro le s as wage wo rke rs and
ho us e ho ld wo rke rs . Such a s t rat e gy co uld t he n be acco mpan -
ied by a fulle r at t ack on ge n de r and clas s diffe re n ce s .
C le arly, any s t rat e gy wit h a fe min is t pe rs pe ct ive can n o t
be impo s e d from abo ve ; it can o n ly s ucce e d to the e xt e n t
that wo me n and me n are co n s cio us of the need to de al wit h
de e ply in grain e d pre judice s and pract ice s . Since this re -
quire s a long pro ce s s of chan ge , we s ho uld e xpe ct that it
will be co n dit io n e d by the his t o rical circums t an ce s and the
form of s o cial and e co n o mic t ran s fo rmat io n of give n s o ci-
e t ie s .
In the me an t ime , s in ce the prin cipal o ut co me s of the t e n -
s io n s be t we e n ge n de r and clas s are the diffe re n t ial o ve rwo rk
and ill-he alt h of wo me n , we mus t s uppo rt me as ure s such as
s ys t e ms of wat e r pro vis io n , e le ct rificat io n , s an it at io n and
me dical care , and o t he r s imilar po licie s , but wit h s t ro n g e m-
phas is on ho w such pro grams are imple me n t e d and who m
they be n e fit . In t his s e n s e , a bas ic n e e ds s t rat e gy, wit h
all its ambiguit ie s , co uld be n e fit wo me n if it we re e n e r-
gized by the s e lf-o rgan izat io n of po o r wo me n fro m the bo t t o m
laye rs of the clas s hie rarchy. This is true as we ll for the
mo re radical de ve lo pme n t s t rat e gie s of land re fo rm and co l-
le ct ivizat io n of the me an s of pro duct io n . If wo me n 's s ubo rd-
in at io n is to be addre s s e d in it s t o t alit y, we n e e d n o t o n ly
an an alyt ical re co gn it io n of all its as pe ct s but als o the
pract ical co un t e rpart of t his re co gn it io n , the o rgan izat io n
and s t ruggle of wo me n again s t clas s e xplo it at io n and ge n de r
s ubo rdin at io n .
Notes
1. For a cl ari fi cat i on of these concepts, see the
longer version of this paper published in Feminist
Studies (Winter 1982).
2. Ester Boserup's book, Woman's Role in Economic Develop-
ment (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1970), gave, ma-
jor impetus to the debate about the effects of develop-
ment on women in the Third World.
3. John Gilligan, speech at the Conference of the American
Association of University Women, excerpted in the
Washington Post, 24 June 1978.
4. In t e rn at io n al Labo r Organ izat io n , Emplo yme n t , Gro wt h
and Bas ic Ne e ds : A On e -Wo rld Pro ble m (New Yo rk:
Prae ge r, 1976).
5. Ibid., p. 7.
6. Impo rt an t e xce pt io n s may be found in some of the lit e ra-
ture publis he d by the ILO and the UN. Se e , for e xam-
ple , man y of the pape rs s po n s o re d by the Pro gramme on
Rural Wo me n , Wo rld Emplo yme n t Pro gramme , ILO, Ge n e va.
7. Bo s e rup, Wo man 's Ro le , pas s im.
8. Lo urde s Be n aria and Git a Se n , "Accumulat io n , Re pro duc-
t io n and Wo me n 's Ro le in Eco n o mic De ve lo pme n t ,"
Sign s 7 (Win t e r 1981).
9. See H. Be rn s t e in , "African Pe as an t rie s : A The o re t ical
Frame wo rk," Jo urn al o f Pe as an t St udie s 6 (1979):421-
43; Judy van Alle n , "'Sit t in g on a Man
1
: C o lo n ialis m
and the Lost Po lit ical In s t it ut io n s of Igbo Wo me n ,"
C an adian Jo urn al of African St udie s 6 (1972):165-82;
A. T. Nzula et al., Fo rce d Labo r in C o lo n ial Africa
(Lo n do n : Zed Pre s s , 1979).
10. Je t t e Bukh, The Village Wo man in Ghan a (Upps ala: Scan -
din avian In s t it ut e of African St udie s , 1979).
11. Kat e Yo un g, "Mo de s of Appro priat io n and the Se xual Divi-
sion of Labo r: A Case St udy of Oaxaca, Me xico ," in
Fe min is m and Mat e rialis m, e d. An n e t t e Kuhn and An n e
Marie Wo lpe (Lo n do n : Ro ut le dge & Ke gan Paul, 1978).
12. C arme n Dian a De e re , "C han gin g So cial Re lat io n s of Pro duc-
tion and Pe ruvian Pe as an t Wo me n 's Wo rk," Lat in Ame ri-
can Pe rs pe ct ive s 4 (1977):48-69.
13. Rache l Gro s s man , "Wo me n 's Place in the In t e grat e d C ir-
cuit ," So ut h Eas t As ia C hro n icle 66 (1979):2-17;
Dian e Els o n and Rut h Pe ars o n , "The In t e rn at io n aliza-
tion of C apit al and Its Implicat io n s for Wo me n in the
Third Wo rld," in The Subo rdin at io n o f Wo me n and the
De ve lo pme n t Pro ce s s (Sus s e x: In s t it ut e of De ve lo p-
me n t St udie s , in pre s s ); Barbara Ehre n re ich and
An n e t t e Fue n t e s , "Life on the Glo bal As s e mbly Lin e ,"
Ms . , Jan uary 1981, pp. 53-71.
14. Miche'le Mat t e lart , "C hile : The Fe min in e Side of the
Coup or Whe n Bo urge o is Wo me n Take to the St re e t s ,"
NAC LA Re po rt o n Lat in Ame rica and the Empire 9
(1975):14-25; Maria C rumme t t , "El Po de r Fe min in o : The
Mo bilizat io n of Wo me n again s t So cialis m in C hile ,"
Lat in Ame rican Pe rs pe ct ive s 4 (1977):103-13.
15. Salvado r Alle n de , "Spe e ch to the Un it e d Nat io n s ," in In -
t e rn at io n al Firms and Mo de rn Impe rialis m, e d. Hugo
Radice (Harmo n ds wo rt h: Pe n guin , 1975); An dre Gun de r
Fran k, "An Ope n Le t t e r abo ut C hile to Arn o ld He rbe rge r
and Milt o n Frie dman ," Re vie w o f Radical Po lit ical
Eco n o mics 7 (1975):61-72.
16. Gail Omve dt , "Wo me n and Rural Re vo lt in In dia," Jo urn al
o f Pe as an t St udie s 5 (1978):371-403.
17. Ibid., p. 394.
18. A s ummary of this argume n t can be found in Lo urde s
Be n e rfa, "Re pro duct io n , Pro duct io n and the Se xual
Divis io n of Labo r," C ambridge Jo urn al o f Eco n o mics 3
(1979):421-43.
19. Se e , for e xample , Mahraood Mamdan i, The Myt h o f Po pula-
t io n C o n t ro l (New Yo rk: Mo n t hly Re vie w Pre s s , 1972);
Bo n n ie Mas s , "Pue rt o Rico : A C as e St udy of Po pulat io n
C o n t ro l," and Mart ha Gime n e z, "Po pulat io n and C apit al-
is m," Lat in Ame rican Pe rs pe ct ive s 4 (1977):66-81 and
5-40; Nan cy Birds all, "Wo me n and Po pulat io n St udie s ,"
Sign s 1, n o . 3, pt . 1 (Sprin g 1976): 699-712; San dra
Schwart z Tan gri, "A Fe min is t Pe rs pe ct ive on the Et h-
ical Is s ue s on Po pulat io n Pro grams ," Sign s 1, n o . 4
(Summe r 1976):895-904; see als o Adrie n n e Gerraaine's re -
ply in Sign s 2, n o . 4 (Summe r 1977):924-27.
20. In grid Palme r, "Ne w Ide as on Wo me n and De ve lo pme n t ," un -
publis he d man us cript , p. 10.
21. In t e rn at io n al Labo r Organ izat io n , Emplo yme n t , Gro wt h
and Bas ic Ne e ds , p. 61. Emphas is adde d.
22. Ze n e Tade s s e , "The Impact of Land Re fo rm on Wo me n ," in
Wo me n and De ve lo pme n t : The Se xual Divis io n o f Labo r
in Rural Eco n o mie s , e d. Lo urde s Be n e ria (ILO/Prae -
ge r, 1982).
23. Ibid., C h. 2, n o . 4.
24. Ibid., p. 15.
25. Ibid., p. 17.
26. See Phyllis An do rs , "So cial Re vo lut io n and Wo me n 's Eman -
cipat io n : C hin a durin g the Gre at Leap Fo rward," Bul-
le t in o f C o n ce rn e d As ian Scho lars 7 (1975):33-42;
Elizabe t h C ro ll, Wo me n in Rural De ve lo pme n t : The
Pe o ple 's Re public o f C hin a (Ge n e va: ILO, 1979), and
"So cialis t De ve lo pme n t Expe rie n ce : Wo me n in Rural
Pro duct io n in the Soviet Un io n , C uba and Tan zan ia"
(Bright o n : Un ive rs it y of Sus s e x, In s t it ut e of De ve lo p-
me n t St udie s , 1979); C . Be n ge ls do rf and A. Hage man ,
"Eme rgin g from Un de rde ve lo pme n t : Wo me n and Wo rk in
C uba," Race and C las s 19 (1978):345-60; Gail
Lapidus , "Se xual Equalit y in Soviet Po licy: A
De ve lo pme n t al Pe rs pe ct ive ," in Wo me n in Rus s ia, e d.
Do ro t hy At kin s o n et al. (Lo n do n : Harve s t e r Pre s s ,
1978).
Part IV
Control through Institution
and Ideology
NADINE TAUB
Defining and Combating
Sexual Harassment (1981)
The e xpe rie n ce of s e xual haras s me n t at wo rk or at s cho o l is
not a n e w one for Ame rican wo me n . Mas t e rs ro ut in e ly claime d
s e xual s e rvice s from slave wo me n . Eve n in co lo n ial t ime s ,
s e xual de man ds we re an o ccupat io n al hazard of do me s t ic s e r-
vice . As wo me n be gan wo rkin g fo r wage s o ut s ide the ho me ,
they re gularly e n co un t e re d s e xual haras s me n t . Un io n s o rgan -
izin g at the end of the n in e t e e n t h and the be gin n in g of the
t we n t ie t h ce n t urie s we re co n ce rn e d wit h the is s ue . Ye t un -
til re ce n t ly there was lit t le s o cie t al re co gn it io n that s e xu-
al haras s me n t is , and has be e n , an impo rt an t me an s of co n -
t ro llin g wo me n . As wo me n gained co n s cio us n e s s of that fact ,
they have co mpe lle d the co urt s and the public at large to
ackn o wle dge that the pro ble m is a s e rio us o n e , re quirin g le -
gal and s o cial s an ct io n s (1).
The last five ye ars have seen a dramat ic shift in the le -
gal prin ciple s go ve rn in g s e xual haras s me n t . Be t we e n 1974
and 1977, n ume ro us cas e s in vo lvin g claims of s e xual haras s -
me n t we re bro ught un de r vario us fe de ral and state laws .
Wit h one or two e xce pt io n s , these claims we re re je ct e d by
the t rial co urt s . Ho we ve r, a s e rie s of appe llat e co urt de -
cis io n s , s t art in g in 1977, re co gn ize d s e xual haras s me n t as a
fo rm of s e x dis crimin at io n fo rbidde n on the job by Tit le VII
of the 1964 C ivil Right s Act and by s t at e fair e mplo yme n t
laws (2). By 1978, t he s e de cis io n s re s ult e d in re lie f be in g
gran t e d to co mplain an t s appe arin g be fo re t rial co urt s and ad-
min is t rat ive age n cie s . The in it ial de cis io n s co n ce rn e d fir-
ings and o t he r adve rs e jo b co n s e que n ce s whe n the wo man re -
fused to co mply wit h he r s upe rvis o r's s e xual de man ds (3).
Mo re recent de cis io n s have uphe ld the right of wo me n to wo rk
in e n viro n me n t s free of s upe rvis o r and co wo rke r haras s -
me n t (4). State co urt s have als o co me to re co gn ize s e xual
haras s me n t as vio lat in g co mmo n law tort and co n t ract prin -
ciple s .
The e arly cas e s we re acco mpan ie d by a gre at de al of me dia
at t e n t io n and o rgan izin g. Wo me n s po ke o ut in cre as in gly
abo ut their s e xual haras s me n t e xpe rie n ce s and t he ir un de r-
264 C o n t ro l t hro ugh Institution an d Ide o lo gy
s t an din g of those e xpe rie n ce s as s e xual dis crimin at io n . As
mo re and mo re gro ups took up the is s ue , go ve rn me n t al and qua-
s i-go ve rn me n t al bo die s he ld he arin gs and issued re po rt s , po l-
icy s t at e me n t s , and re gulat io n s . The lit igat io n s ucce s s e s
re co rde d s in ce 1977 re fle ct the co lle ct ive chan ge in co n -
s cio us n e s s pro duce d by all this act ivit y. So long as this
e n e rgy level is s us t ain e d, the legal prin ciple that s e xual
haras s me n t co n s t it ut e s an impe rmis s ible barrie r to e qual o p-
po rt un it y for wo me n appe ars re lat ive ly s e cure (5).
Havin g e s t ablis he d, at least t e mpo rarily, the in it ial pre m-
ise that it is bo t h wro n g and ille gal to s ubje ct wo me n to co -
e rcive s e xual advan ce s , fe min is t s can n o w afford to co n s ide r
que s t io n s that aris e in co n s o lidat in g and s e curin g the e arli-
er vict o rie s . Two of t he s e pro ble ms ho w to s pe cify the
type of co n duct we wis h to e limin at e and ho w to ke e p the is -
sue of s e xual haras s me n t from be in g an o t he r de vice the e xis t -
ing po we r s t ruct ure can use in dividin g its o ppo s it io n are
addre s s e d he re .
The Definitional Problem
When a boss writes his secretary a l et t er offering her more
money if she has an affair with him and then fires her when
she turns him down, few would deny that the woman was subjec-
ted to clear sexual coercion. But when the demands come
half-disguised as jokes and remarks about other people's be-
havior and when the retaliation comes in the form of nega-
tive work evaluations, i t is a far more difficult question.
Similarly people probably agree that it is intolerable for a
supervisor or coworker to grab a woman between the legs, but
there is far more confusion when a supervisor or coworker
repeatedly puts his arm around a woman, leans over her, and
brushes his body against hers. Conditions affecting the gen-
eral work environment, like constant sexual banter or promi-
nent gi rl i e calendars, are even harder to evaluate.
Behavior of this kind cannot be assessed in a vacuum. Not
only must we consider our purposes in seeking to define sexu-
al harassment, but we must also consider the dynamics of con-
temporary heterosexual relationships, the nature of work en-
vironments, and the current pol i t i cal climate. The starting
point of any attempt to categorize sex-related behavior in
the workplace must be the understanding that women occupy a
subordinate position pol i t i cal l y, economically, and socially
in our society and that sexual harassment contributes to
that subordination. An important way men continue their dom-
inance is by invoking women's traditional sexual role
through sexual demands and allusions. Thus combating sexual
Sexual Harassment 265
haras s me n t is an e s s e n t ial part of the e ffo rt to end wo me n 's
s ubo rdin at io n .
Wo me n s t ruggle again s t s e xual haras s me n t by s e e kin g to han -
dle the s it uat io n in fo rmally as in dividuals , by s e e kin g to
e ducat e o t he rs abo ut it , and by in vo kin g fo rmal pro ce s s e s
such as lit igat io n . Havin g a de fin it io n of s e xual haras s -
me n t is impo rt an t to each of these e ffo rt s . Firs t , be in g
able to draw a line be t we e n the acce pt able and un acce pt able
he lps the in dividual wo man form he r re s po n s e . Man y in ci-
de n t s of s e xual haras s me n t are at t ribut e d to "n at ural at -
t ract io n " o r to s e duct ive be havio r o n the part of wo me n o r
to the n o t io n that "bo ys will be bo ys ." Fo r this re as o n , it
is easy for wo me n to feel t he ms e lve s re s po n s ible for un wan t -
ed s e xual at t e n t io n s and to blame t he ms e lve s for be in g o ve r-
ly affe ct e d by t he m. Un de rs t an din g that the co n duct to
which they are s ubje ct e d is s e xual haras s me n t allo ws wo me n
s imult an e o us ly to ackn o wle dge its de bilit at in g e ffe ct and to
see the e xpe rie n ce in t e rms of po we r re lat io n s , rat he r than
as a mat t e r of pe rs o n al failin g. Wit h this un de rs t an din g,
wo me n can cho o s e to de al in dividually wit h the o ffe n de r,
seek gro up s uppo rt , co mplain to the e mplo ye r, or invoke mo re
fo rmal re me die s .
Se co n d, e s t ablis hin g cat e go rie s o f the pe rmis s ible and the
impe rmis s ible he lps wo me n see co mmo n fe at ure s and paralle ls
be t we e n t he ir e xpe rie n ce and t ho s e of o t he r wo me n . Educa-
t in g re ce pt ive male s like wis e re quire s be in g able to e xplain
what be havio r e xce e ds pe rmis s ible limit s . And fin ally,
co urt s and o t he r age n cie s need to un de rs t an d the n at ure of
the e xpe rie n ce and be as s ure d that a me an in gful line can be
drawn be t we e n legal and ille gal co n duct . The pas t failure
to find s e xual haras s me n t in vio lat io n of s t at ut o ry pro hibi-
t io n s is due at least in part to judicial fe ars that le git i-
mat e in t e ract io n s be t we e n me n and wo me n wo uld be chille d.
That same fear may n o w lead co urt s to ado pt an o ve rly re -
s t rict ive de fin it io n of s e xual haras s me n t .
De s pit e this s t ro n g need for a wo rkable de fin it io n of s e xu-
al haras s me n t , we mus t not un de re s t imat e the difficult y of
the t as k. A n umbe r of fact o rs co mplicat e the pro ble m.
Firs t , t he re is the ge n uin e ambivale n ce and co n fus io n that
s urro un d s e xual in t e rchan ge s t o day. In some cas e s , wo me n
are able to un de rs t an d o n ly in re t ro s pe ct that they did not
we lco me part icular advan ce s . In o t he r cas e s , the advan ce s
are bo t h we lco me and un we lco me at the same t ime . Furt he r-
mo re , it may be a co n ce pt ual impo s s ibilit y to dis t in guis h
n e at ly be t we e n de s ire d, un co e rce d s e xual in t e rchan ge s and un -
wan t e d, impo s e d s e xual at t e n t io n s , give n the co n t e mpo rary re -
alit y that is is po we r and aut ho rit y that o ft e n make me n at -
t ract ive to wo me n .
266 Control through Institution and Ideology
Problems of communication also add to the confusion. On
the one hand, it may be very difficult for men to understand
women's feelings in the absence of explicit statements.
Changing mores make it hard for even well-intentioned men to
know what they are hearing. In the past, women were expec-
ted to protest coyly even over sexual attentions they want-
ed. Now it is more permissible for women to take the sexual
initiative and express their sexual desires openly. Yet not
all women feel free to do so, and it is not at all apparent
that a fixed set of social rules governs even a particular
relationship. On the other hand, the draining effect of
harassment, societal attitudes trivializing sexual harass-
ment, and women's general socialization all make it very dif-
ficult for women to assert themselves against offensive con-
duct. Moreover, men screen out much of what women say,
particularly regarding sexual matters. Therefore a standard
that obliges women to convey their displeasure successfully
is unworkable. A man may never hear a woman's objection or
he may punish her for objecting. The threat of punishment
has a particular credibility because women who attempt to
put things tactfully are often disregarded. As their expres-
sions become more forceful, they are suddenly perceived as
hostile; hostility then justifies retaliation.
Problems surrounding work further compound the difficul-
ties in delineating the activities to be forbidden on the
job. For most people, work provides no inherent satisfac-
tion; if work is to be bearable, much less enjoyable, there
must be a fair degree of spontaneous human interchange.
Even apart from the quality of interactions at the work
place, people encountered through work are an important
source of one's nonwork social l i fe.
Finally, a particular political context colors any contem-
porary discussion of sexual harassment. We now confront an
increasingly effective right-wing effort to suppress sexuali-
ty generally. Overbroad demands that fail to make comprehen-
sible the distinction between wanted and unwanted sexual in-
terchanges will strengthen the hand of those seeking to
suppress all sexuality.
Read against the background of these considerations, the
inadequacies of current definitions are apparent. Activists
offer a shorthand definition of sexual harassment as unwant-
ed sexual attention experienced on the job. In the inter-
ests of securing victories in extreme cases f i r st , legal ad-
vocates for harassment victims have thus far felt compelled
to propose a somewhat restrictive approach when explicating
this shorthand definition. Unless the conduct directly re-
lates to adverse job consequences or is absolutely egregi-
ous (as when the employer grabs the woman's breasts or plays
with himself during an interview), they suggest courts might
well give considerable weight to the woman's failure to let
someone know she found the man's behavior unacceptable (6).
Yet in seeking to give the notion of unwanted advances con-
tent , this approach ignores the economic and psychological
vulnerability of women, the absence of mechanisms for deal-
ing with these problems, and the other difficulties already
outlined. Expecting women to carry this burden without fur-
ther guidance is simply being insensitive to their needs and
the complexities of the problem.
The federal government has attempted to provide further
guidance in spelling out the behavior prohibited by Title
VII. Federal regulatons thus provide that
Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors,
and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature
constitute sexual harassment when (1) submission to such
conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term
or condition of an individual' s employment, (2) submis-
sion to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is
used as the basis for employment decisions affecting
such individual, or (3) such conduct has the purpose or
effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual' s
work performance or creating an intimidating, host i l e,
or offensive work environment. (7)
These regulations make clear, then, that sexual considera-
tions cannot form a basis for any adverse personnel action,
and that many seemingly hard-to-define cases are simply a
matter of proofwere sexual considerations a factor or not?
But while they also indicate that both substantial interfer-
ence with the individual' s work performance and offensive
work environments are impermissible, the regulations do l i t -
tle to specify the content of these terms. One of the most
serious problems with terms this general is that they sug-
gest that it is impermissible to bother or offend anyone, no
matter how supersensitive, touchy, or prudish she may be.
Such an interpretation, however, may result either in a
st ri ct puritanical code for the work place or a rule that is
completely disregarded. Thus it is important for those
formulating sexual harassment codes and otherwise seeking to
enforce the regulations to propose alternatives to t ot al , un-
differentiated deference to individual sensi t i vi t i es.
It is fairly usual, especially in the noncriminal context,
for laws and other norms governing behavior to be expressed
in rather general terms, largely because it is necessary to
be able to account for situations that may arise in the fu-
ture without having to visualize them precisely. As a re-
sui t , the law has developed certain techniques for filling
in the interstices of broadly phrased behavioral norms. The
"reasonable person" construct is one legal device for avoid-
ing a subjective, individualized standard without attempting
to enumerate and evaluate every possible circumstance. When
the reasonable person construct is used, for example, in de-
termining whether people have been negligent, decision mak-
ers are not asked whether the individuals thought their act-
ions were reasonable. Rather they are supposed to consider
what an idealized person on good behavior would do. In this
way, decision makers are being asked to apply current commun-
ity norms. Nevertheless, in deriving these norms, it is al -
most inevitable that decision makers will draw on personal
experience and the experiences of their friends and acquain-
tances .
Using the reasonable person construct to decide whether a
given incident constituted sexual harassment would mean
shifting the focus from the individual woman's subjective re-
action to the particular circumstances to the more general
question of whether the conduct in question would offend a
reasonable person. Thus a woman trying to evaluate the l e-
gitimacy of her feelings, an employer trying to decide how
to respond to a grievance, or a lawyer trying to handle a l e-
gal claim might each try to estimate how a hypothetical rea-
sonable person would react to the events in issue. Difficul-
ties with the approach are immediately evident. First of
al l , however idealized, there is simply no sex-neutral rea-
sonable person to serve as a standard in this context.
Since ingrained gender roles make the meaning of actions de-
pend so much on the sex of the actors, it is absurd to ask
how a reasonable man would react to the experience in ques-
tion. If we assume we are talking about an idealized reason-
able woman, we s t i l l have to consider the sex of the deci-
sion maker, for i t is precisely the problem that, wittingly
or unwittingly, most men would not even notice the behavior
at issue, let alone find it contrary to community norms. Al-
though female decision makers are far more likely to be
aware of the type of conduct at issue, they may also believe
that reasonable women shouldn't make a fuss about i t . A
reasonableness standard has inevitably a conservative ef-
fect, and at a time when community norms are in a process of
transition, such a standard neither protects the needs of in-
dividual women nor enhances the process of transition.
Listing elements or particular factors of concern is anoth-
er conventional legal technique for discerning the content
of norms expressed in general form. In using this tech-
nique, the woman trying to evaluate her feelings, the em-
ployer trying to respond to a grievance, or a lawyer trying
to handle a legal claim would attempt to gauge the presence
or absence of factors that contribute to making conduct of-
fensive. Although the thinking about this approach is just
beginning, the Working Women's Inst i t ut e, a New York-based
national resource and research center with a program focus-
ing on problems of sexual harassment and intimidation in em-
ployment, has recently put forward some promising formula-
tions. One set of proposed considerations refers directly
to the conduct; another focuses on the victim' s feelings
about her relation to the perpetrator. The actual mix of
these factors will vary from case to case, and the strength
of one may compensate for the absence of another in particu-
lar situations.
Characteristics of the conduct itself might include the
circumstances of i t s occurrence, such as i t s physical intru-
siveness, coerciveness, and frequency. Physical intrusive-
ness refers primarily to how hard it is to avoid the ques-
tionable behavior. For example, a wall poster or calendar
near the water cooler may be easier to avoid than obscene
jokes at obligatory work meetings or a drawing on the top of
a memo sent to the whole staff. Physical touching may be
the most intrusive of al l , both because it is impossible to
avoid and because it violates one's bodily integrity. Focus-
ing on physical intrusiveness in the sense of one's ability
to ignore the conduct is probably more fruitful that attempt-
ing to distinguish between public or private areas in contem-
porary work places. In picturing the modern insurance com-
pany, as in the movie, 9 to 5, with i t s vast, unparti-
tioned floors full of desks, we can immediately understand
how difficult i t is to distinguish the public from the pri -
vate and how important it is to allow individuals control
over their own work space so long as the control doesn't in-
trude on others.
Coerciveness refers most clearly to how powerful the per-
son generating the attention is in relation to the recipi-
ent. The relevance of this factor is immediately obvious
when a supervisor threatens adverse job consequences for
failure to comply with his sexual demands. But i t s r el -
evance is also apparent when someone who has the boss's ear
makes suggestive remarks or goes in for brushing up against
others. Like physical intrusiveness, power determines the
victim' s ability to avoid the troublesome behavior; the more
powerful the actor, the greater his ability to compel her to
deal with it head on. The extent and frequency of the occur-
rences are likewise important factors often affecting the
necessity of confronting the behavior. It should be
stressed, however, that recurrence is not essential; one
traumatic incident can be sufficient.
It does not, however, appear sufficient in delineating the
elements of offensive conduct to consider the circumstances
surrounding the incident without also attempting to analyze
the content of the behavior. It seems important, for exam-
ple, to think about how degrading the behavior is to the vic-
tim. Yet, particularly in this time of changing norms,
there may be no objective meaning to the notion of degrada-
tion. Moreover, even where there is a consensus that part i c-
ular conduct is humiliating for a woman who is exposed to
i t , it may be almost impossible to articulate why this is
so.
Thinking about a particular case may help, however. The
pattern of harassment that formed the basis for one discrim-
ination claim (8) included a cartoon left on the desk of
Cleo Kyriazi, a middle-aged single woman who worked as an
electrical engineer in an entirely male department. The car-
toon showed the backside of a woman with enormous buttocks;
pressed between her cheeks was a scrawny, helpless fellow.
The cartoon was devastating, though the reason is not
clearperhaps because i t implied so sharply that Kyriazi
had totally failed to meet the standards of appearance and
behavior prescribed for women. Yet even remarks purporting
to compliment women on their appearance are frequently put-
downs, since measuring up as a woman often means failure as
a person in our society.
Sexual harassment, then, may be humiliating because it re-
affirms our role as sexual objects rather than as actors and
whole people. That these roles are prescribed for an indiv-
idual woman by someone else is no comfort since those "some-
one elses" are the ones with power. Women's values, as well
as their humanity and individuality, are negated by sexual
harassment, and when women are expected not merely to submit
to harassment, but to submit cheerfully, they are being
asked to assent in their own subordination. The relevant
question to ask of any situation may be, does the challenged
conduct use sexual attentions or sexual allusions to annihil-
ate their subject as a person by categorizing her as a fe-
male body? Answering this question requires thinking about
the societal definition of the woman's role and examining
the conduct in relation to the definition.
However, even if i t is possible to analyze the circumstan-
ces and content of particular conduct meaningfully, it may
s t i l l be necessary to consider the subject' s feelings about
the actor as well. The same remark or action, delivered in
the same objective setting, may have very different impacts.
Here it may be easier to delineate what makes behavior ac-
ceptable. The Working Women's Institute proposal suggests
three dimensions to be used in analyzing the relationship:
(1) de gre e of in t imacy or clo s e n e s s be t we e n the s ubje ct and
the pe rs o n makin g the advan ce s ; (2) mut ualit y or the de gre e
to which the s ubje ct wan t s to re s po n d in kin d; and (3) re ci-
pro cit y or the de gre e to which she is able to re s po n d. Al-
t ho ugh o bvio us ly re lat e d, t he s e fact o rs do seem dis t in ct .
Fo r e xample , a wo man might be ge n uin e ly fond of a co wo rke r,
but be e xt re me ly t ro uble d by his t o uchin g he r or by his co n -
stant o bs ce n e jo ke s . Similarly, a wo man might wan t to e n -
gage in a ce rt ain s e xual ban t e r but be co n s t rain e d by he r po -
s it io n ; if she s e n s e s she can n o t re cipro cat e , she may find
co n t in ue d s e xual at t e n t io n s o ppre s s ive de s pit e he r de s ire to
re s po n d.
The s e aids to an alyzin g the s ubje ct 's fe e lin gs s ho uld he lp
in dividual wo me n who seek to un de rs t an d t he ir s it uat io n s .
The y s ho uld als o he lp wo me n as a gro up be cle ar on their e n -
t it le me n t to re s is t s e xual o ppre s s io n in the wo rk place .
But un like co n s ide rat io n s of circums t an ce and co n t e n t , who s e
an alys is may de pe n d on e xt e rn ally o bs e rvable fact o rs , these
s ubje ct ive co n s ide rat io n s can rare ly be e valuat e d by o t he rs .
Fo r this re as o n , the as s e s s me n t of ce rt ain po t e n t ially o ffe n -
sive co n duct may be be yo n d the purvie w of fo rmal me chan is ms
of re dre s s . Whe n , for e xample , a wo man de cide s in re t ro -
spect that a male co wo rke r's be havio r was act ually o ffe n s ive
be caus e she felt un able to re s po n d in kin d, t he re are few
t o o ls available to test that de t e rmin at io n . As a re s ult , a
co urt may vie w the as s e s s me n t as be yo n d its co mpe t e n ce . In
the fin al an alys is , it may not be po s s ible to pro po s e a de f-
in it io n of s e xual haras s me n t that is s ufficie n t for legal
purpo s e s while als o e n co mpas s in g the full scope of wo me n 's
e xpe rie n ce s . Ne ve rt he le s s , wo me n may achie ve a s at is fact o ry
po lit ical re s o lut io n if they can labe l t ho s e e xpe rie n ce s and
o rgan ize acco rdin gly.
The Problem of Deflected Energies
The ve ry fact that we can n o w be co n ce rn e d wit h the de fin i-
t io n al pro ble ms as s o ciat e d wit h s ubt le t ie s in co e rcio n s ho ws
just ho w much pro gre s s has be e n made in co mbat in g s e xual ha-
ras s me n t . This pro gre s s is t ruly an in s t an ce of wo man re -
gain in g co n t ro l, for s e xual haras s me n t has served as an im-
po rt an t me an s of co n t ro llin g wo me n bo t h as wo rke rs and as
s e xual be in gs . Mo re o ve r, the s t ruggle again s t s e xual haras s -
me n t has be e n wage d not only for wo me n , but by wo me n . As
C at he rin e MacKin n o n s ugge s t s , s e xual haras s me n t may be the
first legal wro n g to be de fin e d by wo me n (9).
Re t ain in g the co n t ro l wo me n have thus o bt ain e d n o w may
we ll be an o t he r mat t e r. In ide n t ifyin g a wro n g that they
ask the e xis t in g po we r s t ruct ure to right , wo me n have give n
whit e male s , who aft e r all s t ill co n t ro l that s t ruct ure , a
we apo n to dire ct again s t me n they als o wis h to s ubo rdin at e .
Not s urpris in gly, t he n , wo me n wo rkin g to co mbat s e xual co e r-
cio n o ft e n find that e s t ablis he d in s t it ut io n s are willin g to
dis ciplin e and e ve n fire Third Wo rld and po lit ically radical
whit e me n . C o mplain t s abo ut me n who are mo re firmly e n -
t re n che d may be vigo ro us ly de fe n de d or han dle d dis cre e t ly by
the in s t it ut io n . At Yale Un ive rs it y, for e xample , the Wo m-
e n 's C aucus alle ge d that the only facult y me mbe r even co ve rt -
ly dis ciplin e d for s e xual haras s me n t was a Black t e achin g as -
s is t an t who was not re hire d fo llo win g co mplain t s by
s t ude n t s . By co n t ras t , the in s t it ut io n s t aun chly de n ie d an y
mis co n duct by the facult y me mbe rs ide n t ifie d in the s e xual
haras s me n t suit bro ught by five wo me n s t ude n t s . Whe n the
Yale s po rt s co ach named in the suit be came the s ubje ct of
s ubs e que n t in t e rn al co mplain t s , he re s ign e d, claimin g he
n e e de d mo re time to writ e .
The s e le ct ive re co gn it io n of s e xual haras s me n t claims is
e xce e din gly e ffe ct ive in cre at in g dis s e n s io n amo n g those bid-
din g for po we r. The re ce n t co n flict at C lark Un ive rs it y is
a case ve ry much in po in t . The re , an e xile d C hile an wo man
who had not be e n re hire d co mplain e d to the un ive rs it y admin -
is t rat io n abo ut phys ical and o t he r haras s me n t by he r de part -
me n t chairman , a pro min e n t le ft is t act ive in the mo ve me n t
again s t the war in Vie t n am. The un ive rs it y appe are d to re -
spond to the co mplain t in an ad ho c and hars h fas hio n . As a
re s ult , the Left co mmun it y, which in clude d fe min is t s on both
s ide s , split into two camps . Bo t h gro ups co n t in ue d to e x-
pe n d e n o rmo us amo un t s of o rgan izat io n al e ffo rt . Ult imat e ly,
wit ho ut co n s ult in g the wo man or he r co un s e l, the un ive rs it y
signed an agre e me n t wit h the man that limited some of his
pre ro gat ive s and o t he rwis e barre d furt he r co n s ide rat io n of
the charge s . Subs e que n t ly the day aft e r the agre e me n t was
s ign e d, the man filed a libel act io n again s t the wo man and
he r s uppo rt e rs , who als o claime d haras s me n t from the chair-
man . Equal e mplo yme n t lit igat io n again s t the un ive rs it y on
be half of the wo me n was als o in it iat e d.
It is crucial, t he n , that wo me n de ve lo p s t rat e gie s to pre -
ve n t their e n e rgie s from be in g de fle ct e d into such divis ive
s t ruggle s o ve r in dividual cas e s . The firs t step is , of
co urs e , to be cle ar abo ut o n e 's go al. Sin ce s e xual haras s -
me n t is an o bs t acle to e qual o ppo rt un it ie s for wo me n , it
mus t be s t ampe d o ut acro s s the bo ard. In s t it ut io n s mus t be
he ld re s po n s ible not me re ly for in dividual in s t an ce s of
abus e but als o for t o le rat in g mo re e xt e n s ive , t ho ugh pe rhaps
less we ll-kn o wn , pat t e rn s of haras s me n t and for pro mo t in g an
at mo s phe re that co n do n e s abus e (10). Fo cus in g on the need
for acro s s -t he -bo ard act io n wo uld allo w in dividual me n to de -
fend t he ms e lve s again s t haras s me n t charge s by claimin g they
had be e n un fairly s in gle d o ut , or "s e le ct ive ly pro s e cut e d."
This type of de fe n s e , ho we ve r, appe ars to be mo re of a t he o -
re t ical po s s ibilit y than a re alis t ic re s o lut io n to a real po -
lit ical co n flict . De s pit e the pre vale n ce of such abus e , me n
charge d wit h s e xual haras s me n t will rare ly co n ce de that they
have do n e what they are charge d wit h, as the s e le ct ive pro s e -
cut io n de fe n s e re quire s . Mo re t ypically, such me n and t he ir
s uppo rt e rs will blame the co mplain an t , if not for in vit in g
s e xual at t e n t io n s , then for mis un de rs t an din g them or for be -
ing so po lit ically fo o lis h as to co mplain .
To some e xt e n t , co n flict s be t we e n s uppo rt e rs of part icular
wo me n and s uppo rt e rs of part icular me n are in e vit able . Ho w-
e ve r, the dive rs io n of e n e rgie s into a s t ruggle be t we e n the
have -n o t s may be min imize d if wo me n 's gro ups can find ways
of po s in g t he ir de man ds in bro ade r t e rms . On e t e chn ique may
be to at t e mpt to ide n t ify and brin g fo rward a n umbe r of co m-
plain t s at one t ime . If co n ce rn abo ut the haras s me n t is s ue
has be e n t rigge re d by an in cide n t in vo lvin g a s in gle vict im,
just as he r case again s t the part icular man will be bo l-
stered by ide n t ifyin g his o t he r vict ims , the large r case
again s t the in s t it ut io n will be bo ls t e re d by ide n t ifyin g o t h-
er pe rpe t rat o rs . Wo rk place act ivis t s s ho uld de ve lo p o rgan -
izin g de vice s that seek to he ight e n ge n e ral co n s cio us n e s s
abo ut the is s ue and to e licit in fo rmat io n co n ce rn in g s pe cif-
ic in cide n t s . One s ugge s t io n , for e xample , is a che ck-o ff
list that e n ume rat e s t ype s of haras s me n t as we ll as cat e go r-
ies of s upe rvis o rs and co wo rke rs and as ks fe male e mplo ye e s
what kin ds of e xpe rie n ce s they have had wit h who m (11).
The de man d for an in s t it ut io n al grie van ce me chan is m flo ws
n at urally from the de man d for act io n in a n umbe r of cas e s .
But for s e ve ral re as o n s , it is an impo rt an t focus for act iv-
is m e ve n whe re it is not po s s ible to de mo n s t rat e a pat t e rn
and pract ice of abus e . Eve n apart from its us e , the me re e x-
is t e n ce of a grie van ce pro ce dure has an impo rt an t e ffe ct .
That a pro ce dure is e s t ablis he d to han dle co mplain t s s pe aks
mo re plain ly t han an y abs t ract po licy s t at e me n t that ce rt ain
co n duct is dis appro ve d. Mo re o ve r, o n ce in place , a grie v-
an ce pro ce dure make s it e as ie r for vict ims to co me fo rward,
which e n able s the t rue s co pe of the pro ble m to be un de r-
s t o o d. Fin ally, pro ce dure is an are a in which co mplain an t s
and de fe n dan t s have some gro un d in co mmo n . A s e t t le d grie v-
an ce me chan is m de t e rs ad ho c arbit rary vin dict ive act io n s
again s t e s pe cially vuln e rable de fe n dan t s . At the same t ime ,
it make s cle ar ho w vict ims can gain in s t it ut io n al re dre s s of
the pro ble m. By le t t in g bo t h s ide s kn o w what they can e x-
pe ct , a de fin it e pro ce dure give s bo t h s ide s the bas is for
pro t e s t in g what they see as un fair t re at me n t (12). This
may, in fact , be why t ho s e in po we r ge n e rally pre fe r to han -
dle t hin gs in a "ge n t le man ly" and quie t fas hio n while t ho s e
on the o ut s ide pre fe r that the rule s of the game be s pe ci-
fied in fo rmal pro ce dure s .
A s e t t le d pro ce dure do e s n o t , of co urs e , e n s ure fairn e s s .
C o mplain t s again s t uppe r-e che lo n whit e me n may have much
mo re difficult y makin g it t hro ugh e ve n an e s t ablis he d s ys -
t e m. Thus it is impo rt an t that act ivis t s see de t aile d fig-
ure s abo ut ho w the pro ce dure is act ually be in g us e d. They
need to kn o w the n umbe rs and t ype s of me n who are dis ci-
plin e d as co mpare d to t ho s e who are e xo n e rat e d. Alt ho ugh it
is po s s ible that an o n go in g mo n it o rin g me chan is m may be
built into a grie van ce pro ce dure , this will be s ucce s s ful
o n ly if a gro up of act ivis t s re main s alive and we ll to re -
spond to the in fo rmat io n as it is pro duce d.
The o n ly re s o lut io n of po t e n t ial co n flict s ce n t e rin g o n
dis put e s be t we e n in dividual co mplain an t s and in dividual de -
fe n dan t s that can be acce pt able to wo me n 's gro ups is one
that e mphas ize s the need to co mbat all s e xual haras s me n t .
Posed this bro adly, the s t ruggle s ho uld e n lis t the s uppo rt
of t ho s e who rally to the de fe n s e of min o rit y and radical
me n who s e co n duct is que s t io n e d. If s o , it may be po s s ible
to make an in curs io n into the e xis t in g whit e male e s t ablis h-
me n t .
Notes
See ge n e rally, Go o dman , "Se xual Haras s me n t : Some Obs e r-
vat io n s on the Dis t an ce Trave lle d and the Dis t an ce Yet
to Go ," C apit al U.L. Re v. 10 (1981):445.
Tit le VII re fe rs to the fair e mplo yme n t pro vis io n s of
the C ivil Right s Act of 1964. See 42 U.S.C . 2000e
e t s e q.
Se e , for e xample , Barn e s v. C o s t le , 561 F.2d 983
(D.C . C ir. 1977); To mkin s v. Public Se rvice Ele c. &
Gas C o ., 568 F.2d 1044 (3d C ir. 1977).
Bun dy v. Jacks o n , 641 F. 2d 934 (D.C . 1981); C o n t in -
e n t al C an v. State o f Min n e s o t a, 297 N.W.2d 241
(Min n . 1980).
As part of Pre s ide n t Re agan 's ge n e ral at t ack on go ve rn -
me n t al re gulat io n , a task fo rce has be e n e s t ablis he d
to co n s ide r re cis s io n of o ve rly burde n s o me pro vis io n s .
See Exe cut ive Orde r 12291 of 17 Fe bruary 1981, Fe de r-
al Re gis t e r, vo l. 462, n o . 125, p. 34263, 30 Jun e
1981. On 12 Augus t 1981, the fe de ral s e xual haras s -
ment guidelines discussed below were added to the l i s t
of regulations to be reviewed.
6. See, for example, Taub, "Keeping Women in Their Place:
Stereotyping Per Se as a Form of Employment Discrimina-
t i on, " Boston C.L. Rev. 20 (1980):345; Vermeulen,
"Employer Li abi l i t y under Title VII for Sexual Harass-
ment by Supervisory Employees," Capital L. Rev. 10
(1981):499, 529.
7. 29 C.F.R. 1604.11 et seq.
8. See Kyriazi v. We s t e rn Ele ct ric C o ., 461 F. Supp.
984 (D.N.J. 1978).
9. MacKin n o n , "In t ro duct io n Se xual Haras s me n t Sympo s ium,"
C apit al U.L. Re v. 10 (1981) :i.
10. The argume n t for ho ldin g in s t it ut io n s as we ll as in div-
iduals re s po n s ible for haras s me n t is be yo n d the s co pe
of this pie ce . See Ve rme ule n , "Emplo ye r Liabilit y un -
de r Tit le VII for Se xual Haras s me n t by Supe rvis o ry Em-
plo ye e s ," C apit al L. Re v. 10 (1981):499; and Taub,
"Ke e pin g Wo me n in The ir Place : St e re o t ypin g Pe r Se as
a Fo rm of Emplo yme n t Dis crimin at io n ," Bo s t o n C .L.
Re v. 20 (1980):345.
11. It go e s almo s t wit ho ut s ayin g that o rgan ize rs mus t take
care to s afe guard co mplain an t s ' co n fide n t ialit y un t il
they are sure they wan t to go public.
12. This is not to say that co mplain t s and de fe n dan t s will
not have diffe re n t pe rs pe ct ive s on the s pe cifics of
the pro ce dure s to be e mplo ye d.
BETTYLOU VALENTINE
Women on Welfare: Public Policy and
Institutional Racism (1981)
This essay will explore briefly the persistence of certain
ideas about "the poor," who they are and what they deserve,
and it will attempt to identify and trace the influence and
effects of racist and sexist ideas on American welfare pol i -
cy and practice. With a clear idea of how and why current
policies evolved, it will be possible to suggest what we as
women can do about these problems.
I will concentrate on a single category of the income as-
sistance social welfare programs set up by the 1935 Social
Security Act. Title IV of that act established the federal-
state program for aid to dependent children (1). At the
present time, Aid to Families of Dependent Children (AFDC)
(2) involves the largest number of people receiving public
assistance, and in a few years i t will be the costliest cate-
gorical program (3). The most recent figures available from
the Social Security Administration indicate that, as of July
1980, there were 3,704,489 families representing 10,733,700
persons receiving payments under the dependent children pro-
gram (4). Although overall monthly expenditures passed the
billion-dollar mark for the fi rst time in that same month,
this represented only an average monthly payment of $277.48
per family (5). In 1970 when 6 percent of al l American chi l -
dren were beneficiaries of AFDC, benefits cost $5 billion
for the year, or .5 percent of national income (6).
Ninety-three percent of al l the children in this category
of assistance lived with their mothers, whereas only 13 per-
cent had fathers at home in 1977. Between 1965 and 1974, fe-
male-headed families with children increased ten times as
fast as two-parent families in the United States. Half of
al l female-headed households are poor.
In the decades since the passage of aid-to-dependent-chil-
dren legislation, the make-up of the recipients has changed
from a small number of white widows and their children (61
percent when the program was i ni t i at ed) (8) to the current
situation where many AFDC families are members of racial
minorities. As of 1979 the largest single group of families
Wo me n o n Welfare 277
wit h de pe n de n t childre n (43 pe rce n t ) was Black. Jus t un de r
41 pe rce n t we re whit e , and a little o ve r 12 pe rce n t we re His -
pan ic familie s (9). In co mme n t in g on the chan ge , one aut ho r
po in t s out that "t he po pular image of the chie f be n e ficia-
rie s has chan ge d from that of o ld, re s pe ct able whit e pe o ple
to that of yo un g, immo ral Ne gro me n and wo me n " (10).
Parentage and B irth
Fran klin D. Ro o s e ve lt was e le ct e d to the pre s ide n cy in 1932
wit h the large s t e le ct o ral majo rit y s in ce the C ivil War.
The co un t ry was in the mids t of the wo rs t e co n o mic co n di-
t io n s it had e ve r faced whe n the admin is t rat io n pro po s e d and
pas s e d le gis lat io n that o ve rt urn e d two hun dre d ye ars of Ame r-
ican re lie f-givin g.
The Fe de ral Eme rge n cy Re lie f Admin is t rat io n (FERA) bro ke
all pre ce de n t s . . . . For the firs t t ime , the fe de ral
go ve rn me n t as s ume d re s po n s ibilit y for re lie f and appro -
priat e d s ubs t an t ial fun ds to carry out that re s po n s ibili-
t y. . . And while the act stated that the fe de ral ad-
min is t rat o r s ho uld co o pe rat e wit h s t at e and local
age n cie s , it als o allo we d for the fe de ralizat io n of
state pro grams that failed to co n fo rm wit h fe de ral s t an -
dards . . . . Of all the n e w pro grams it was FERA that
re ache d those who we re mo s t in n e e d. . . . Since blacks
got lit t le fro m (or we re act ually harme d by) mo s t pro -
grams , 30 pe rce n t of the black po pulat io n ended up on
the dire ct re lie f ro lls by Jan uary 1935. (11)
Dire ct re lie f was s ho rt -live d. The first gran t s we re made
to the s t at e s in May 1933. In Jun e 1936, FERA was re place d
by the Wo rks Pro gre s s Admin is t rat io n (WPA) (12). It has
be e n s ugge s t e d that the chan ge from a dire ct re lie f pro gram
to a wo rk re lie f pro gram we n t far toward mo de rat in g civil
dis o rde r. Dire ct re lie f may pe rmit dis o rde r to wo rs e n s in ce
it is not un e mplo yme n t alo n e that le ads to dis o rde r but the
de t e rio rat io n of s o cial co n t ro l n o rmally as s e rt e d t hro ugh
wo rk. This argume n t ho lds that the chie f fun ct io n of re lie f
pro grams is to re gulat e labor by abs o rbin g and co n t ro llin g
e n o ugh of the t ro uble s o me un e mplo ye d. The n whe n the t urbu-
lence s ubs ide s , t he s e pe o ple are e xpe lle d to po pulat e the
lo w-pay labor marke t (13).
Be fo re FERA was kille d, the s t aff at t e mpt e d to in flue n ce
the So cial Se curit y le gis lat io n then be in g drawn up. C o n -
gre s s re je ct e d the FERA staff pro po s al that s imple lack of
mo n e y s ho uld be the bas is for co ve rage un de r the So cial Se cu-
ri t y Act. Instead the absence of a parent was imposed as a
condition for aid to dependent children.
In addition, FERA's history and influence were deeply re-
sented by southern politicians and economic i nt erest s. Con-
gressmen from the South were influential enough to set a num-
ber of conditions for passage of the act. For instance,
wording that would have required grants to be "compatible
with decency and health" was eliminated, thus allowing l o-
cal administrators to set grant levels. Unlike FERA, the So-
cial Security Administration was to be given l i t t l e authori-
ty over the st at es. The main push for narrow coverage and
local autonomy was successful. "The Southerners were accom-
modated as the price of peace, because, as always they were
in strategic positions in the Congress and because the per-
missible range of federal authority was s t i l l very much in
doubt" (14).
It is also important to note that al l the categorical pro-
grams were of minor importance in the framing of the Social
Security Act. They were included because of special plead-
ing by interest groups, such as the Children's Bureau and
local associations for the blind.
The designs of FERA planners to ut i l i ze the AFDC program
as the entering wedge for a federally subsidized general as-
sistance program were nipped in the bud. AFDC was expected
to remain a rather small part of the overall public assi st -
ance picture, providing aid mainly to the children of wid-
ows. From 1935 to as late as 1950, l i t t l e attention was
paid to AFDC.
Growth and Change
In a report describing the fi rst decade of Social Security
service, the chairman of the Social Security Board had only
this to say of AFDC: "More fatherless children are receiv-
ing benefits under old-age and survivors' insurance than are
receiving aid to dependent children because of the death of
the father" (15).
In part, at l east , the complexity of state el i gi bi l i t y re-
quirements, a conscious lack of information about the availa-
bi l i t y of the program, and racial discrimination kept the
AFDC population small and white from 1935 to 1950. Only af-
ter World War II did the aid-to-dependent-children picture
change greatly. During the war, women moved into the labor
force in great numbers and were laid off when the war ended.
Large numbers of Black women and their families moved north
and west. As soldiers returned from the war, there was an
in cre as e in marriage s and birt hs but als o a rise in divo r-
ce s . Wo me n , bo t h Black and whit e , turned to the de pe n de n t -
childre n pro gram for as s is t an ce . The AFDC ro lls ke pt climb-
ing t hro ugh the 1950s and into the 1960s .
"What fueled this gro wt h was a s urge in the n umbe r of mo t h-
e rs who had to t urn to public as s is t an ce not be caus e of the
de at h or in capacit at io n of t he ir hus ban ds , but be caus e they
e it he r had no hus ban d or we re s e parat e d from him" (16). In
1937, un marrie d mo t he rs acco un t e d for only 3.5 pe rce n t of
childre n on ADC and five s t at e s had no un marrie d mo t he rs at
all on the pro gram (17). In 1940, ADC de s e rt io n cas e s we re
cat chin g up on de at h cas e s , and bo t h we re mo re s ign ifican t
pro ble ms than ille git imacy (18). By 1950, the AFDC ro lls
had do uble d n at io n wide . Be t we e n 1960 and 1967, the AFDC
ro lls jumpe d by 2 millio n in dividuals and then do uble d again
in the n e xt fo ur ye ars . Vario us re as o n s have be e n advan ce d
to e xplain this gro wt h.
Scho lars s t ill dis put e whe t he r this o ccurre d be caus e of
a bas ic chan ge in the family pat t e rn s of the po o r pro -
duce d by urban izat io n , or be caus e of the dis appe aran ce
of low s kill jo bs for the latest urban immigran t s , or be -
caus e of an in cre as e in part icipat io n rat e s pro mpt e d by
be t t e r we lfare be n e fit s . (19)
Public o pin io n , s uppo rt e d by some acade mic an alys t s ,
t urn e d in cre as in gly again s t we lfare mo t he rs and the po o r.
So cio lo gis t Walt e r B. Mille r be gan to apply the idea of a
"cult ure of po ve rt y" to de s cribe AFDC familie s (20). Acade m-
ic-po lit ician Dan ie l Pat rick Mo yn ihan issued a highly publi-
cized re po rt on the Ne gro family in which he as s e rt e d that
"the s t e ady e xpan s io n of . . . [the AFDC ] pro gram, as of pub-
lic as s is t an ce pro grams in ge n e ral, can be t ake n as a me a-
sure of the s t e ady dis in t e grat io n of the Ne gro family s t ruc-
ture o ve r the pas t ge n e rat io n in the Un it e d St at e s ." This
re po rt main t ain e d that the Black family had be co me so dis -
o rgan ize d that "t he pre s e n t t an gle of pat ho lo gy is capable
of pe rpe t uat in g it s e lf wit ho ut as s is t an ce from the whit e
wo rld" (21).
This e xplan at io n of the we lfare in cre as e was challe n ge d by
man y acade mics (22). A Bro o kin gs In s t it ut io n e co n o mic e valu-
at io n of AFDC co n clude d that e ve n if all fe male -he ade d fami-
lies that came in t o e xis t e n ce be t we e n 1959 and 1966 had ap-
plied for and re ce ive d AFDC (which they had n o t ), o n ly abo ut
10 pe rce n t of the in cre as e wo uld have be e n acco un t e d for
(23).
Fran ce s Pive n and Richard C lo ward s ugge s t t hat , rat he r
28 0 Control through Institution and Ideology
t han in dicat in g a "t an gle of pat ho lo gy," the AFDC e xplo s io n
s ign ale d a chan ge in the n at io n al po lit ical s ce n e bro ught
abo ut by rapid e co n o mic chan ge which in clude d mas s un e mplo y-
me n t , forced urban migrat io n , and a dimin ut io n of s o cial
co n t ro l.
In the 1960's , the gro win g mas s of black po o r in the cit -
ies e me rge d as a po lit ical fo rce for the first t ime ,
bo t h in the vo t in g bo o t hs and in the s t re e t s . And the
re lie f s ys t e m was , we be lie ve , one of the main local in -
s t it ut io n s to re s po n d to that fo rce , e ve n though the re -
act io n was gre at ly de laye d. (24)
The in t e lle ct ual and po lit ical co n ce n t rat io n on racial
rat he r than ge n de r as pe ct s of the we lfare po pulat io n we n t on
e ve n though Blacks we re s t ill a n ume rical min o rit y of the
AFDC ro lls in the 1960s and 1970s . Un fo rt un at e ly, this
me an t that
Ot he r fact o rs that might have made for a mo re t ho ught ful
as s e s s me n t of the pro ble m got little at t e n t io n . It did
not s e e m to mat t e r, for e xample , that divo rce and s e para-
t io n we re als o re achin g un us ually high le ve ls amo n g
middle -clas s familie s ; . . . or that public po licy e n -
co urage d the de part ure of fat he rs fro m po o r familie s by
makin g such de part ure the majo r re quis it e for re ce ipt of
public as s is t an ce . The mo t he rs of de pe n de n t childre n on
public as s is t an ce s t ill t o o k the blame , alt e rin g s ign ifi-
can t ly the t radit io n al co n ce pt of who was de s e rvin g of
public aid. (25)
Suitable Homes, Substitute Fathers, and Surp rise Visits
State and local admin is t rat io n of the AFDC pro gram was de -
signed to pe n alize the we lfare mo t he r and he r childre n , not
o n ly by s upplyin g low le ve ls of aid, but by makin g e ligibili-
ty a co mplicat e d and n e gat ive pro ce s s , by applyin g rule s of
"fit n e s s ," by pro s e cut in g re cipie n t s for adult e ry, fo rn ica-
t io n , and n e gle ct whe n childre n we re bo rn o ut of we dlo ck,
and by t hre at e n in g to take childre n from their mo t he rs (26).
This pro ce s s of in t imidat io n be gan imme diat e ly aft e r pas s -
age of the So cial Se curit y Act , but s t at e rule s pro life rat e d
as the AFDC ro lls gre w. Le gal re fo rms of these abus e s we re
not s ucce s s ful un t il the late 1960s whe n man y challe n ge s
we re bro ught by the legal s e rvice s pro gram of the Office of
Eco n o mic De ve lo pme n t (OED) as part of the War on Po ve rt y pro -
gram (27).
"C haract e r" and "mo ralit y" rule s we re o ft e n applie d to
AFDC re cipie n t s t ho ugh n e ve r to the be n e ficiarie s of o t he r
Women on Welfare 281
categorical programs or to the recipients of Social Security
insurance programs in which men make up the majority of the
recipient population. Only in 1960, when Louisiana enacted
a retroactive suitable-home law that would have cut thirty
thousand people from the welfare r ol l s, did the federal gov-
ernment become involved. Even then federal involvement was
delayed until after the November election of the liberal
John Kennedy. The Secretary of Health, Education and Wel-
fare, charged with federal supervision of public welfare,
ruled that states could not discharge families with i l l egi t i -
mate children from the rolls unless provision was made for
placement of the children in an institution or foster home
(28). This rule was added to the Social Security Act in
1966. Despite the law, states s t i l l discouraged potentially
eligible recipients by threatening them with state "neglect"
statutes (29).
Implicit in the provision of aid to dependent children is
the assumption that men are expected to provide for their
families and that the government steps into that role only
because of the man's "death, continued absence from the
home, or physical or mental incapacity" (30). The govern-
ment becomes the father and as a requirement for continued
aid specifies that no other man may have a relationship with
the mother or children. For instance, in 1950, South
Carolina policy stated that children would not be considered
"deprived" if there was "any man with whom the mother had a
common-law relationship." In 1952, Georgia adopted a regula-
tion that applied to substitute fathers "in or around the
home." Michigan had a similar rule. Massachusetts said
that no male other than the woman's father or brother could
live in her house. Alabama prohibited AFDC mothers from "go-
ing with" a man (31).
The prohibition against "substitute fathers" was enforced
through surprise investigations that were mandatory and de-
grading in the extreme. Such vi si t s by social workers might
occur at any hour of the day or night. Women protested and
attempted to secure the same privacy generally vouchsafed to
men and those not receiving welfare support. By arguing an
interpretation of the "person's home is his castle" princi-
ple women learned that they could refuse to let investi-
gators enter and search their homes. But the welfare agen-
cies pointed out that in such cases aid could be cut off for
"refusal to cooperate" (32).
Although the suitable-home and substitute-father provi-
sions are often stated in moral terms, Piven and Cloward
point to an economic function for these and similar mea-
sures .
Their economic effect is to ensure a pool of marginal
workers. . . . When a large pool of low-paid labor is
28 2 Control through Institution and Ideology
n e e de d by e co n o mic e n t e rpris e s , me n alo n e may not pro -
vide a s ufficie n t s upply. C o n s e que n t ly, re lie f arran ge -
me n t s will be adjus t e d to ke e p wo me n in the labor po o l;
acco rdin g to a re ce n t s t udy, fully 87 pe r cent of the
we lfare mo t he rs in one No rt he rn city had be e n or we re
wo rkin g. (33)
Women, Welfare, and Work
"Whe t he r wo rk was co mpe lle d t hro ugh admin is t rat ive de man d or
a re s ult of pe rs o n al cho ice , a gre at de al of wo rk was do n e
by ADC mo t he rs in the firs t t we n t y-five ye ars of the pro -
gram" (34). Black wo me n on AFDC had always be e n e xpe ct e d to
acce pt do me s t ic wo rk or wo rk in the fie lds in the No rt h as
we ll as the So ut h. Ne w Je rs e y and Illin o is as we ll as Lo ui-
s ian a and Ge o rgia re fus e d to aid wo me n whe n s e as o n al field
wo rk was available . Emplo yme n t t rain in g pro grams un de r we l-
fare aus pice s o ft e n gave wo me n "wo rk e xpe rie n ce " in dis hwas h-
ing and he avy cle an in g (35).
De s pit e the lo w-pay, de ad-e n d jo bs available to mo s t AFDC
mo t he rs , man y wo me n do wo rk. St udie s abo ut AFDC mo t he rs who
wo rk s ho w that such wo me n have a long as s o ciat io n wit h the
labor marke t but s ho rt e mplo yme n t pe rio ds . Fo r e xample , one
s t udy s ho ws that 30 pe rce n t of AFDC mo t he rs had be e n wo rkin g
just be fo re re ce ipt of AFDC (36). A Ne w Yo rk City s urve y in
the late 1960s found that e ight of ten AFDC mo t he rs had wo rk
e xpe rie n ce (37). In 1970, a fe de ral go ve rn me n t s urve y of
AFDC found that 61 pe rce n t of mo t he rs had be e n e mplo ye d pre -
vio us ly and appro ximat e ly 15 pe rce n t wo rk while re ce ivin g as -
s is t an ce (38). A n at io n al s urve y co n duct e d in 1977 showed
that "abo ut one in s e ve n AFDC mo t he rs had full or part -t ime
jo bs . One in t e n was s e e kin g wo rk. Fo ur o ut of ten mo t h-
e rs , ho we ve r, co uld not wo rk be caus e they we re n e e de d at
ho me to care for s mall childre n " (39).
Ne ve rt he le s s , the po lit ically po t e n t image pe rs is t s that
AFDC mo t he rs s hirk wo rk. This is the image that led C o n -
gre s s to set up the Wo rk In ce n t ive Pro gram (WIN) in 1967.
This pro gram made wo rk a re quire me n t for all adult AFDC re -
cipie n t s e xce pt those in capacit at e d or n e e de d in the ho me be -
caus e of the illn e s s of an o t he r family me mbe r. Mo s t impo r-
tant ,
The 1967 ame n dme n t s in e ffe ct o fficially re clas s ifie d
mo t he rs o f de pe n de n t childre n fro m the de s e rvin g to the
n o n de s e rvin g cat e go ry o f the po o r [e mphas is adde d].
The as s umpt io n was that s izable n umbe rs of t he s e mo t he rs
co uld be put to wo rk, an as s umpt io n that o ve rlo o ke d the
fact that many already did work but earned too l i t t l e to
take themselves out of poverty. (40)
The WIN program offered 120,000 training slots to the
1,320,448 parents on the rol l s in 1967 (41). Gender discrim-
ination was written into the WIN program. The Department of
Labor, which jointly administered the program, gave highest
priority to unemployed fathers. When women were allowed in-
to the program, they were trained as clerks and typists
while the men were taught higher paying crafts and ski l l s.
"As a resul t , in 1974 more than twice as many women as men
entered jobs through the WIN program, but more men than wom-
en got off welfare as a result" (42).
In 1971, after women won a sex discrimination suit filed
against HEW and the Department of Labor, Congress amended
the WIN program to exclude most of the training and educa-
tion aspects. However, Congress blamed the failure of the
WIN program on "federal and state officials who did not
share this objective [Congress's desire to get able-bodied
welfare recipients into work and training] with equal enthu-
siasm" (43). The National Welfare Rights Organization presi -
dent, Beulah Sanders, declared, "We have no problem with
mothers working. We do have a problem about not paying them
adequately" (44).
What Needs to Be Done?
Poverty in America is increasingly becoming the poverty of
women and of Blacks (45). Nonwelfare women, Black and
white, need to work with welfare recipients to oppose budget
cuts, to eliminate unreasonable r est r i ct i ons, to expand mini-
mum standards, to provide child care for those who choose
training and work, and to push for training programs that do
not keep women in the same low-pay, low-skill jobs that are
a central factor in creating the welfare cr i s i s . These are
issues women should understand.
As middle-class and professional Black and white women, we
should be making these connections with other women across
race and class l i nes. The need is certainly well documen-
ted. For instance, the National Urban League found that
"over half of al l poor black households receive no welfare
assistance. Fifty-six percent of al l black households with
incomes under $6,000 are not on AFDC or General Assistance
(GA)" (46). One immediate task is to help those who are e l i -
gible to receive their entitlements.
Although such short-term work is vi t al l y necessary, i t is
not enough, as Carol Stack has said.
It is cle ar that me re re fo rm of e xis t in g pro grams can
n e ve r be e xpe ct e d to e limin at e an impo ve ris he d clas s in
Ame rica. The e ffe ct of such pro grams is that they main -
tain the e xis t e n ce of such a clas s . We lfare pro grams
me re ly act as fle xible me chan is ms to alle viat e the mo re
o bvio us s ympt o ms of po ve rt y while in chin g fo rward just
e n o ugh to purchas e acquie s ce n ce and s ile n ce on the part
of the me mbe rs of this clas s and their libe ral s up-
po rt e rs . (47)
A re vie w of the last 450 ye ars of We s t e rn we lfare t he o ry
and pract ice s ho ws that pre s e n t day we lfare has be e n alt e re d
in form but not in philo s o phy (48). Then as n o w o ur e co n o m-
ic and s o cial s ys t e m he ld that po o r pe o ple s ho uld be taught
that they have no claim of right o n s o cie t y. And po licy
make rs co n t in ue to be lie ve , in the face of co n t in ue d e vi-
de n ce to the co n t rary, that the privat e labor marke t as pre s -
e n t ly co n s t it ut e d can pro vide s ufficie n t in co me to those co n -
s ide re d e mplo yable . De s pit e fe de ral and state co mmit me n t s
to full e mplo yme n t , the labor marke t in the Un it e d States
can n o t pro vide jo bs for all the pe o ple who wan t to wo rk.
This is part icularly t rue in pe rio ds of cris is such as the
1929 De pre s s io n and o ur curre n t mas s ive un e mplo yme n t . We
mus t re co gn ize this and mo ve fo rward to build a s o cie t y that
can and will pro vide wo rk and s uppo rt as a mat t e r of right .
In co n clus io n , this advice from Ro s a Luxe mburg s e e ms e s pe -
cially appro priat e :
I see wit h de pre s s in g clarit y that n e it he r t hin gs n o r
pe o ple can be chan ge dun t il the who le s it uat io n has
chan ge d. . . . That 's ho w I see mat t e rs , but the chie f
t hin g is to ke e p yo ur chin up and n o t get too e xcit e d
abo ut it . Our job will take ye ars .
Notes
So cial Se curit y Admin is t rat io n , So cial Se curit y Bulle -
t in An n ual St at is t ical Supple me n t 1977-1979 (Was hin g-
t o n , D.C .: So cial Se curit y Admin is t rat io n , 1980), pp.
44-46.
Whe n pas s e d in 1935, the pro gram was titled Aid to De -
pe n de n t C hildre n (ADC ) and gave no mo n e y toward the
s uppo rt of the care t ake r of the childre n . In 1950,
this was chan ge d whe n the pro gram was re t it le d Aid to
Familie s of De pe n de n t C hildre n (AFDC ) and payme n t for
an adult care t ake r, us ually the mo t he r, was pro vide d.
The AFDC n ame will be used t hro ugho ut this pape r.
3. Gilbe rt Y. St e in e r, So cial In s e curit y: The Po lit ics
of We lfare (Ne w Yo rk: Rand McNally & C o ., 1966),p.
31. C at e go rical pro grams , un like s o cial in s uran ce pro -
grams , de fin e a cat e go ry of pe o ple to be he lpe d
(blin d, dis able d, o rphan s ) and s pe cify a n e e ds test to
de t e rmin e e ligibilit y and rate of co mpe n s at io n . Le s -
ter M. Salamo n , We lfare the Elus ive C o n s e n s us (New
Yo rk: Prae ge r Publis he rs , 1978), p. 11.
4. So cial Se curit y Bulle t in 44 (May 1981):5.
5. Payme n t le ve ls diffe r gre at ly fro m s t at e to s t at e .
6. Un ive rs it y of Wis co n s in In s t it ut e for Re s e arch on Po ve r-
t y, The "De s e rvin g Po o r" (C hicago : Markham Publis h-
ing C o ., 1973), p. ix.
7. Salamo n , Elus ive C o n s e n s us , p. 105.
8. Lucy Ko mis ar, Do wn and Out in the U.S.A.: A His t o ry o f
So cial We lfare (New Yo rk: Fran klin Wat t s , 1973), p.
65.
9. Family As s is t an ce St udie s St aff, AFDC : A C hart bo o k
(Was hin gt o n , D.C .: So cial Se curit y Admin is t rat io n ,
1979), p. 28.
10. St e in e r, So cial In s e curit y, p. 7.
11. Fran ce s Fo x Pive n and Richard A. C lo ward, Re gulat in g
the Po o r: The Fun ct io n s o f Public We lfare (New Yo rk:
Ran do m Ho us e Vin t age Bo o ks Edit io n , 1972), p. 76.
12. Ibid., p. 74.
13. Ibid., p. 348.
15. So cial Se curit y Bulle t in 8 (Augus t 1945):2.
17. Mildre d Re in , Wo rk o r We lfare ? Fact o rs in the C ho ice
fo r AFDC Mo t he rs (New Yo rk: Prae ge r Publis he rs ,
1974), p. 8~i
20. Walt e r B. Mille r, "Implicat io n s of Urban Lo we r C las s
C ult ure for So cial Wo rk," So cial Se rvice Re vie w 33
(1959):219-36.
21. Dan ie l P. Mo yn ihan , The Ne gro Family (Was hin gt o n ,
D.C .: U.S. De part me n t of Labo r, 1965), pp. 14, 17.
22. Ele an o r Le aco ck, e d., The C ult ure o f Po ve rt y: A C ri-
t ique (New Yo rk: Simon & Schus t e r, 1971); Pive n and
C lo ward, Re gulat in g the Po o r, pp. 189-98; William
Ryan , Blamin g the Vict im (Ne w Yo rk: Ran do m Ho us e ,
1971); C harle s A. Vale n t in e , C ult ure and Po ve rt y:
C rit ique and C o un t e rpro po s als (C hicago : Un ive rs it y
of C hicago Pre s s , 1968).
23. Irene Lurie , An Eco n o mic Evaluat io n of Aid to
Familie s wit h De pe n de n t C hildre n (Was hin gt o n , D.C .:
Bro o kin gs In s t it ut io n , 1968), p. 131.
24. Pive n and C lo ward, Re gulat in g the Po o r, p. 196.
25. Salaraon, Elus ive C o n s e n s us , p. 84.
26. Ko mis ar, Do wn and Out , pp. 72-90.
27. Ibid., pp. 106-34; Pive n and C lo ward, Re gulat in g the
Po o r, pp. 306-20.
28. Pive n and C lo ward, Re gulat in g the Po o r, p. 140f.
29. Ko mis ar, Do wn and Out , p. 77.
30. Family As s is t an ce St udie s St aff, AFDC , p. 10. Al-
t ho ugh the Tit le IV le gis lat io n co ve rs childre n un de r
age s ixt e e n "de prive d of pare n t al s uppo rt " and s pe ci-
fies that the child may live wit h "a fat he r, mo t he r,
gran dpare n t " o r six to e ight o t he r cat e go rie s of re la-
t ive s , the pro gram has always be e n seen as a pro gram
for wo me n and t he ir childre n . In 1979, four of five
AFDC familie s had o n ly o n e adult re cipie n t ; us ually it
was the mo t he r.
31. Ko mis ar, Do wn and Out , pp. 79-81.
32. Ibid., p. 82.
33. Pive n and C lo ward, Re gulat in g t he Po o r, p. 128.
34. Re in , Wo rk o r We lfare ?, p. 9.
36. Elain e M. Burge s s and Dan ie l 0. Price , An Ame rican De -
pe n de n cy C halle n ge (C hicago : Ame rican Public We lfare
As s o ciat io n , 1963), p. 250.
37. Lawre n ce Po de ll, Familie s o n We lfare in Ne w Yo rk C it y:
Pre limin ary Re po rt (New Yo rk: C e n t e r for So cial Re -
s e arch, Graduat e C e n t e r, City Un ive rs it y of Ne w Yo rk,
1967), p. 16.
38. U.S. De part me n t of He alt h, Educat io n and We lfare , Se rvi-
ces to AFDC Familie s : An n ual Re po rt Submit t e d to the
C o n gre s s 1971-1972 (Was hin gt o n , D.C .: U.S. Go ve rn -
me n t Prin t in g Office , May 1973), Table 38.
39. Family As s is t an ce St udie s St aff, AFDC , p. 10.
41. U.S. De part me n t of Labo r, Pe rs pe ct ive s o n Wo rkin g
Wo me n : A Dat abo o k (Was hin gt o n , D.C .: Bure au of
Labo r St at is t ics , Oct o be r 1980), p. 78.
43. Ibid., p. 155.
44. Ibid., p. 149.
45. Ibid., p. 151. Ko mis ar pre s e n t s 1972 ce n s us dat a to s up-
port the vie w that po ve rt y in the Un it e d St at e s is
large ly a pro ble m for wo me n and their familie s :
Pe o ple in Po ve rt y by Family He ad
White male 10,635,000
Black male 3,367,000
White female 7,145,000
Black female 4,129,000
46. National Urban League Research Department, The Myth of
Income Cushions for Blacks (New York: National Urban
League, 1980), p. i v.
47. Carol Stack, All Our Kin: St rat egi es for Survival in a
Black Community (New York: Harper & Row, 1974), p.
127.
48. Komisar, Down and Out, pp. 1-42.
CHERYL TOWNSEND GILKES
From Slavery to Social Welfare: Racism
and the Control of Black Women (1981)
The control of Black women in American society requires spe-
cial reflection in the light of their history in a racist so-
ciety. For the mass of Black people, America's recent turn
to the right represents a reinforcement of traditional struc-
tures and attitudes shaped by racism. Black people, as per-
petual outsiders, live an existence exploitatively separated
from the mainstream of American society. Black women share
that separate existence, and their historical roles as work-
ers, women, and activists have been shaped by this separate
real i t y. Black women's pol i t i cal actions behind and beyond
the color line have contributed to an intergenerational lega-
cy on behalf of "the race," fostering relationships of a spe-
cial character among Black women and Black men. The modifi-
cations of women's roles within the Black community as a
result of, and as a response t o, racism have exposed Black
women to a wide variety of ideological punishments; these
stereotyped images have developed as extra dimensions of con-
t r ol , further isolating Black women as punishment for their
creative activism and their ski l l at survival. The image of
Black people as dangerous takes a peculiar twist when it is
applied to Black women.
These special dimensions in the control of Black women are
important to understand with reference to the racial di vi -
sions, or apparent color lines, in the popular mainstream of
the women's movement. Does the reinforcement of traditional
modes of racism and the retrenchment in the face of the
gains of the civil rights movement mean that the gap between
Black and white women's struggles will widen further? The
threat of the New Right to the solidarity of women is a func-
tion of the degree to which the New Right is able to rein-
force the old wrong of racism. This paper analyzes the na-
ture of racism and the control of Black women by examining
the structures and processes that shape and determine the
struggles of Black women. I submit that the threat of the
old wrong of racism is one of the most important tools in
the hands of the New Right in i t s renewed war against women.
The Control of Black Women 289
Perp etual Outsiders: Racism as a System of Social Control
Whe n the vo t e s of 4 No ve mbe r 1980 we re t allie d, Black pe o -
ple , acco rdin g to David Bro de r, "e n de d up as the mo s t co n -
s picuo us o ut s ide rs at the n e w go ve rn me n t 's vict o ry ce le bra-
t io n t he only gro up in the co un t ry to give 90% of its vote
to the losing can didat e " (1). Ho we ve r, Black pe o ple pre s e n t -
ly are o n ly o ut s ide rs to a mo re e xt re me de gre e than in
re ce n t ye ars . While fulfillin g an his t o rical role vit al
to the de ve lo pme n t of capit al and the s t abilizat io n of clas s
re lat io n s in the Un it e d St at e s , Black pe o ple have be e n an
is o lat e d and co n t ain e d co mmun it y wit hin whit e Ame rica. They
have be e n pe rpe t ual o ut s ide rs .
Out s ide rs , acco rdin g to Ho ward Be cke r's an alys is of de vi-
ance and s o cial co n t ro l (2), are pe o ple who e licit re act io n s
from o t he rs de s ign e d to is o lat e , to s e parat e , and o t he rwis e
to co n t ain the gro up in a mo rally s t igmat ize d s t at us in s o ci-
e t y. So cie t y in it iat e s the pro ce s s of s o cial co n t ro la po w-
er co n t e s t who s e aim is to co n fin e s o cially and phys ically
the de vian t gro up. In the n o rmal lan guage of de vian ce and
s o cial co n t ro lan d these two co n ce pt s are us ually lin ke d
we o ft e n s pe ak of po lice o ffice rs , ps ychiat ris t s , and pris o n
warde n s as be in g the age n t s of s o cial (us ually crimin al) co n -
t ro l. Whe n vie win g racis m as a s ys t e m of s o cial co n t ro l, it
is impo rt an t to un de rs t an d that the pro ce s s of cre at in g and
main t ain in g gro up s ubo rdin at io n i_s_ an act of s o cial co n -
t ro l. Thus , de pe n din g upo n the his t o rical pe rio d, Black pe o -
ple have faced a varie d cast of charact e rs as age n t s of
s o cial co n t ro lplan t at io n o wn e rs , the Ku Klux Klan , Dixie -
crat s , s he riffs , Whit e C it ize n s C o un cils , po lice me n , s cho o l-
t e ache rs , we lfare in ve s t igat o rs , e mplo ye rs (male and fe -
male ), ho us in g aut ho rit ie s , and in t e lle ct uals . The s e and
man y, man y mo re de t e rmin e , dire ct ly and in dire ct ly, the qual-
ity of e ve ryday life in the co lo n y-like urban and rural ghe t -
toes whe re the mas s e s of Black pe o ple s t ill re s ide .
The age n t s of co n t ro l in a racis t s o cie t y re pre s e n t the
prin cipal fo cus of s t ruggle for me mbe rs of the s ubo rdin at e
co mmun it y. Fo r Black pe o ple in Ame rica, t he ir e ve ryday
lives and their po lit ical s t ruggle s are de fin e d by the s pe -
cific t e chn ique s o f re pre s s io n as s o ciat e d wit h racis m in a
give n his t o rical pe rio d. The threat of the Ne w Right re pre -
s e n t s a re s urge n ce e and re -cre at io n of do min an t cult ure
s t rat e gie s to main t ain the is o lat io n and co n t ain me n t of the
Black co mmun it y. Thus the Re agan admin is t rat io n s ymbo lize s
a mo re de t e rmin e d push to main t ain the his t o rical o ppre s s io n
of a t o t al co mmun it y. Black wo me n are n o w and always have
be e n pivo t al figure s in the Black co mmun it y's re s po n s e to
racis m. Un t il re ce n t ly, Black wo me n have be e n po s it ive ly
sanctioned by the total Black community in their various in-
surgent roles.
Black Women: A Separate Experience
In order to understand the dynamics of control in the lives
of Black women, one must take into account the ways in which
they experience racism and racism's impact on their roles as
womenwomen workers, the biological and social reproducers
of the Black community, and peculiarly situated agents of so-
cial change. Occasionally, Black women have been required
by force or economic circumstances to participate in the so-
cial reproduction of the ruling class as well. The special
nature of Black women's relationships to dominant culture
settings has made them a very special threat to the st ruc-
ture of racism and the ideology of patriarchy.
The work history of Black women has been in t ot al opposi-
tion and contradiction to the central themes of patriarchal
ideology. Black women have a work history over 3 1/2 centur-
ies long. During slavery, Black women participated fully in
every facet of plantation labor as well as town and city
work. It is unfortunate that the life of Linda Brent (3) is
the only major female slave narrative sold in feminist book-
stores; i t misses the modal r eal i t i es of slave women's exis-
tence on large plantations as field hands. The vast majori-
ty of Black women on plantations did precisely the same work
as men.
Black women's roles as biological mothers and children' s
caretakers were performed in addition to their central
tasks at the cutting edge of capitalism. Eugene Genovese's
examination of plantation records showed that women were
named as the best field hands as often as men (4). There ex-
isted no material basis for sexual division of labor in the
central tasks of slave work.
Angela Davis's seminal analysis of the Black woman's posi-
tion in the slave quarters community helps us not only to un-
derstand the roots of Black women's separate experience but
also to reflect upon the quality of the social roles they
have shaped through resistance (5). The slave woman shoul-
dered major responsibility for the quality of the slaves' in-
tragroup l i f e. Davis st at es:
It was the woman who was charged with keeping the home
in order. This role was dictated by the male suprema-
cist ideology of white society in America. . . . As her
biological destiny, she bore the fruits of procreation;
as her social destiny, she cooked, sewed, washed,
The Control of Black Wo me n 291
cle an e d ho us e , raised the childre n . Tradit io n ally the
labor of fe male s , do me s t ic wo rk is s uppo s e d to co mple -
me n t and co n firm t he ir in fe rio rit y. [in s t e ad] . . .
[the s lave wo man ] was pe rfo rmin g the o n ly labo r of the
s lave co mmun it y which co uld not be dire ct ly and imme di-
at e ly claime d by the o ppre s s o r. (6)
The implicat io n s of he r wo rk wit hin the s lave co mmun it y
we re such that the Black wo man be came "t he care t ake r of a
ho us e ho ld of re s is t an ce o f the de gre e to which she co uld
co n cre t e ly e n co urage those aro un d he r to ke e p t he ir e ye s on
fre e do m" (7). The e qual wo rk of the fie lds and o t he r plan t a-
tion cho re s co mbin e d wit h he r do me s t ic le ade rs hip ro le s in
such a way as to s hare wit h Black me n "the de fo rme d e qualit y
o f e qual o ppre s s io n " (8). The mo de l of wo man ho o d de ve lo pe d
in the slave co mmun it y was in dire ct co n t radict io n to pat ri-
archal ide o lo gie s which de fin e d the image s of free whit e wo m-
en (9).
The ro le s of Black wo me n wit hin the slave co mmun it y and
wit hin the slave labor s ys t e m magn ifie d the threat they
posed to the e n t ire s ys t e m. As wo rke rs , Black wo me n availe d
t he ms e lve s of the same o ppo rt un it ie s for wo rk s t o ppage and
s abo t age as me n ; bo t h Davis and Apt he ke r s ho w cle arly that
Black wo me n part icipat e d fully in t he s e fo rms of slave re s is -
t an ce , as we ll as re be llio n s (10). Addit io n ally, as the
care t ake rs of childre n , Black wo me n we re re quire d to s o cial-
ize t he ir childre n to act as if s ubje ct to a s ys t e m in which
de at h was a price on n o n co mplian ce . Wo me n had s imult an e o us -
ly to teach t he ir childre n to ho pe for chan ge and to ado pt a
co un t e rcult ural co mmit me n t to t he ir imme diat e Black co m-
mun it y.
The s pe cial t e rro rs of re pre s s io n that we re re s e rve d for
s lave wo me n re pre s e n t e d an admis s io n by the s lave -ho ldin g
clas s that Black wo me n re pre s e n t e d a s pe cial t hre at if they
cho s e to fight . Thus the fo rce s of co n t ro l be came rape and
murde r alo n g wit h forced s e parat io n of familie s . Davis
cit e s e xample s of Black wo me n be in g s in gle d o ut for part icu-
larly brut al pun is hme n t s whe n they re s is t e d alo n g wit h me n :
the me n we re us ually han ge d while the wo me n we re burn e d
alive (11).
The wo rk ro le s of Black wo me n are o ft e n cited to e xplain
t he ir as s e rt ive n e s s , in de pe n de n ce , and s e lf-re lian ce , but it
is als o impo rt an t to e xamin e the his t o rical ro o t s of t he ir
po lit ical ro le s wit hin the Black co mmun it y. Davis as s e rt s ,
and right ly s o , t hat the impact of racis m durin g s lave ry was
such that
the black wo man has be e n co n t in ually co n s t rain e d to in -
ject he rs e lf into the de s pe rat e s t ruggle for e xis t e n ce .
. . As a re s ult , black wo me n have made s ign ifican t
co n t ribut io n s to s t ruggle s again s t racis m and the de hu-
man izin g e xplo it at io n of a wro n gly o rgan ize d s o cie t y.
In fact it wo uld appe ar that the in t e n s e levels of re s is -
t an ce his t o rically main t ain e d by black pe o ple and thus
the his t o rical fun ct io n of the Black Libe rat io n St ruggle
as harbin ge r of chan ge t hro ugho ut the s o cie t y are due in
part to the gre at e r o bje ct ive e qualit y be t we e n the black
man and the black wo man . (12)
Resp onse to Racism: B lack Women's Legacy of Struggle
The threat Black wo me n po s e to the o ppre s s ive s t ruct ure s of
Ame rican s o cie t y is an o ut co me of the pe culiar s hapin g of
their his t o rical ro le . The Black wo man is a threat to ra-
cis m in the labor fo rce and she is a threat to s e xis m in the
labor fo rce . Addit io n ally, t hro ugh he r o wn childre n , he r
s is t e r's childre n , and he r s hare d life wit h Black me n , the
Black wo man is a threat to e ve ry varie t y of racis m e xpre s s e d
in the qualit y of life of the Black co mmun it y and in the dis -
torted or n o n e xis t e n t o ppo rt un it y s t ruct ure for Black chil-
dre n .
Black wo me n be came a we 11-o rgan ize d force e arly in the po -
lit ical his t o ry of the Black co mmun it y. So jo urn e r Trut h and
Harrie t Tubman are famo us e xample s of man y o t he r less famo us
wo me n who part icipat e d in the buildin g of Black abo lit io n is t
mo ve me n t s . Aft e r s lave ry, t he s e wo me n o rgan ize d at t e mpt s to
alle viat e the s uffe rin gs of fre e dme n and fre e dwo me n . By the
end of the n in e t e e n t h ce n t ury, Black wo me n had formed two o r-
gan izat io n s , the C o lo re d Wo me n 's Le ague and the Nat io n al Fe d-
e rat io n of Afro -Ame rican Wo me n . The s e gro ups we re me rge d af-
ter t he ir n at io n al co n ve n t io n s of 1896 to fo rm the Nat io n al
As s o ciat io n of C o lo re d Wo me n 's C lubs (13). Alt ho ugh the e ar-
ly t we n t ie t h ce n t ury be gin s wit h a Black co mmun it y ide o lo gic-
ally divide d be t we e n the argume n t s of W.E.B. DuBo is and
Bo o ke r T. Was hin gt o n , Black wo me n , in s is t in g that "a wo man 's
mo ve me n t is a mo ve me n t led by wo me n " (14), dilige n t ly ad-
dre s s e d bo t h sets of co n ce rn s as part of t he ir club wo rk.
Alt ho ugh this was an e ra of fe min is m in Ame rican s o cie t y,
Black wo me n fo cus e d large ly on the pro ble ms of "the race "
which in clude d the pro ble ms o f bo t h wo rkin g me n and wo me n ,
lyn chin g, un io n izat io n , pris o n s , family life , and mut ual
aid, to n ame a fe w. The s e wo me n sent pro fe s s io n al o rgan -
ize rs into are as lackin g affiliat e d clubs and in it iat e d s ur-
ve ys on the s t at us of Black wo me n in the pro fe s s io n s , in dus -
try (fact o rie s and do me s t ic wo rk), and the ho me (15). The
co lo r bar in mo s t whit e wo me n 's clubs of that e ra, and the
acco mmo dat io n is t vie ws toward lyn chin g e s po us e d by noted
whit e fe min is t s , served to e xace rbat e the legally o rdain e d
s e parat io n be t we e n Black and whit e un de r a s ys t e m of "s e pa-
rate but e qual."
Fro m t he s e e arly o rgan izin g e ffo rt s , Black wo me n launched
a large n umbe r of wo me n 's o rgan izat io n s co n ce rn e d wit h e co n -
o mic, e ducat io n al, po lit ical, family, and re ligio us is s ue s .
The s e o rgan izat io n s pro vide d the bas is upo n which Mary
McLe o d Be t hun e o rgan ize d the Nat io n al C o un cil of Ne gro Wo m-
e n . By the middle of the De pre s s io n , Black pe o ple 's migra-
tion to n o rt he rn and midwe s t e rn in dus t rial ce n t e rs had again
place d civil right s on the n at io n al age n da. Mrs . Be t hun e , a
fo rme r pre s ide n t of the Nat io n al As s o ciat io n of C o lo re d Wo m-
e n 's C lubs , alo n g wit h o t he r Black wo me n le ade rs , felt it
n e ce s s ary for Black wo me n to main t ain a ce n t ralize d re s po n s e
and pre s s ure po in t at the n at io n al le ve l. Alo n g wit h the
fo un din g of the co un cil, Mrs . Be t hun e 's wo rk wit hin the
Ro o s e ve lt admin is t rat io n , wit hin the bo ard ro o ms of n at io n al
Black o rgan izat io n s , and as the fo un de r-pre s ide n t of a Black
co lle ge , re s ult e d in a vis ible and e ffe ct ive Black wo me n 's
lobby in Was hin gt o n , D.C . He r e ffo rt s als o cre at e d an e ffe c-
tive n e t wo rk of co mmun icat io n to and amo n g the mas s e s of
Black churchwo me n and clubwo me n (16).
Whe re as the mo t t o of the pre vio us ge n e rat io n of clubwo me n
had be e n "Lift in g as We C limb," re fle ct in g Black wo me n 's co n -
s cio us n e s s of t he ir po s it io n at the bo t t o m of a pe o ple s o re -
ly o ppre s s e d, the mo t t o of the De pre s s io n ge n e rat io n was
"Wo me n Un it e d," re fle ct in g the t ie s Black wo me n had forged
acro s s clas s , age , and cult ural lin e s . In the two jo urn als
publis he d by the co un cil, The Aframe rican Wo man 's Jo urn al
and Wo me n Un it e d, Black wo me n dis cus s e d and advan ce d s t rat -
e gie s co n ce rn in g s o ut he rn rural wo me n , urban wo me n in in dus -
try and do me s t ic wo rk, Black pro fe s s io n al wo me n , highe r e du-
cat io n , un io n izat io n , e co n o mic and s o cial pro ble ms affe ct in g
the Black family, birt h co n t ro l, juve n ile de lin que n cy, wo me n
and childe n un de r co lo n ialis m, and apart he id (17).
Bo t h of t he s e Black wo me n 's mo ve me n t s gre w out of and re in -
forced in t e rge n e rat io n al and lo calize d Black co mmun it y n e t -
wo rks of wo me n who we re ackn o wle dge d le ade rs in the local
and n at io n al public affairs of Afro -Ame rican s . The writ in gs
and the act ivit ie s of t he s e wo me n we re bo t h race -co n s cio us
and wo me n -ce n t e re d. While min dful o f the co n ce rn s of whit e
wo me n , Black wo me n co uld not ign o re the "Jan e C ro w" of the
wo me n 's wo rld n o r co uld they t o le rat e the o pe n co llabo ra-
t io n of whit e wo me n wit h the co lo r lin e . (The de s e gre gat io n
of wo me n 's o rgan izat io n s we re e ve n t s duly n o t e d in t he ir pub-
licat io n s .) While fe min is t in t he ir ide als , philo s o phy, and
act ivit ie s , Black wo me n we re always co n s cio us that racis m
was a s ys t e m pe rpe t uat e d by the t o t al whit e s o cie t y again s t
the e n t ire Black co mmun it y.
Black wo me n e arn e d the prais e of the n at io n al Black co mmun -
ity and the local co mmun it ie s in which they did the bulk of
t he ir wo rk, but they e arn e d the e n mit y of whit e s o cie t y.
The ir as s e rt ive n e s s in the labor fo rce and public affairs re -
sulted in a co n s is t e n t set of s t e re o t ype s , bo rn in s lave ry
and t ran s fo rme d to fit the fact s of e ach s ucce s s ive e ra of
racis m. Thus Black wo me n 's po lit ical his t o ry in clude d the
addit io n al t as ks of co mbat in g s t e re o t ype s re s e rve d e s pe cial-
ly for t he m. The s e s t e re o t ype s dan ge ro us wo me n and de vian t
mo t he rs highlight e d the do uble t hre at posed by Black wo me n
to the o ppre s s ive o rgan izat io n of Ame rican s o cie t y.
Dangerous Women and Dev iant Mothers: The Controlling
Images
Black wo me n 's as s e rt ive n e s s and t he ir us e of e ve ry e xpre s -
sion of racis m to launch mult iple as s ault s again s t the e n -
tire fabric of in e qualit y have be e n a co n s is t e n t , mult iface t -
ed threat to the s t at us quo . As pun is hme n t , Black wo me n
have be e n as s ault e d wit h a varie t y of n e gat ive image s . Pic-
tured as the arch-fie n ds of Black family life , Black wo me n
have e me rge d fro m their 3 1/2 ce n t urie s of s t ruggle be arin g
the his t o rically co n s is t e n t labe ls of dan ge ro us wo me n and de -
vian t mo t he rs . It is t his image ry that t ho s e in po we r brin g
to be ar whe n they co n s t ruct po licy affe ct in g re cipie n t s of
we lfare and the wo rkin g po o r. The s e image s are wide ly
shared t hro ugho ut the s o cie t y and have be e n at the co re of
the mo s t recent s t at e at t acks in the war again s t the Black
family.
Black wo me n e me rge d from s lave ry firmly e n s hrin e d in the
co n s cio us n e s s of whit e Ame rica as "Mammy" and the "bad black
wo man " (18). The ir image as a "n at io n of pro s t it ut e s " was
wide ly co mmun icat e d in the me dia at the end of the n in e -
t e e n t h ce n t ury (19). By the end of Wo rld War II, Ho llywo o d
and the t e le vis io n in dus t ry pro vide d a varie t y of ro le s that
all s e rve d to re in fo rce the o ve rpo we rin g image of the black
mammy and the t e mpt in g image of the bro wn or tan s e duct re s s
(20). The mo s t po pular of t he s e image s was "Sapphire ," the
o ve rbe arin g wife of Kin gfis h o n "Amo s 'n ' An dy." Millio n s
of Ame rican s wat che d Sapphire daily e xco riat e Kin gfis h's s t u-
pidit y, in e pt it ude , and de lus io n s of gran de ur. Like the
o ve rro man t icize d mammy of plan t at io n life (21), Sapphire was
e fficie n t , s t ro n g, and hard-wo rkin g. She be came the mo s t pe r-
vas ive image whit e pe o ple s hare d at that t ime ; she be came a
po pular e pit he t to be used in place of less jo vial o n e s .
The mo re s in is t e r side of Sapphire be came le git imat e d
t hro ugh s o cial s cie n t ific ide o lo gy at the end o f the civil
right s mo ve me n t , as Black Po we r ide o lo gy be gan to lead to
large r que s t io n s of e co n o mic jus t ice and to pro vide a lin -
guis t ic paradigm for wo me n 's right s . This s in is t e r
Sapphire t he cas t rat in g mat riarchwas pre s e n t e d by s o cial
po licy make rs as a co n t ribut in g caus e of Black in e qualit y.
Jus t as the wo me n 's libe rat io n mo ve me n t be gan to publicly
que s t io n the ge n de r-bas e d arran ge me n t s of Ame rican s o cie t y,
Dan ie l Mo yn ihan issued a go ve rn me n t re po rt crit icizin g the
part icipat io n in the labor force of Black wo me n (22). In -
s is t in g that the "mat riarchal s t ruct ure " of the Black co m-
mun it y "impo s e s a crus hin g burde n on the Ne gro male ," he as -
s e rt e d, "Ours is a s o cie t y which pre s ume s male le ade rs hip in
privat e and public affairs . The arran ge me n t s of s o cie t y fa-
cilit at e such le ade rs hip and reward it " (23). He we n t on to
imply that the high un e mplo yme n t rat e s of Black me n we re at -
t ribut able to the o ve rre pre s e n t at io n of wo me n in the labor
fo rce , part icularly those Black wo me n who "have e s t ablis he d
a s t ro n g po s it io n for t he ms e lve s in whit e co llar and pro fe s -
s io n al e mplo yme n t " (24). Black male un e mplo yme n t also
s t e mme d from the s o cializat io n pract ice s of cas t rat in g Black
wo me n mat riarchs , who cripple d t he ir s o n s to the po in t whe re
o n ly ". . . milit ary s e rvice . . . an ut t e rly mas culin e
wo rld . . . a wo rld away from wo me n , a wo rld run by s t ro n g
me n of un que s t io n in g aut ho rit y" co uld un do the damage (25).
Dan ge ro us Black wo me n and de vian t mo t he rs had so cripple d
Black me n that they we re un fit to be n urs e s and s e cre t arie s !
The re po rt it s e lf acted as a po we rful me chan is m of s o cial
co n t ro l. Un like the me dia image s that co uld be laughed at ,
the mat riarchs of the Mo yn ihan re po rt we re pre s e n t e d as le -
git imat e s o cial s cie n ce and public po licy. Like all wide ly
s hare d n e gat ive s t e re o t ype s of de vian t gro ups , the re po rt
cre at e d a s it uat io n of mo ral is o lat io n and s t at us de grada-
t io n . Ho we ve r, un like pre vio us e ras of Black co mmun it y
s t ruggle , Black wo me n e xpe rie n ce d the e ffe ct s of is o lat io n
and de gradat io n wit hin their o wn co mmun it ie s . C apable Black
wo me n admin is t e rin g pro grams and age n cie s wit hin Black co m-
mun it ie s we re as ke d to "s t e p as ide and let a man take o ve r,"
not be caus e they we re in capable but be caus e their be in g fe -
male and co mpe t e n t "lo o ks bad for 'the Race
1
" (26).
The Mo yn ihan Re po rt man age d to de grade the s t at us of Black
wo me n wit hin the Black co mmun it y in a way that po pular myt hs
and me dia image s had failed to do . Be caus e of its appe al to
male s upre macy, t he re e rupt e d what Pauli Murray called a
"backlas h of n e w male aggre s s ive n e s s again s t Ne gro wo me n "
(27). Aft e r re vie win g the image of Black wo me n in the Black
Po we r lit e rat ure j Murray o ffe re d the fo llo win g an alys is .
She s aid:
Re adin g t hro ugh much of the curre n t lit e rat ure on the
Black Re vo lut io n , o n e is left wit h the impre s s io n that
for all the rhe t o ric abo ut s e lf-de t e rmin at io n the main
thrust of black milit an cy is a bid o f black male s to
share po we r wit h whit e male s in a co n t in uin g pat riarchal
s o cie t y in which bo t h black and whit e fe male s are re le -
gat e d to a s e co n dary s t at us . (28)
In a later an alys is , she highlight e d the re t re at in g s uppo rt
of Black wo me n e vide n ce d in Ebo n y. C o mme n t in g on the e dit -
o rial t hrus t of its 1966 s pe cial is s ue ho n o rin g Black wo me n ,
Murray s t at e d:
Aft e r payin g t ribut e to the Ne gro wo man 's co n t ribut io n s
in the pas t , the e dit o rial re min de d Ebo n y's re ade rs
that "the pas t is be hin d us ," that "the ult imat e go al of
the Ne gro wo man t o day s ho uld be the e s t ablis hme n t of a
s t ro n g family unit in which the fat he r is the do min an t
pe rs o n ," and that the Ne gro wo man wo uld do we ll to fo l-
low the e xample of the Je wis h mo t he r, "who pus he d he r
hus ban d to s ucce s s , e ducat e d he r male childre n firs t ,
and e n gin e e re d good marriage s for he r daught e rs ." (29)
The le git imacy of the s o urce of the re po rt an admin is t ra-
tion frie n dly to civil right s an d the stated purpo s e of the
re po rt t o he lp impo ve ris he d Black familie s all co mbin e d to
fo rce a public de part ure by Black me n from the e arlie r and
mo re s uppo rt ive t radit io n s of W. E. B. DuBo is and o t he rs .
Un t il the Mo yn ihan Re po rt , the s pe cial pro ble ms of Black
familie s and Black wo me n we re us ually vie we d in t e rms of
t he ir re lat io n s hip to dis crimin at io n and e co n o mic in jus t ice .
The writ in gs o f DuBo is , Frazie r, Mille r, and o t he rs tended
to de s cribe Black wo me n as vict ims of o ppre s s io n . The
me dia's un crit ical acce pt an ce of Mo yn ihan 's de s cript io n and
the rat he r e n e rge t ic public re lat io n s by the Jo hn s o n admin is -
t rat io n in s uppo rt of the re po rt he lpe d to cre at e an at mo s -
phe re in which Black wo me n we re calle d upo n to jus t ify and
to de fe n d t he ir t radit io n al ro le s in the public and privat e
affairs of the Black co mmun it y. The s e act ivit ie s , in addi-
tion to the time in ve s t e d in civil right s and co mmun it y we l-
fare act ivit ie s , be came an o t he r fo cus of s t ruggle on an al-
re ady o ve rburde n e d public age n da. The public de pict io n o f
Black wo me n as un fe min in e , cas t rat in g mat riarchs came at pre -
cis e ly the same mo me n t that the fe min is t mo ve me n t was advan -
cing its public crit ique of Ame rican pat riarchy. The image
of dangerous Black women who were also deviant castrating
mothers divided the Black community at a cri t i cal period in
the Black liberation struggle and created a wider gap
between the worlds of Black and white women at a cr i t i cal
period in women's history (30).
Regardless of the objective real i t i es faced by Black men
and women as they attempt to create and raise families in a
racist society, the policy framework advanced by the Johnson
administration' s War on Poverty accomplished, more than any-
thing el se, the public labeling of Black women as officially
deviant persons in American society. The report used ideolo-
gies of patriarchy to divide Black men from Black women and
to reduce the credibility of a thirty-five-year-old women's
lobby, albeit Black, at the federal level. Using the racism
inherent in the traditional images and stereotypes of Black
women, the report misrepresented the position and role of
Black women in the labor market and stifled the leadership
potential grounded in 3 1/2 centuries of Black women's labor
history. This double-pronged attack of patriarchy and ra-
cism foreshadowed the rise of those ideologies from which
the present administration gains i t s strength and l egi t i -
macy.
Separate Spheres of Struggl e: Will the Gap Widen?
Repeatedly, questions have been raised concerning the vi si -
bi l i t y of Black women in the contemporary feminist movement.
Both white and Black women have noticed the movement's re-
flection of the racial status quo throughout i t s popular
mainstream. Often explanations are advanced that focus on
the Black woman's host i l i t y to some of the women's move-
ment's more frivolous concerns; some explanations actually
take into account the divergent material real i t i es governing
the focal concerns of these women's groups. However, view-
ing the struggles of Black women in historical perspective,
we are forced to realize that those in power have always
seemed to recognize the double danger that pol i t i cal l y con-
scious Black women pose to the racist and patriarchal ar-
rangements of American society. One fairly popular white-
supremacist leaflet, cited by Marian Wright Edelman, warns,
"This paper is not to get into the hands of any Negro moth-
ers" (31). Black women, through their own social movements
and those of the wider Black community, have been a formid-
able force for social change in America. To advocate change
in the institutional arrangements of American society is to
be dangerous and deviant indeed.
The meaning of the New Right to Black women cannot be sepa-
rated from its me an in g to the e n t ire Black co mmun it y as an
his t o rically is o lat e d, co n t ain e d, and de prive d pe o ple in the
po lit ical e co n o my and in s t it ut io n al life of this n at io n .
For Black pe o ple in Ame rica, the rise of the Ne w Right re pre -
s e n t s a vigo ro us re as s e rt io n of the old wro n gs of e co n o mic
and po lit ical re gre s s io n and an at mo s phe re facilit at in g
racial vio le n ce . The re s urge n ce of vio le n t racis m is co m-
po un de d by the ide o lo gical co n s e que n ce s of a n at io n that has
pe rpe t ually lied to it s e lf co n ce rn in g the n at ure of racis m
and that has , in the face of e ve ry chan ge wro ught by those
who re fus e to be lie ve the lie , chan ge d the lie to fit the
n e w fact s while pre s e rvin g the o ld o rde r. Thus we have
re ache d a fraudule n t s t at e of affairs in o ur s o cie t y whe re
the ide o lo gy of racial e qualit y can be fully as s e rt e d while
e co n o mic e xclus io n e ffe ct ive ly main t ain s the s t ruct ural co n -
s e que n ce s of his t o rical racis m (32). It is no accide n t that
we n o w have a pre s ide n t who s e campaign was laun che d n e ar the
grave s of civil right s wo rke rs murde re d in the state of
Mis s is s ippi, which s t ill s ymbo lize s the mo s t vio le n t racial
o ppre s s io n in t his ce n t ury. We mus t als o re co gn ize that his
an t icho ice and an t iwo man s uppo rt e rs who n o w lead C o n gre s s
are the same cast of charact e rs who fought the Vo t in g Right s
and C ivil Right s Act s of the 1960s . The s e same s uppo rt e rs
wis h n o w to re pe al the Vo t in g Right s Act , to re s t rict affir-
mat ive act io n , and to re s urre ct the de at h pe n alt y.
The s t ruct ural and his t o rical racis m that de fin e s Ame rican
s o cie t y is ult imat e ly a s ys t e m of s o cial co n t ro l. An y an aly-
sis of clas s in this s o cie t yan d not s imply an alys e s of s o -
cial clas s wit hin the Black co mmun it y, but an y ho lis t ic an al-
ys is of clas s and clas s co n s cio us n e s s mus t ult imat e ly
co n fro n t the pro ble m of the co lo r lin e . The an alys is mus t
als o co n fro n t the ro le that the vario us e xpre s s io n s of in s t i-
t ut io n al racis mt he co n t ro l and co n t ain me n t of Black pe o ple
and t he ir labor in e ve ry his t o rical pe rio dhas playe d in
s hapin g and mys t ifyin g the e xis t in g s t ruct ure s . The e xpe ri-
e n ce of Black wo me n as o bje ct s of co n t ro l in t his s o cie t y
can n o t e ve r be s e parat e d from the fact s of this his t o ry.
Thus the vict imizat io n of Black wo me n be caus e of t he ir clas s
and t he ir vict imizat io n be caus e of t he ir s e x mus t be in t e r-
pre t e d, pe rce ive d, and ult imat e ly un de rs t o o d t hro ugh t he ir
vict imizat io n as me mbe rs of an his t o rically o ppre s s e d co m-
mun it y, is o lat e d and co n t ain e d to s e rve a varie t y of pur-
po s e s in the his t o ry of this racis t po lit ical e co n o my.
W. E.B. DuBo is , one of the be s t ide o lo gical allie s Black
wo me n have e ve r had, s t at e d at the be gin n in g of this ce n t ury
that "t he pro ble m of the t we n t ie t h ce n t ury is the pro ble m of
the co lo r lin e " (33). Fo r Black wo me n , the rise of the Ne w
Right me an s a re cas t in g of t he ir vict imizat io n by clas s and
gender through the prism of racism. The old wrong in the
form of the New Right may mean that the problem of the color
line will remain their principal strugglethe struggle
around which activist Black women organize their precious
time and their consciousnessat the beginning of the twen-
t y-fi rst century. Black women, specially equipped insur-
gents with a wide variety of creative experiences, will
remain at the cutting edge of the Black struggle. The rein-
forcement of racism by the New Right may exacerbate the
existing racial divisions among women and thus continue the
separation of important spheres of struggle.
Notes
1. Ve rn o n Jo rdan , in t ro duct io n to The St at e of Black Ame ri-
ca (Ne w Yo rk: Nat io n al Urban Le ague , 1981), p. iv.
2. Ho ward S. Be cke r, Out s ide rs : St udie s in the So cio lo gy
of De vian ce (Ne w Yo rk: Fre e Pre s s , 1970).
3. Lin da Bre n t , In cide n t s in the Life o f a Slave Girl
(New Yo rk: Harco urt Brace Jo van o vich, 1973).
4. Euge n e Ge n o ve s e , Ro ll Jo rdan Ro ll: The Wo rld the
Slave s Made (Ne w Yo rk: Ran do m Ho us e , 1974).
5. An ge la Davis , "The Black Wo man 's Ro le in the C o mmun it y
of Slave s ," Black Scho lar 3, n o . 4, pp. 2-15.
6. Ibid., pp. 6-7.
7. Ibid., p. 9.
8. Ibid., p. 8.
9. Bo n n ie Tho rn t o n Dill, "The Diale ct ics of Black Wo man -
ho o d," Sign s : Jo urn al o f Wo me n in C ult ure and So ci-
e t y 4 (Sprin g 1979):543-55.
10. He rbe rt Apt he ke r, Ame rican Ne gro Slave Re vo lt s (Ne w
Yo rk: In t e rn at io n al Publis he rs , 1952).
11. Davis , "Black Wo man 's Ro le ," pp. 9-12.
12. Ibid., p. 15.
13. Elizabe t h Lin ds ay Davis , Lift in g as The y C limb: A His -
tory o f the Nat io n al As s o ciat io n o f C o lo re d Wo me n
(Was hin gt o n , D.C .: Mo o rlan d Spin garn Re s e arch C e n -
t e rHo ward Un ive rs it y, 1933); Emma Fie lds , "The Wo m-
e n 's Club Mo ve me n t in the Un it e d St at e s , 1877-1900"
(Mas t e r's t he s is , Ho ward Un ive rs it y, 1948); Mary
C hurch Te rre ll, "The His t o ry of the Club Wo me n 's Mo ve -
me n t ," Aframe rican Wo man 's Jo urn al 1, n o s . 2-3, pp.
34-38.
14. E. Davis , Nat io n al As s o ciat io n o f C o lo re d Wo me n .
15. Ibid.
16. Rackham Ho lt , Mary McLe o d Be t hun e : A Bio graphy (Gar-
den C it y, N.Y.: Do uble day & C o ., 1964).
17. The Nat io n al C o un cil of Ne gro Wo me n publis he d The
Aframe rican Wo man 's Jo urn al be t we e n 1940 and 1948;
the co un cil publis he d Wo me n Un it e d aft e r this t ime .
A de t aile d an alys is of the co n t e n t s of these jo urn als
may be found in C .T. Gilke s , "Livin g and Wo rkin g in a
Wo rld of Tro uble : The Eme rge n t C are e r of the Black
Wo man C o mmun it y Wo rke r" (Ph.D. dis s ., No rt he as t e rn
Un ive rs it y, 1979).
18. C he ryl To wn s e n d Gilke s , "Black Wo me n 's Wo rk as De vian ce :
So cial So urce s of Racial An t ago n is m wit hin the
Fe min is t Mo ve me n t ," Wo rkin g Pape r n o . 66 (We lle s le y,
Mas s .: We lle s le y C o lle ge C e n t e r for Re s e arch on
Wo me n ).
19. E. Davis , Nat io n al As s o ciat io n o f C o lo re d Wo me n .
20. Je an n e No ble , Be aut iful, Als o , Are t he So uls of My
Black Sis t e rs : A His t o ry o f Black Wo me n in Ame rica
(En gle wo o d C liffs , N.J.: Pre n t ice -Hall, 1978), pp.
75-89; Edward Mapp, "Black Wo me n in Films ," Black
Scho lar 4, n o s . 6-7.
21. W.E.B. DuBo is , "The Black Mo t he r," in W.E.B. DuBo is :
The C ris is Writ in gs , e d. Dan ie l Walde n (Gre e n wich,
C o n n .: Fawce t t Publicat io n s , 1972), pp. 340-42.
22. Lee Rain wat e r and William Yan ce y, The Mo yn ihan Re po rt
and the Po lit ics o f C o n t ro ve rs y (C ambridge , Mas s .:
MIT Pre s s , 1967), pp. 39-124.
23. Ibid., p. 29.
24. Ibid., p. 18.
25. Ibid., p. 88.
26. C .T. Gilke s , Black Wo man C o mmun it y Wo rke r.
27. Pauli Murray, "Jim C ro w and Jan e C ro w," in Black Wo me n
in Whit e Ame rica, e d. Ge rda Le rn e r (Ne w Yo rk: Ran do m
Ho us e , 1972), pp. 592-99.
28. Pauli Murray, "The Libe rat io n of Black Wo me n ," in
Vo ice s o f the Ne w Fe min is m, e d. Mary L. Tho mps o n
(Bo s t o n : Be aco n Pre s s , 1970), pp. 354-55.
29. Ibid.
30. C .T. Gilke s , "Black Wo me n 's Wo rk as De vian ce ."
31. Marian Wright Ede lman , "Gro win g Up Black in Ame rica," in
The St at e o f Black Ame rica, 1981 (Ne w Yo rk:
Nat io n al Urban Le ague , 1981), pp. 153-81.
32. Sydn e y Wilhe lm, Who Ne e ds the Ne gro ? (Garde n C it y,
N.Y.: Do uble day & C o ., 1972).
33. W.E.B. DuBo is , The So uls o f Black Fo lk (Gre e n wich,
C o n n .: Fawce t t Publicat io n s , 1961 [1903]).
FRANCINE QUAGLIO
Religion as an Instrument
of Social Control (1981)
The re may be culle d fro m the do cume n t s of his t o ry n ume ro us
s e lf-in crimin at in g s t at e me n t s that s uppo rt the fe min is t an al-
ys is of the dyn amics o f pat riarchal s o cie t y. The y not o n ly
re ve al the n e t wo rk of re lat io n s and s t ruct ure s that form the
co n t e xt of all o ur lives but s ugge s t that the co n t ro l of wo m-
en is a ce n t ral fact o r in the main t e n an ce (or dis s o lut io n ,
s ho uld the co n t ro l fail) of what e ve r s o cial fabric is at
s t ake . Mo n t ague Summe rs , in the in t ro duct io n to his t ran s la-
t io n of the fift e e n t h-ce n t ury text Malle us Male ficarum,
pro vide s an e xample . The he re t ics (by which he me an s wo me n
[1]), he in fo rms us , we re up to s o me t hin g:
. . . the abo lit io n of the mo n archy, the abo lit io n of
privat e pro pe rt y and of in he rit an ce , the abo lit io n of
marriage , the abo lit io n of o rde r, the t o t al abo lit io n of
re ligio n . (2)
This is Summe rs 's one accurat e s t at e me n t in his co mme n t ary
of prais e for a blat an t ly mis o gyn is t text and in his s uppo rt
for the s o lut io n to the dan ge r of wit che s e xt e rmin at io n .
Summe rs s ugge s t s that the po lit ical, e co n o mic, in t e rpe rs o n -
al, and re ligio us s t ruct ure s are co n n e ct e d and in t e rde pe n -
de n t . In fact , such s t ruct ure s do form a re lat io n al dyn amic
which main t ain s s o cial re alit y. And pat riarchal s o cial re al-
ity de pe n ds for its s urvival on the co n t ro l of wo me n 's aut o n -
o my and t he ir part icipat io n in the t o t al s o cial n e t wo rk. To
ke e p the po we r re alit ie s of pat riarchy fun ct io n in g, wo me n
mus t be co n t ro lle d and made to co n fo rm wit h its n e e ds and
aims .
I wo uld like to e xplo re t he s e co n n e ct io n s by fo cus in g o n
re ligio n as a me chan is m for the co n t ro l of wo me n . Alt ho ugh
I will take my wo rkin g e xample s fro m the s ymbo lic and do c-
t rin al co n t e n t of the Ro man C at ho lic t radit io n , I fe e l that
the implicat io n s I draw fro m my an alys is can be e xt e n de d to
o t he r re ligio us t radit io n s , to the de gre e that they als o e m-
bo dy the pat riarchal value s ys t e m. The o ppre s s io n o f wo me n
is the re s ult of all such t radit io n s , but the charact e r and
de gre e of the o ppre s s io n will diffe r acco rdin g to the e t h-
n ic, e co n o mic, and racial co n t e xt in which e ach wo man
e xis t s .
Re ligio n is a me an in g s t ruct ure which is e mbo die d in
lan guage , image , do ct rin e , at t it ude s , and in s t it ut io n s . It
co n ve ys pat t e rn s of pe rce pt io n , in t e rpre t at io n , be havio r,
and value . And it in co rpo rat e s t he s e pat t e rn s in its o wn
mult idime n s io n al o rgan izat io n and re in fo rce s and s uppo rt s
co mpat ible pat t e rn s in the large r s o cial n e t wo rk. It is co m-
mo n place today to n o t e the way in which re ligio n is in flu-
enced and co n dit io n e d by its cult ural co n t e xt . I am co n -
ce rn e d wit h the way re ligio n s hape s and co n dit io n s , that is ,
e n t e rs into the re lat io n al dyn amic of s o cial re alit y. He re
I use the t e rm re ligio n (1) in the co mmo n -s e n s e me an in g of
a re ligio us t radit io n , a co mmun it y of s hare d be lie fs , s ym-
bo ls , and in s t it ut io n al fo rms (re fe rrin g to hie rarchically
s t ruct ure d pat riarchal t radit io n s ); and (2) as a co mpre he n -
sive un de rs t an din g of the charact e r of re alit y, the "re ally
re al." This second me an in g in clude s as we ll the be havio ral
appro ach toward and the value implicat io n s that de rive from
the "re ally re al." Re ligio n in this second s e n s e fun ct io n s
. an in t e grat in g e xpe rie n ce whe re by kn o win g-e xpe -
rie n ce , affe ct ive -e xpe rie n ce , ae s t he t ic-e xpe rie n ce in
s ho rt , all fo rms of e xpe rie n ce are bro ught into a re la-
t ive ly co he s ive who le which is e xpre s s e d in the life of
the pe rs o n . (3)
I wo uld add that this in t e grat in g co he s ive who le may als o be
e xpre s s e d t hro ugh s ymbo lic re pre s e n t at io n in the varie d
s t ruct ural dime n s io n s of s o cial re alit y. The imprin t "In
God We Trus t " o n o ur co in s is one t rit e , but not in s ign ifi-
can t , e xample . It is impo rt an t as we ll to s pe cify whe t he r
the "in t e grat in g e xpe rie n ce " o f some is achie ve d at the cost
of fragme n t at io n and t run cat io n of o t he rs .
In t we n t ie t h-ce n t ury Ame rica, re ligio n as re ligio us t radi-
tion and re ligio n as the s o cial n o t io n of the "re ally re al"
have much in co mmo n . It is pre cis e ly t hro ugh the shared n o -
t io n s of the charact e r and me an in g of re alit y that re ligio us
t radit io n s and the s o cial fabric wo rk t o ge t he r to s us t ain
and fo s t e r t he ir mut ual be lie f s ys t e ms . This shared frame -
wo rk can be de s cribe d as a s e xis t , hie rarchical divis io n of
re alit y which has as its o rgan izat io n al form co mpuls o ry he t -
e ro s e xualit y and as its fun dame n t al e t hic the o ppre s s io n ,
co n t ro l and t run cat io n of wo me n . In this re cipro cal frame -
wo rk, wo me n 's aut o n o my is de n ie d and their part icipat io n
s e ve re ly limit e d.
Religion as an Instrument of Control 303
This shared frame wo rk is o rche s t rat e d acco rdin g to the
fluct uat in g circums t an ce s of the pat riarchal s o cial fabric.
Eco n o mics is a prime de t e rmin an t of the s co re . The re is a
co rre lat io n be t we e n the re lat ive fe ro cit y of s e xis t pro pagan -
da and s o cie t y's e co n o mic n e e ds . The re is gre at e r t o le ra-
tion of s o cie t al part icipat io n by wo me n whe n a s carcit y of
labor aris e s t hro ugh a cris is . The large in flux of wo me n in -
to the labor force durin g Wo rld War II is a case in po in t .
As the cris is dimin is he s , wo me n 's part icipat io n is co n s t ric-
ted and re dire ct e d to the co n t in uin g n e e ds of the e co n o my
po pulat io n gro wt h. Our s o cie t al mo de l is built on the pre m-
ise of co n t in ue d e co n o mic gro wt h and n at io n al de fe n s e and
do min an ce . We need bo die s not o n ly for pro duct io n but to
fill the ran ks of the milit ary. The "go o d ho us e ke e pe r" im-
age of the 1950s and the pro family image of the 1980s are
me an in g s t ruct ure s de ve lo pe d and t ran s mit t e d t hro ugh pat ri-
archal t radit io n to e n s ure that this n e e d be me t . The y ap-
pe al t o , and re ce ive s uppo rt fro m, the pat riarchal re ligio us
t radit io n s .
Sexist image s , at t it ude s , and ide o lo gy are the s t uff of
o ur cult ural co n t e xt . Thus , they pe rme at e e ve ry dime n s io n
of s o cial re alit y, and they can be act ivat e d and o rgan ize d
for the purpo s e of man ipulat io n o ur act io n s , cho ice s , and
value s . The in s t it ut io n al po we r s t ruct ure s carry and
pro je ct t he s e me an in g pat t e rn s and make them co n cre t e wit hin
po lit ics , bus in e s s , s cho o ls , law, me dia, and re ligio n . All
cult ural s t ruct ure s co n ve rge to e ffe ct the co n t ro l of wo me n .
Re ligio n has be e n and re main s a primary age n t for such co n -
t ro l. It is not accide n t al that as the Mo ral Majo rit y mo bil-
izes its fo rce s for Go d, co un t ry, and family, the Ro man C at h-
o lic hie rarchy co n ve n e s a bis ho ps ' synod on the family and
the po pe de live rs six majo r ho milie s on the n at ure of s e xual-
ity wit hin marriage .
The main e le me n t s of Ro man C at ho licis m's de fin it io n of wo m-
en can be e licit e d from a brie f an alys is of a re ce n t s t at e -
me n t by Po pe Jo hn Paul II. The s e le ct io n is t ake n from his
addre s s to wo me n re ligio us which he de live re d durin g his
1979 vis it to Ame rica. His s ubje ct was Mary, who she is and
what she me an s .
The wo man do min at e s all his t o ry as the Virgin -Mo t he r of
the So n , as the Spouse of the Ho ly Spirit . . . the wo m-
an who be co me s by as s o ciat io n wit h he r son . . . (4)
The de ce pt io n co me s firs t , almo s t e as e d in : "t he wo man do m-
in at e s ." And she do min at e s not only as mo t he r, the o mn ipre s -
ent image of the do min at in g (t ho ugh po we rle s s ) mo t he r, but
as Virgin Mo t he r of the So n . Mary as the ideal role mo de l
for wo me n is a dis e mbo die d wo man . She is ideal be caus e she
pro duce s the de s ire d re s ult , the s o n , wit h no taint of he r
o wn s e xualit y, no co n t ribut io n of he r o wn bo dy e xce pt that
of a n ut rit io n al cult ure . Eve n he r "ye s " is a "be it do n e
un t o me ." Wit h this as a mo de l, all wo me n are set up for
failure . To be re al wo me n they mus t be mo t he rs . To be good
re al wo me n they s ho uld be virgin s . All this mus t be acco m-
plis he d wit hin the co n t e xt of marriage : Mary as the s po us e
of the ho ly s pirit . In this co n t e xt , Mary re pre s e n t s the
church, always "s he " in Ro man C at ho lic dis co urs e . Mary as
bride , n un s as bride s , the church as bride e ve n a ce libat e
"s he " mus t s t ill be de fin e d t hro ugh he r re lat io n to a male .
The image of the church as bride of C hris t e me rge s from
and re in fo rce s the pat riarchal he t e ro s e xual s t ruct ure s of
marriage and of all s o cie t al po we r re lat io n s be t we e n me n and
wo me n . The church is bride (wo man ) be caus e she is de pe n -
de n t , s ubmis s ive , o be die n t , filled by, and e xis t in g at all
o n ly be caus e o f, the spirit of C hris t (the son of the fat h-
e r) (5). The de rivat ive s t at us of wo man is mirro re d on
e art h as it is in he ave n . The church as bride , Mary as
s po us e , pro je ct s as o n t o lo gical re alit y the de rivat ive s t at -
us of wo me n . She is re ce pt ive , pas s ive , n o n cre at ive . The
s pirit is cre at ive , act ive , life -givin g; the s e me n is the
child, the pe n is is the chan n e l of po we r. The e n t ire hie r-
archical s t ruct ure of Ro man C at ho licis m (male prie s t s ) re -
fle ct s this judgme n t . The wo man can n o t e jaculat e s e me n ,
t he re fo re , she can n o t dis pe n s e grace (6). As if de t e rmin e d
not to leave the po in t ambiguo us , Po pe Jo hn Paul co n t in ue s ,
". . the wo man be co me s by as s o ciat io n wit h he r s o n " (7).
Dis e mbo die d and de rivat ive , she has no po we r of be in g in he r-
s e lf. Wit ho ut the son she wo uld not be co me at all, she
wo uld be n o n e xis t e n t , un re al.
The wo man who was in s e rt e d . . . into the mys t e ry of the
Church . . . wit ho ut he rs e lf be in g in s e rt e d into the
hie rarchical co n s t it ut io n of the C hurch . . . And yet
this wo man made all hie rarchy po s s ible , be caus e she gave
to the wo rld the She phe rd and Bis ho ps of o ur So uls . (8)
The pas s ive t e n s e is the only appro priat e o n e . Aut o n o my is
not at t ribut able to a wo man . She is in s e rt e d and n o t in -
s e rt e d at s o me o n e e ls e 's dis cre t io n . De fin e d by o t he rs ,
she is de t e rmin e d by o t he rs . She can be used for the church
but she can n o t e xe rcis e the hie rarchical fun ct io n . This ,
not be caus e of an y in dividual pe rs o n al in ade quacie s , but be -
caus e of the fact that she is a wo man . The use made of he r
is s e rvice . She gave . It is indeed this role of the s e lf-
e mpt yin g wo man that make s all hie rarchy po s s ible . Be hin d
(be n e at h) e ve ry gre at (s ic) man is a gre at wo man . As the
po pe s ays ,
Religion as an In s t rume n t o f C o n t ro l 305
She pre figure s and an t icipat e s the co urage of all wo me n
. . . who co n cur in brin gin g forth C hris t [9] in e ve ry
ge n e rat io n . . . n e ve r to leave Him, n e ve r to aban do n
Him, but to co n t in ue to love and serve Him t hro ugh the
Age s . (10)
The fun ct io n for which she was in s e rt e d is cle ar. She co n -
curs to s e rve as a co n duit for the ge n e rat io n and re ge n e ra-
tion of sons and of the s t ruct ure s that s us t ain and main t ain
the wo rld of the s o n s . As long as the co n t ro l me chan is ms
are s ucce s s ful, "n e ve r to leave him," the "re ally re al" of
pat riarchy will co n t in ue t hro ugh the age s "The wo man who
s pe aks to us of fe min in it y," as the po pe says (11). No co m-
me n t .
The po pe 's short dis co urs e on Mary re lie s for its impact ,
not only on the cult ural re s po n s ive n e s s to the co mmo n s e xis t
de fin it io n s and e xpe ct at io n s of wo me n , but on the t o t al t he o -
lo gical n e t wo rk of the C at ho lic t radit io n . It is impo rt an t
to gras p the de pt h and me chan ics of the re in fo rce me n t and
s uppo rt pro vide d by re ligio n if we are to un do and dis o rde r
its e ffe ct s . I can brie fly sketch this rat he r e xt e n s ive co n -
tent by fo cus in g on four cat e go rie s for appro achin g the
n o t io n of Go d: s ubs t an t ially, re lat io n ally, s alvifically
(re de mpt io n ), and e s chat o lo gically (the end t ime s , the co n -
s ummat io n of the wo rld). Subs t an t ially, in t e rms of be in g
and at t ribut e s , God is male . He , fat he r, act ive , pure
rat io n alit y, s o ve re ign , all-po we rfult he s e at t ribut e s
(which carry pat riarchal co n n o t at io n s ) and n o un s and pro -
n o un s s o lidify the ide n t ificat io n of divin it y wit h male n e s s
an d, t hus , the male wit h Go d. Re lat io n ally, there is the
t rin it yfat he r, s o n , s pirit . In Go d's re alit y, in him-
s e lf, God is male . The t rin it y po rt rays this re alit y as
dyn amic and re lat io n al. But the in t e rpe rs o n al mat rix of the
dyn amic is all male . The s pirit , a s ymbo l that some t hin k,
t ho ugh I do n o t , is ambiguo us e n o ugh to t ran s fo rm into a
fe min in e image , is the spirit ^f_ the fat he r and s o n . The
s pirit has fun ct io n e d in the C at ho lic t radit io n as a male
image t he impre gn at io n of Mary, the s pirit of C hris t in the
church, and so o n . The t rin it arian me n age a t ro is is a
male do main . Salvifically, we have Je s us the C hris t , the
s e co n d pe rs o n of the t rin it y, the s o n . We are re de e me d,
s ave d, t hro ugh Je s us . Eve n if fo cus we re placed less on the
fact that Je s us was a man (a difficult trick give n the e mpha-
sis place d on this by the t radit io n ) and mo re on the human i-
ty or pe rs o n ho o d as the s ign ifican t fact o r in the do ct rin e
of the in carn at io n , we are s t ill left wit h the pe rs o n ho o d of
a s o n . The o lo gically, the pe rs o n of the in carn at io n is the
son of the fat he r. We mus t go to a male t hro ugh a male to
be s ave d. And in the Ro man C at ho lic t radit io n , wit h its
s acrame n t al s t ruct ure , there is a third male to pas s
t hro ugh, the prie s t . Fin ally, if we turn o ur gaze from all
this and look to the fut ure , the end t ime s of s alvat io n
achie ve d, we find the re appe aran ce of all we have just le ft .
The e s chat o n is e n vis io n e d as the re t urn of the s o n , the
second co min g of Je s us . In this co n s ummat io n , t he re will be
all in all in C hris t , un io n wit h God achie ve d. St . Paul's
appare n t ly s o o t hin g re mark that in C hris t there is n e it he r
male n o r fe male is fun dame n t ally a n e gat io n of dis t in ct io n .
This is said not be caus e of any e galit arian n o t io n but be -
caus e there do e s n 't n e e d to be any dis t in ct io n . In the e n d,
as in the be gin n in g, t he re is o n ly one re alit y, a male re -
alit y.
This t he o lo gical n e t wo rk pro je ct s ult imat e re alit y, the
"re ally re al," as male . Wo man in t his co n t e xt is un re al,
an d, in t e rms of at t ribut e s , she is o ppo s it io n al and in fe ri-
o r. Min d/bo dy, re as o n /e mo t io n , light /dark, act ive /pas s ive ,
cre at ive /re ce pt ive , aut o n o mo us /de rivat ive The wo man be -
co me s o n ly in s o far as she as s o ciat e s wit h the re al pe rs o n s .
She gain s validat io n o n ly to the de gre e to which she co n -
fo rms to and s e rve s the o pe rat io n al s t ruct ure s of pat riar-
chal re alit y.
Such a t he o lo gical frame wo rk, and the implicat io n s de riv-
ing from it , s uppo rt s and fo s t e rs the o ppre s s io n of wo me n .
To the e xt e n t that re ligio n is pat riarchal, it will align it -
self wit h t ho s e o t he r s o cial fo rce s s e e kin g s imilar aims and
pro je ct in g s imilar image s of co n t ro l. The pe rvas ive urge n cy
e xhibit e d by gro ups such as the Mo ral Majo rit y, the Ne w
Right , C at ho lic charis mat ics , and o ur curre n t le gis lat o rs on
the is s ue s of abo rt io n , family, birt h co n t ro l acce s s ibilit y,
le s bian /gay right s , s e x e ducat io n , and t e xt bo o ks is not a
s po n t an e o us o ut burs t of re ligio us ze al un co n n e ct e d to the po -
lit ical, e co n o mic, and milit ary n e e ds of the t o t al s o cial
fabric. The po s it io n s uphe ld by such gro ups on t he s e and
o t he r is s ue s are "o rt ho do x," that is , "right t e achin g," ac-
co rdin g to pat riarchal t radit io n . What e ve r t he o lo gical, do c-
t rin al, or o rgan izat io n al diffe re n ce s e xis t amo n g t he s e vari-
o us gro ups , t he re is agre e me n t on pat riarchal o rt ho do xy. As
re ligio n re in fo rce s this frame wo rk, it re in fo rce s the pre -
vailin g e co n o mic, po lit ical, in t e rpe rs o n al, and racis t po we r
dyn amics . In much the same way that Hit le r's an t i-Se mit is m
and ge n o cidal racis m ign it e d be caus e it re s o n at e d wit h an al-
re ady pre s e n t and acce pt e d vie w of re alit y, so too the s ym-
bo lic do ct rin al co n t e n t of pat riarchal re ligio n re s o n at e s
wit h the s e xis t s t ruct ure s of s o cial re alit y.
Religion as an Instrument of Control 307
Notes
1. The text cle arly us e s wo me n , he re t ics , and wit che s in t e r-
chan ge ably and pre s e n t s wo me n as the mo s t n ume ro us
de s t ro ye rs , the e vil o n e s who mus t be co n t ro lle d.
2. H. Krame r and J. Spre n ge r, Malle us Male ficarum, t ran s .
Re v. Mo n t ague Summe rs (New Yo rk: Do ve r, 1971), p.
xviii.
3. Euge n e Fo n t in e ll, To ward a Re co n s t ruct io n o f Re ligio n
(New Yo rk: C ro s s C urre n t s , 1979), p. 86.
4. Po pe Jo hn Paul II, "Mary . . . the Wo man of His t o ry and
De s t in y," in The Po pe in Ame rica (New Yo rk: Wan de r-
er Pre s s , 1979), p. 71.
5. "And yet the in s t it ut io n of the church, as o ppo s e d to
the ide o lo gical co n s t ruct , is po we rful, act ive and
male do min at e d." Han n a Le s s in ge r, e dit o rial co rre s po n -
de n ce , 1981.
6. Fo r an e xample of the use of this s e xual an alo gy see
Sacred C o n gre gat io n for the Do ct rin e of Fait h, De cla-
rat io n o n the Que s t io n o f the Admis s io n o f Wo me n to
the Min is t e rial Prie s t ho o d (Vat ican C it y, 1976).
7. Po pe Jo hn Paul II, p. 71.
8. Ibi d.
9. Read sons.
10. Pope John Paul I I , p. 71.
11. Ibi d.
LILLIAN S. ROBINSON
Women, Media, and the Dialectics of
Resistance (1981)
Chinese-Americans, outraged at the revival of a demeaning
comic stereotype, disrupt filming of Peter Ustinov's Charlie
Chan movie and later picket theaters where i t is shown. Wom-
en' s antiviolence groups join the Gray Panthers in demonstra-
tions against a punk-rock Christmas song celebrating the mur-
der of Grandma. Black actors, as well as a number of
community organizations, object to the television film Beu-
lah Land, with i t s depiction of contented slaves on the old
plantation. The Native American who plays Tonto in The
Legend of the Lone Ranger is pleased that his character is
an equal and no longer silent partner of the masked hero,
but regrets that the film perpetuates myths about the subser-
vient status of Native American women. Homosexual groups or-
ganize against the distribution of two antigay films:
Cruising, about sado-masochistic gay men, and Windows,
about lesbian violence against women. Feminists picket the
Broadway opening of Lolita and protest the use of a real -
life nymphet to sell designer jeans. The Moral Majority
also mobilizes against the sexual suggestiveness of that
Calvin Klein commercial.
All these incidents occurred within the past two years.
Since the mid-seventies, almost every organized pol i t i cal ,
ethnic, religious, sexual, generational, and regional inter-
est group has taken a public stand against i t s treatment by
the media. All the poor, beleaguered industry has by way of
comfort is the increasingly shaky conviction that if you're
attacked simultaneously from the Left and the Right, "cour-
age" consists in making no meaningful change at allthat
conviction and, of course, the profi t s.
From i t s inception, the women's liberation movement has
identified, analyzed, and (hence) often protested representa-
tion of women in mass media. Moreover, I think i t is fair
to say that the militant concern with media images on the
part of an entire spectrum of social movements has, con-
sciously or not, been influenced by the i ni t i al feminist ap-
proach to media. Essentially, this is an approach that in-
Wo me n , Me dia, and Resistance 309
vo lve s a mo re co mpre he n s ive vie w of what is at s t ake than
pre vio us crit ics re co gn ize d, a vie w founded on the re aliza-
tion that me dia image s s e rve not o n ly to in fo rm or mis in fo rm
an un diffe re n t iat e d s o cie t y at large , but als o co n t ribut e to
the in dividual's o wn s e n s e of ide n t it y and po s s ibilit y.
Prio r to the re birt h of the wo me n 's mo ve me n t , o rgan ize d
pro t e s t again s t me dia co n t e n t tended to be mo re limited in
its n at ure and go als . Fo r e xample , Black gro ups re gularly
picke t e d re vivals of Birt h of a Nat io n , who s e po rt rayal of
s o ut he rn his t o ry falls little s ho rt of an in cit e me n t to ra-
cist vio le n ce . At the same t ime , t he s e gro ups we re de man d-
ing mo re ro le s and less s t e re o t ype d o n e s for Black pe rfo rm-
e rs . Pro t e s t focused on the o ut right lies and blat an t
s t e re o t ype s fo s t e re d by the me dia, from Birt h o f a Nat io n
t hro ugh Amo s 'n An dy and Go n e wit h the Win d to Be ulah.
In the abs e n ce of t he s e , there tended to be an abs e n ce of
Black image s of any s o rt ; that vacuum was als o de crie d (1).
On the Right , McC art hy-e ra in ve s t igat io n s of s ubve rs io n in
the e n t e rt ain me n t in dus t ry always paid e xt ravagan t t ribut e
to the ide o lo gical in flue n ce of the me dia. This re pe at e d as -
s e rt io n of an in s idio us t ho ugh pe rvas ive min d co n t ro l be in g
e xe rcis e d on an un wary public can hardly be dign ifie d by the
n ame of crit icis m. It is , ho we ve r, a vis io n of what is
wro n g wit h the me dia that has po we rful de s ce n dan t s on the
curre n t s ce n e and s hape s the co n t e xt in which fe min is t pro -
test t ake s place .
In t his e s s ay, I e xamin e the o rigin al fe min is t crit ique of
the mas s me dia, co n s ide rin g bo t h the circums t an ce s un de r
which it de ve lo pe d and the de t ails of the in dict me n t , as
we ll as the e xt e n t to which po s it ive and n e gat ive chan ge s
have o ccurre d, the pre s e n t fe min is t po s it io n wit h re s pe ct to
the me dia, and some dire ct io n s that I be lie ve it is e s s e n -
t ial to purs ue . Mo re o ve r, as ray re fe re n ce to wit ch-hun t in g
an t e ce de n t s implie s , I t hin k that in e valuat in g the chan ge s
that have t ake n place , it is in s ufficie n t to co n s ide r only
the me dia image s t he ms e lve s . The are n a in which a fe min is t
campaign aro un d me dia can be co n duct e d is als o de fin e d by
chan ge s that have o ccurre d in the me dia as an in dus t ry un de r
capit alis m, and by the re n e we d virule n ce of at t acks o n bo t h
me dia and fe min is m fro m the far Right .
The n e w fe min is m be gan wit h, and as , cult ural crit icis m; e x-
ample s from high cult ure , as we ll as t ho s e from mas s me dia,
served s imult an e o us ly as re fle ct io n s of wo me n 's s t at us in
o ur s o cie t y and illus t rat io n s of the ide o lo gical co n t ro l re -
s po n s ible for e s t ablis hin g and main t ain in g that co n dit io n .
Te xt s from all le ve ls of o ur in t e lle ct ual and lit e rary his -
tory we re cited as s o urce s of s t e re o t ype s and n o rms abo ut
the female sex, reflecting and confirming damaging social
myths (2).
Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique was an influential
precursor of this approach to culture and is particularly im-
portant for the present discussion because it is rooted in
mass culture. Friedan devoted a full chapter of her book
to the evolution of the "happy housewife heroine" in the fi c-
tion published by women's magazines. Drawing on her own ex-
perience as an editor, she was able to trace the deliberate
policy behind the eclipse of other possible roles for the
heroine and to cite plot after plot in which that policy was
implemented (3). Although her professional bias may have
led Friedan to exaggerate the limiting influence of these
stories upon women's lives, the fiction in McCall's and
Ladies Home Journal only echoed and reinforced the mes-
sages about women communicated by television, Hollywood
films, popular music, "serious" novels, the Judeo-Christian
religious tradition, and contemporary psychological dogma.
And that combined impact, the newborn women's movement was
to declare, could hardly be overestimated.
Women's liberation came into being, moreover, in a climate
in which ideas about the pervasive impact of media and i t s
effect on individual consciousness were fairly generally ac-
cepted by those working to change society. The role of mass
media in shaping people's lives was analyzed along lines
that combined the social theory of the "culture of the spec-
tacle" with the view of the individual hypothesized in Mar-
cuse' s One-Dimensional Man (4). Coexisting with this Left
critiqueand only partially contradicting itwas a strain
of the New Left that identified with certain elements of the
media explosion. The Yippies, for instance, not only de-
signed their political actions around the culture of the
spectacle, but believed in the revolutionary potential of
rock music and the youth community created around it (5).
Although these various radical approaches to mass culture
were very much in the air during the late 1960s and early
1970s and although the emerging women's movement drew cer-
tain charter assumptions from them, there were, from the out-
set, some significant differences. For one thing, generali-
zations about the role of the media in mass society had
tended to be based on a sociological, even a phenomenologi-
cal approach to the experience; the psychological effects of
television, for example, were not supposed to be determined
by anything that television is specifically about, but rath-
er by the way that people si t passively and watch the
screen. Content is manufactured to fit this form. By con-
t r ast , feminist criticism of television has always been ex-
pl i ci t l y organized around content, what the various stories
Women, Media, and Resistance 311
and images, be they intentionally fi ct i t i ous or purportedly
factual, are t el l i ng us about women.
Even more important, feminists never perceived the media
audience as being essentially someone el se, as the New Left
tended to do. We could testify to the influence of the
media image of woman precisely because we as women had been
subjected to i t . Not only were the media the carriers of
stereotypes and norms for the society in general, they were
also an important force in shaping women's own sense of our-
selves, who we were and what human avenues might be open to
us.
This identification of ourselves with the media audience
was by no means absolute, of course. The generation that
created the women's movement probably always suspected that
Father did not know best. Most of us knew that families
like Donna Reed's (or Beaver Cleaver's for that matter) were
tinny fabrications long before we came to cr i t i ci ze the par-
ticular patriarchal ideal they fostered. But, by the same
token, we could recognize which media myths had made incur-
sions into our sense of the way things are in the world.
Certain lessons about female sexuality had been learned from
Seventeen, Mademoiselle, Cosmopolitan, and The Ladies
Home Journal. And the prevailing norms about heterosexual
behaviorwhat i t is like to fall in love, as well as what
kind of woman is loved and what sort of relations subsist be-
tween men and women in that statehad, we realized, been
communicated to us through popular music. Here again, there
was a sharp break with male exponents of Woodstock Nation.
For many women, too, rock music had representedindeed, em-
bodiedsexual, cul t ural , generational rebellion. Acknowl-
edging that this music offered women a familiar subservience
disguised as liberation entailed a sense of personal and po-
l i t i cal betrayal. With that sense of betrayal came enhanced
understanding of the extent to which at least one area of
mass culture had indeed informed our consciousness.
Recognition that mass media carried the message of sexism
preceded any feminist critique of the media as such. On the
contrary, we tended to assume that "soci et y' s" ideas about
women were identical with the content of the mass media. In-
stead of producing an i nt ri nsi c analysis of the means and re-
sul t s, as reflected in media, we would cite examples from
the media to substantiate our arguments about the sexist na-
ture of our society. Around 1969, if an act i vi st in one of
the burgeoning women's organizations was invited to speak to
a community group, what could be more immediately effective
than a series of slides showing how magazine ads use women's
bodies, accompanied by a tape of songs like "Under My Thumb"
and "Stand by Your Man"? It is not my intention to dismiss
this e arly act ivit y or e ve n its rat he r facile use of me dia
image s . The co n clus io n s we dre w may have be e n s upe rficial,
but they we re not fun dame n t ally in accurat e . And they we re
to lead to mo re s ys t e mat ic crit icis m, as we ll as to e ffo rt s
to use me dia to re dre s s the s it uat io n in the me dia (6).
What was the s ubs t an ce of the o rigin al fe min is t crit ique ?
As t ran s mit t e rs of s t e re o t ype s , firs t of all, the me dia told
us that ce rt ain qualit ie s we re t ypically and in n at e ly charac-
t e ris t ic of the fe male s e x. Wo me n we re , by and large , s up-
posed to be flight y and not ve ry bright . Eve n t ho s e who had
some claim to in t e lle ct ual s t at us we re (quite pro pe rly) go v-
e rn e d by t he ir e mo t io n s . As s is t in g the do min at io n of fe e l-
ing o ve r re as o n and co mpe n s at in g for the abs e n ce of rat io cin -
at io n was a fe min in e co mman d of s upe rn at ural po we rs . (For
in s t an ce , in the same vie win g we e k in 1971 that a fe male phy-
s ician on a soap o pe ra mo an e d "Ho w can I t hin k like a do ct o r
at a time like t his ?" I wat che d Saman t ha the ho us e wife -wit ch
and he r bit ch-wit ch mo t he r, Je an ie the NASA ge n ie , that e gre -
gio us ly flyin g n un , the ps ychically po t e n t En glis h n an n y,
and an an imat e d t e e n age s o rce re s s who plied he r trade in the
Sat urday cart o o n s .)
The list of s t e re o t ypical t rait s was much lo n ge r, of
co urs e , but the impo rt an t thing abo ut their fun ct io n in
dramat ic or co mic s it uat io n s was that they he lpe d un de rlin e
the primacy of ge n de r de fin it io n s . That is , the fact that a
charact e r was fe male s umme d up he r e n t ire ide n t it y. This
"n at uralizat io n " o f wo me n o ft e n acco mpan ie d a mo re e xplicit
s e xualizat io n , but it was a prio r and mo re co mpre he n s ive
phe n o me n o n (7). It go e s almo s t wit ho ut s ayin g, ho we ve r,
that the in it ial fe min is t at t ack on the me dia was mo re co n -
cerned wit h the blat an t use of wo me n as s e x o bje ct s . Fe male
s e xual at t ract io n was as s o ciat e d wit h a who le s pe ct rum of
s alable co mmo dit ie s , a pract ice that not only turned the co m-
me rcial e n t e rpris e into a pas s ive -aggre s s ive s e duct io n but
t hat , at the same t ime , re pro duce d a s t e ro t ype d ideal of fe -
male de s irabilit y. The s e x-kit t e n pe rche d on the ho o d of a
n e w co n ve rt ible not only sold the car to the man , she co mmun -
icated a cle ar me s s age to bo t h s e xe s abo ut what a wo man was
s uppo s e d to be and to look like in a co n ce pt ual un ive rs e
whe re these we re , in an y cas e , ide n t ifie d. Adve rt is e me n t s
for "be aut y" pro duct s co uld then mo ve in to re in fo rce the
ide al image .
Mo re o ve r, from the e dit o rial co n t e n t of bo t h fas hio n and
"s e rvice " magazin e s , girls and wo me n as s imilat e d n o rms abo ut
wo me n 's role calculat e d to leave them e s pe cially s us ce pt ible
to the s pe cific s ale s pit ch. All wo me n we re s uppo s e d to be
in t e re s t e d in be co min g and re main in g the mo s t at t ract ive
possible specimens and al l women were capable of this sort
of self-improvement. Furthermore, since winning and holding
a man was the chief goal of al l women, manufacturing oneself
through diet , posture, coiffure, wardrobe, cosmetics , and
scent acquired a kind of existential primacy. Ultimately,
i t was not only women's sexuality that was alienated in this
way, but, through i t , their whole being.
In this matter of the norms conveyed by mass media, there
has usually been a certin specialization of function. Thus,
although the norm of achieved attractiveness as female iden-
t i t y is widespread in the mass media (and nowhere contradic-
ted in them), explication of ways and means is mainly to be
found in the pages of magazines addressed to women. Similar-
ly, norms for family life are most insistently purveyed by
television, those for love relationships by popular music.
The normal and normative family, as it used to be represen-
ted on TV, is not hard to reconstruct. Fathers worked, moth-
ers indeed, married women in generaldid not. There tend-
ed to be one competent member of the parental couple and one
rather si l l y one, but if the father was the bumbler, the
mother's demonstrated competence s t i l l never extended out-
side the realm of domestic affairs and personal relation-
ships, and it yielded no dividends in terms of acknowledged
power. Parents, even those who were otherwise inept and in-
competent, understood and sympathized with their children' s
problems. Families lived in small towns, not, usually, in
ci t i es or suburbs, and fathers were either self-employed or
worked for small firms whose boss was likely to be assmil-
ated into family l i f e. Those rare families that were not
identifiably WASP belonged to clearly stereotyped white eth-
nic groups. If questions of race and class played any part
in the early feminist critique of media, it was rather by
default, through our observations about the lily-white, mid-
dle-class nature of these happy, daddy-defined families. Re-
lationships within the family were governed by misunderstand-
ings and t ri cks, but never love or hate. Domestic help was
available and white and/or male. "Family" and "sexuality"
were almost diametrically opposed concepts. The dramatic
conventions employed by continuing series, in particular, ef-
fectively implied that al l thiswhite frame house, teasing
siblings, breadwinner dadwas both normal, the way things
are, and normative, the way they should be.
Even deviations from the familial normand hence the lim-
i t s of possible deviancewere dictated. The history of
television up through the mid-seventies is full of series
centering on a single parent, where that parent is male
(usually, be it noted, one with the means to hire someone to
help with the custodial aspects of child-rearing). This was
the s it uat io n in s e rie s like Bache lo r Fat he r, My Thre e
So n s , Family Affair, Nan n y and the Pro fe s s o r, and The
C o urt s hip o f Eddie 's Fat he r. Ho us e ho lds he ade d by a wo man -
always a wido w, n e ve r a divo rce e we re much rare r, and
far less of the fun or drama, as the type of pro gram dict at -
e d, was de rive d from the do n n e e of a wo man rais in g he r
childre n alo n e .
Se xual lo ve , as I have s uge s t e d, t e n de d to e xis t in a dif-
ferent dime n s io n from that of family life and re lat io n s .
Marit al je alo us y was the mo t ive fo rce of a gre at man y co me dy
plo t s , but it was us ually the only s e xual e mo t io n marrie d
adult s e xpe rie n ce d. The rest was for the un marrie d, chie fly
ado le s ce n t s , and the n o rms for it we re laid o ut in mus ic,
the me dium addre s s e d to the yo un g. Wo me n 's e xpe ct at io n s
abo ut the pro babilit y, the immin e n ce in t he ir lives of ro man -
tic lo ve , as we ll as what it fe e ls like , ho w it is e xpe ri-
e n ce d, and what its in t e rn al po lit ics are , we re co n dit io n e d
and fed by song lyrics . The ris e of rock and ro ll alt e re d
ce rt ain co n ve n t io n s go ve rn in g the co n t e n t of lyrics , but the
chan ge s in this are a we re less t ho ro ughgo in g than may be im-
agin e d. Fe male s e xualit y was mo re o ut front in rock than in
the po p mus ic that pre ce de d the co o pt at io n of rhyt hm and
blue s by whit e s . A ce rt ain s avin g irony was s o me t ime s admit -
t e d, but rock mus ic co n t in ue d to pre s e n t a pre do min an t ly
male vie w of re lat io n s be t we e n the s e xe s and a male in t e rpre -
t at io n of s e xualit y it s e lf.
As we s urve y the chan ge s that have o ccurre d in the wo rld of
mas s me dia o ve r the pas t do ze n ye ars , it is impo rt an t to
s t re s s that mo s t of those that fe min is t s co n s ide r po s it ive
are not dire ct ly at t ribut able to the e xis t e n ce of a fe min is t
crit ique of me dia. By the same t o ke n , whe re mat t e rs have
wo rs e n e d, it is a mis t ake to as s ume that the backlas h e ffe ct
is a re act io n to o ur imme diat e co mplain t s abo ut me dia. Rat h-
e r, just as the fe min is t mo ve me n t be gan wit h ge n e ral s o cial
an alys e s bas e d on cult ural crit icis m, s o , t o o , its primary
impact has be e n ge n e ral and cult ural. The me dia have tended
to be less co n ce rn e d wit h the co n cre t e is s ue s rais e d by the
wo me n 's mo ve me n t than wit h que s t io n s of co n s cio us n e s s and
life -s t yle . Fro m this pe rs pe ct ive , the po s it ive chan ge s
might be re garde d as mo ve s to as s imilat e a n e w co n s cio us -
n e s s , whe re as the n e gat ive o n e s re pre s e n t a de libe rat e de fi-
an ce , but a de fian ce , again , of a ge n e ral fo rce or dire ct io n
as s o ciat e d wit h fe min is m, rat he r than an y part icular de man d
or is s ue .
Mo re o ve r, whe re the me dia have impro ve d by fe min is t s t an -
dards , it is not us ually by e limin at in g it e ms on the o rigin -
al list of co mplain t s , C o n ve n t io n s have chan ge d, but it
would be hard to maintain seriously that media women are no
longer treated as sex-objects or that real women are no long-
er advised on the technique of making themselves into reason-
able facsimiles of such objects. Nor have stupidity, fl i ght -
iness, jealousy, and overemotionality been excised from the
register of salient female qual i t i es. Where alternative pos-
si bi l i t i es have been suggestedeither in these stereotypes
or in the more complex matter of personal and societal norms
these alternatives have usually been added on to the exi st -
ing media universe. The range is thus broadened, and by im-
plication, certain norms are no longer universal. But the
effect is at least arguably more one of a spurious pluralism
than of revolutionary human vi st as.
One of the new possi bi l i t i es is simply that of strength in
a female character, whether this strength is reflected in ac-
tive moral courage or solid endurance. The shift has been
most impressive in Hollywood films, coming, as i t does, in
the wake of a period in the 1970s when i t was apparent to
the most casual observer that male characters and male rel a-
tionships had become central in American movies and that
there were almost no good roles for actresses. In the past
few years, not only have juicy parts abounded, but many of
them have involved portraying characters who, in one way or
another, are trying to take control of their own destinies.
From Alice Doesn't Live Here .Anymore through An Unmarried
Woman and Julia to Norma Rae, the impression is not al -
ways that of a classic feminist role model, but it is equal-
ly far from traditional notions of the female as exclusively
the man's lover, subordinate, sex goddess, or victim.
The term strength takes on a somewhat more diffuse mean-
ing when we consider images of women on television or in pop-
ular music. Nonetheless, here, too, the past decade has
seen the promotion of women to far greater prominence, accom-
panied by a certain greater freedom of exploration in the
matter of the female personality, i t s range and variations.
In terms of the "good roles for actresses" model, this was
most notable in those years when the movies seemed determ-
ined to explore every facet of male-bonding, and when film,
therefore, could be defined as a man's medium, television as
a woman's. Mary, Rhoda, and Phyllis, taken together or sev-
eral l y, Annie Romano and Alice the waitress, LaVerne and
Shirley, Edith and Maude and Florida and Gloriaall of them
have a certain two-dimensionality when placed beside the
"strong" women of films, not to speak of the heroic women we
al l know on this side of the screen. But, in terms of the
history of their medium and of their specific genre of si t ua-
tion comedy, they represent a striking conceptual break-
through. A similarly impressive development can be noted in
co un t ry mus ic, which n o t o n ly be came mo re main s t re amt hat
is , mo re co mme rcialin the s e ve n t ie s but whe re wo me n s in g-
ers came into t he ir o wn bo t h as Nas hville s t ars and as mo re
n e arly in de pe n de n t pe rs o n ae in t he ir s o n gs .
The de cade that wit n e s s e d this e xpan s io n of fe male ro le s
als o bro ught to the me dia a n e w aware n e s s of the e t hn ic and
clas s dive rs it y in Ame rican s o cie t y. So me t ime s , the two in -
t e rs e ct e d, to pro vide n e w vis ibilit y to wo me n who we re wo rk-
ing clas s , Black, or bo t h. The s t ruggle s of wo rkin g wo me n
cro s s e d the line from do cume n t arie s like Un io n Maids , Har-
lan C o un t y, Wit h Babie s and Ban n e rs , and Ro s ie the Rive t -
e r to fe at ure films like No r ma Rae and Nin e to Five .
Mo vie s on Black t he me s als o be came co mme rcially viable and
ranged from lo w-budge t "Blaxplo it at io n " ve hicle s to a few
mo re po lit ically and art is t ically ambit io us films . (Of the
lat t e r, I am familiar wit h o n ly o n e , C laudin e , that ce n -
tered on a be lie vable Black wo man and he r pro ble ms .)
Jus t as wit h de fin it io n s of fe male s t re n gt h, the me an in g
of e t hn ic and clas s dive rs it y be co me s blurre d whe n we turn
from mo vie s to t e le vis io n . Yet he re , t o o , me as urable pro -
gre s s has be e n made . On pro grams like LaVe rn e and Shirle y
and Alice , we saw wo rkin g wo me n who we re not e mplo ye d in
o ffice s o r ho s pit als . (Of co urs e , we are s t ill wait in g for
a re alis t ic po rt rayal of e it he r an o ffice or a ho s pit al.)
Aft e r a false s t art wit h Julia in 1968, the n e t wo rks als o
came up wit h s e ve ral s e rie s ce n t e rin g on Black familie s :
San fo rd and So n , Go o d Time s , That ' s My Mo mma, and The
Je ffe rs o n s (8). It is hard e ve n to writ e this list wit ho ut
flin chin g at the in ade quacie s and failure s it re fle ct s wit h
re gard to Black life and co n ce rn s , but these are pro grams
that filled a de cade -lo n g vacuum fo llo win g the wit hdrawal of
racis t s e rie s like Amo s 'n An dy and Be ulah.
Blacks have als o be e n fe at ure d in s e rie s like On the
Ro cks , Barn e y Mille r, and We lco me Back, Ko t t e r, who s e
co n t in uin g charact e rs are a de libe rat e e t hn ic mixt ure ; the
o n ly one of t he s e s e rie s to give an y pro min e n ce to e t hn ic
wo me n was the s ho rt -live d C o lucci's De part me n t . The "rain -
bo w" pro grams are , by the way, almo s t the only t e le vis io n
s e rie s that have fe at ure d His pan ic or As ian charact e rs on a
re gular bas is . One un fo rt un at e re s ult of the "o n e -o f-e ach"
cast of charact e rs is , of co urs e , its t e n de n cy to re in fo rce
rat he r than challe n ge or alt e r e xis t in g s t e re o t ype s . This
phe n o me n o n is appare n t , n o t o n ly wit h the vario us e t hn ic
ide n t it ie s that are put in t o play, but als o wit h the gay me n
who are s o me t ime s in clude d on the e t hn ic s pe ct rum. (Le s bi-
an s are n o t o r not ye t an e t hn ic gro up, and there is no
s in gle s t e re o t ype that has made it into "re s pe ct able " me dia,
e xce pt for the o ccas io n al iro n ic hin t that le s bian s are
rich [9].)
Wo me n , Me dia, an d Resistance 317
It is part ially be caus e of this gre at e r e t hn ic and clas s
dive rs it y that the me dia family is als o chan gin g. Bas ical-
ly, it is far less likely to be_ a family, n o wadays , in the
t e rms to which TV accus t o me d us . The re are co uple s who live
t o ge t he r wit ho ut marriage , gay male me n age s , divo rce d mo t h-
ers rais in g and s uppo rt in g t he ir kids , s in gle s who s e n arra-
tive e quivale n t of family life is the gan g at the o ffice .
The pe n dulum has s wun g away from the co mple t e n ucle ar or e x-
tended family that used to be the n o rm to make a n o rm of
what us e d to be de vian t ; and the ran ge of cute de vian ce s has
bro ade n e d acco rdin gly.
As mo re t e le vis io n wo me n are po rt raye d as ho ldin g jo bs ,
wo rk life be co me s an alt e rn at ive lo cus for the kin ds of re la-
t io n s hips that t e le vis io n taught us to e xpe ct wit hin the fam-
ily (10). He n ce , e ve n whe n the s cript in clude s a hus ban d,
the wife is like ly to have a jo b as we ll, and in the n o n t ra-
dit io n al family he r wo rkin g is t ake n for gran t e d. The case
that co n vin ce d me that wo me n had de fin it ive ly e n t e re d the
t e le vis io n labor fo rce was the e me rge n ce , in the s prin g of
1981, of The Brady Bride s , a lo n g-dis t an ce s e que l to The
Brady Bun ch, which was , in its t ime , one of the mo s t co n ve n -
t io n al of family co me die s . In this clo n e of a s e rie s , the
two e lde s t Brady daught e rs have marrie d, and bo t h co uple s
he re a nod to the co n t e mpo rary re al e s t at e marke t , as we ll
as to s cript fle xibilit ys hare a ho us e . It is a mat t e r of
co urs e and not e ve n the pivo t of a co mic plot that the yo un g
wive s have care e rs . In de e d, o n e is purs uin g he r s t e pfa-
t he r's pro fe s s io n of archit e ct ure . No w, whe n a blo n de Brady
daught e r be co me s an archit e ct , co mbin in g he r pro fe s s io n wit h
marriage and no in s pirin g in vidio us co mme n t , a re vo lut io n
has t ake n place . A re vo lut io n of s o rt s .
I use the qualifie r, n o t only be caus e the e xt e n t of s o cial
uphe aval and re al re s ult an t chan ge is so limit e d, but pre -
cis e ly be caus e such chan ge s tend to be package d by the me dia
in such a way as to imply that s o cial chan ge , what e ve r its
t e mpo , is a n at ural phe n o me n o n . C e rt ain de ve lo pme n t s co n s is -
tent wit h some ve rs io n of fe min is m make their appe aran ce .
The y are n e ve r de pict e d as re fle ct in g the de man ds , much less
the gain s , of a living mo ve me n t ; rat he r, they are s imply
t he re , acce pt e d fact s of life , ho we ve r radically diffe re n t
fro m ye s t e rday's fact s . If s t ruggle is re pre s e n t e d, it is
the privat e s t ruggle of a s in gle in dividual. Not only is
the pe rs o n al po lit ical, but the po lit ical is t ho ro ughly and
e xclus ive ly pe rs o n al.
Fro m this pe rs pe ct ive , ce rt ain po t e n t ially re vo lut io n ary
n o t io n s can be in t ro duce d in such a way that t he y, t o o , are
as s imilat e d into the me dia s t at us quo . On e in t e re s t in g e x-
ample of this co o pt at io n is e vide n t in the appe aran ce in al-
mo s t all wo me n 's magazin e s of art icle s abo ut is s ue s and pre -
o ccupat io n s of the wo me n 's mo ve me n t child care , s e xual har-
as s me n t on the jo b, do me s t ic vio le n ce all of this mat e rial
be in g s e amle s s ly in t e rwo ve n wit h the same old art icle s and
ads abo ut fas hio n , be aut y, and he t e ro s e xual s t rat e gie s .
Mo re o ve r, the wo me n 's mo ve me n t has had its mo me n t as a me dia
phe n o me n o n it s e lf. So , alt ho ugh the is s ue s and the ge n e ral
co n s cio us n e s s as s o ciat e d wit h fe min is m may re ce ive po s it ive
t re at me n t , the wo me n 's mo ve me n t and in dividual fe min is t s ,
whe n t he ir e xis t e n ce is ackn o wle dge d, are almo s t in variably
caricat ure d. So cial chan ge is thus de fin e d as an e s s e n t ial-
ly as o cial o ccurre n ce .
Eve n mo re dramat ic is the pro ce s s of de n at urin g un de rgo n e
by ho mo s e xualit y in its as s imilat io n into t e le vis io n co me dy.
Whe n the re s ide n t s of the Hot L Balt imo re pio us ly co n clude d,
apro po s of a re co n ciliat io n be t we e n two gay me n , that "It 's
love that mat t e rs what e ve r kin d of lo ve ," the primary e f-
fect was acce pt an ce not so much of ho mo s e xual love as of the
male ho mo s e xual as a us able charact e r. Yet that e pis o de ,
aired mo re than five ye ars ago by n o w, we n t furt he r in ac-
kn o wle dgin g that ho mo s e xualit y do e s in vo lve love re lat io n s
be t we e n me n than s ubs e que n t t e le vis io n co me dy or drama has
us ually do n e . In the in it ial pro grams of that s e rie s , as in
s e ve ral o t he r s it uat io n co me die s , gay me n we re in t ro duce d as
me mbe rs of what n e ws pape r crit ics re ve alin gly call the "char-
act e r-family." In a s e rie s like On the Ro cks , they t e n de d
to be part of a s pe ct rum of charact e rs s t e re o t ypically re pre -
s e n t in g vario us racial or e t hn ic gro ups . He n ce , "gay," t o o ,
was chie fly a cult ural de s ign at io n . An alt e rn at ive co n ve n -
t io n was the at t ract ive male vis it o r who dat e s a wo man char-
act e r, appe ars to be le adin g up to a ro man t ic s e duct io n , and
then an n o un ce s that he 's gay. (Rho da's flin g wit h Phyllis 's
bro t he r back in 1973 was , to the be s t of my kn o wle dge , the
firs t of t he s e ; on Alice , a few ye ars lat e r, the is s ue was
o n ly s light ly co mplicat e d by the he ro in e 's chan gin g he r min d
abo ut le t t in g the gay Lo t hario take he r yo un g son on a fis h-
ing t rip. In n e it he r cas e was ho mo s e xualit y much mo re than
a gimmick aro un d which s o me t hin g e ls e happe n e d.)
As I writ e this e s s ay, a co n t ro ve rs y is ragin g abo ut whe t h-
er To n y Ran dall will get to play a middle -age d ho mo s e xual on
his n e w s e rie s . The far Right C o alit io n for Be t t e r Te le vi-
s io n has e xpre s s e d o ut rage that the s it uat io n as an n o un ce d
in vo lve s a ho us e ho ld made up of the gay man , a s in gle mo t h-
e r, and he r yo un g daught e r. The n e t wo rk has co urage o us ly re -
torted that ho mo s e xualit y do e s n o t , in fact , co me into the
s e rie s , alt ho ugh Ran dall hims e lf has in s is t e d that the char-
act e r is , in de e d, o pe n ly gay. The re is s o me t hin g arche t ypal
in the way this is s ue is be in g fo ught o ut , for it re fle ct s
the e xt e n t to which, alt ho ugh the ide a of ho mo s e xualit y is
Wo me n , Me dia, an d Resistance 319
a threat to pro family re act io n arie s , its t e le vis io n image
can act ually be co n t ain e d in a co n ve n t io n al "o dd-family"
s e rie s .
The pro ble m is not un like that of divo rce which, n o w that
it is admit t e d o n t o the ho me s cre e n , is in variably jus t ifie d-
t ypically to the childre n in the cas e as cre at in g a n e w
and be t t e r family, one that is mo re of a t rue family t han
be fo re . The family as t radit io n ally co n ce ive d may have be e n
de s t ro ye d, but the familial value s to which lip s e rvice is
paid re main in t act . The t e le vis io n childre n and all of the
vie we rs are thus do ubly de prive d: we have n e it he r the in ade -
quat e old in s t it ut io n n o r the s uppo rt and co n fide n ce that
co me s of buildin g an alt e rn at ive to it . Es s e n t ially, to the
libe ral me dia, ho mo s e xualit y is "all right ," as long as it
is s t rippe d of its libe rat o ry po t e n t ial; it is "all right ,"
t he re fo re , whe n it is co n ce pt ually de s e xualize d, re pre s e n t s
no challe n ge to the ide o lo gy of the family, and s e rve s as an
alt e rn at ive cult ural ide n t it y. Its as s imilat io n in ve ry
s mall do s e s in t o t e le vis io n mo ralit y paralle ls the as s imila-
t io n of the (he t e ro -) s e xual re vo lut io n , which, whe n not e m-
bo die d in plat it ude s abo ut n e w and be t t e r familie s , t e n ds to
be re duce d, o n the t ube , to a sly jiggle .
That jiggle is , of co urs e , one s alie n t e le me n t in those me -
dia chan ge s that fe min is t s co n s ide r n e gat ive , for such chan -
ges do un do ubt e dly co e xis t wit h the limited and e quivo cal ad-
van ce s I have be e n o ut lin in g. The pro min e n ce of fe male
charact e rs who s e sole fun ct io n is to look cute what e ve r the
o s t e n s ible plo t , is by no me an s a n o ve lt y. What has in -
cre as e d is its e xplicit as s o ciat io n wit h s e xual aro us al.
C harlie 's An ge ls are s uppo s e d to be co mpe t e n t de t e ct ive s , s e -
lected o ut of the ran ks at the po lice acade my be caus e of
t he ir highly de ve lo pe d s kills , but it is hard to be lie ve in
the s kills t he ms e lve s or that they are re s po n s ible for at -
t ract in g vie we rs . Rat he r, the An ge ls re fle ct the ado pt io n
of the s e xual re vo lut io n -Playbo y-C o s mo po lit an e t hic into
the "family" (which is to s ay, re pre s s e d) me dium of t e le vi-
s io n . The rhe t o ric ackn o wle dge s s e xualit y and favo rs its e x-
pre s s io n , but the appe al re main s s t rict ly vo ye uris t ic.
On C harlie 's An ge ls , the s e xual in n ue n do is carrie d o ut
in an at mo s phe re do min at e d by rapid mo ve me n t and vio le n ce ,
o ft e n t hre at e n e d or dire ct e d at one of the lovely yo un g de -
t e ct ive s . This mo t if charact e rize s all the s e rie s in vo lvin g
fe male po lice : t he ir re lat io n to vio le n t crime , e ve n if
they are n o w law e n fo rce rs rat he r t han vict ims , is e n t ire ly
s e xual. In this s e n s e , t he re is lit t le diffe re n ce be t we e n
wo me n as co ps or de t e ct ive s on t he ir "o wn " pro grams and as
vict ims of crime on the s t ill far co mmo n e r male -do min at e d po -
lice shows. And it goes almost without saying that on the
medium as a whole the level of violence against women has in-
creased phenomenally over the past decade. For every t el evi -
sion film about rape or wife-battering that is sympathetic
to the problems of women, there are probably a hundred empha-
sizing only the details of the crime and the consequent
search, chase, and capture.
Television violence has certain peculiarities, of course.
What is most shocking about i t is not any single act or ref-
erence, but rather the rapid and insistent accumulation of
shootings, fi st fi ght s, and dramatic accidents. Liberalized
standards about sexual matters have introduced a greater pro-
portion of crimes against women into this scene: rape, ex-
hibitionism, prostitution, murder of prostitutes, mutilation
of the female body. However, these crimes tend to be l i p-
smackingly described more often than they are shown; they
simply provide the woman-damaging occasion for an enhanced
level of shootings, fi st fi ght s, and bloody accidents.
It is in films that explicit violence against women has
reached epic dimensions and where this violence is quite
overtly linked to sexual arousal. Moreover, the pornography
industry, in both i t s hard- and soft-core avatars, has con-
tributed magazines, s t i l l photos, and filmstrips, as well as
advertising, to this association. And the music business
from brutal Rolling Stones billboards to vicious New Wave
lyricshas also fed and fed off the sex-violence connec-
tion.
Another area in which media and pornography have come to
be almost synonymous is the sexual exploitation of children.
On the sleazier side of the connection, this has meant a
growth in al l porno forms of depictions of children engaged
in sexual act s, almost invariably with adults and for the
t i t i l l at i on of an adult male audience. The above-ground ver-
sion involves a systematic decline in the age of the actress-
es and models presented in al l the many dramatic or commer-
cial roles calling for a female sex object; since the ante
on sexual explicitness has also been raised, the result is a
situation in which pubescent gi rl s are placed in far more
suggestive situations than adult women were just a few years
back.
The heightened and explicit violence against women and the
rise of "kiddie porn" have become the joint objects of cur-
rent feminist campaigns against mass media. What might be
called the traditional sources of outragewoman as sex ob-
ject , dumb-broad stereotypes, crippling social normsare
far from dead issues, and feminists continue to make sweep-
ing references in political analysis and discussion to the
well-known destructive role of "The Media." But active mili-
t an cy is dire ct e d e ls e whe re to the gro s s e r, n as t ie r t arge t ,
be caus e of bo t h the imme diat e t hre at it re pre s e n t s and the
vio le n t , wo man -hat in g cult ure it s imult an e o us ly re pre s e n t s
and s hape s .
In de s cribin g the curre n t t hrus t of fe min is t act io n , I have
co n s cio us ly ado pt e d the rhe t o ric of the an t ipo rn , an t ivio -
lence campaign s . The diale ct ic to which I allude in the t i-
tle of this pape r is re capit ulat e d in my o wn min d and that
lan guage re fle ct s one side of it . The o t he r side is less
cle arly art iculat e d, be caus e it is the pe rs pe ct ive that ac-
kn o wle dge s the co n t radict io n s and is un ce rt ain abo ut t he ir
implicat io n s for co n cre t e pract ice . Me dia image s are cle ar-
ly be in g used for a dire ct and brut al sort of s o cial co n t ro l
at the same time as they co n t in ue to fulfill t he ir mo re fa-
miliar ide o lo gical and man ipulat ive ro le s . The pro ble m is
to de vis e an an alys is and a s t rat e gy ade quat e to the dime n -
s io n s of that brut alit y, in a s it uat io n whe re the mo s t po we r-
ful vo ice callin g for ce n s o rs hip of s e x and vio le n ce is not
that of the fe min is t mo ve me n t but that of the Ne w Right and
its fun dame n t alis t ide o lo gue s .
Sin ce I wro t e my o pe n in g paragraph, n o t o n ly has the co n -
t ro ve rs y aris e n abo ut the n e w To n y Ran dall s e rie s , but Pro c-
ter & Gamble , cit in g right -win g pre s s ure , has wit hdrawn its
s po n s o rs hip of pro grams fe at urin g "grat uit o us s e x and vio -
le n ce ," and pro duce r No rman Lear has an n o un ce d a libe ral
co un t e ro ffe n s ive pro claimin g free cho ice in mat t e rs of
t as t e . What is fright e n in g and co n fus in g is the e xt e n t to
which fe min is t and re act io n ary pro t e s t s have s imilar t arge t s
and appare n t ly seek the same sort of ce n s o rs hip. Ho w, in
e ve n the s ho rt e s t po s s ible run , can fe min is t s be on the same
side as the pe o ple who , whe n they are n o t ce n s o rin g t e le vi-
s io n , are pullin g Our Bo die s , Ours e lve s o ff library
s he lve s and callin g for a re t urn to the days whe n Ozzie Ne l-
son kn e w be s t ? Ye t ho w can we t o le rat e the co n t in ue d use of
me dia image s o ld s t yle or n e wt o de fin e wo man 's place and
ke e p he r in it ?
Wit h the Mo ral Majo rit y and its e pigo n e s as a frame of re f-
e re n ce , there are t hre e lo gical re s po n s e s to the fact that
the fe min is t and ult raco n s e rvat ive po s it io n s s hare a ce rt ain
co mmo n gro un d. We co uld we lco me the added mus cle for cam-
paign s again s t po rn o graphy and vio le n ce , t akin g care to e m-
phas ize the diffe re n ce s be t we e n o ur un de rs t an din g and the
Right 's of what the re al pro ble m is . Alt e rn at ive ly, we
co uld de cide that the pro gram of the far Right re pre s e n t s a
s e rio us e n o ugh t hre at to wo me n 's co lle ct ive gain s and as pira-
t io n s to make it in cumbe n t upo n us to de fe n d the me dia as
they are . A third co urs e , which do e s not lie be t we e n the
two extremes but runs parallel to them, is to continue to
demand the elimination of whatever is violent or otherwise
offensive to women, while ignoring the echoes from the
strange bedfellow on our right. None of these seems to me
to be an option that will serve the interests of women, par-
ticularly at a time when those interests are under more
direct attack, as well, from the Right and from the state
i t sel f.
The solution, I think, lies in separating our long-range
strategy from immediate tactics and shaping that strategy ac-
cording to a more thoroughgoing analysis of mass culture
than is currently available. The strength of the feminist
approach to media has always been i t s concreteness, i t s
grounding in actual content. But unfortunately there is a
dialectic at work here, too, so that such a critique has the
defects of i t s qualities. Concentration on what the media
t el l us about women leaves too much to conjecture regarding
the media's influence on the audience. Although we have be-
come increasingly detailed and sophisticated in our descrip-
tions of what the media, considered st ri ct l y in their own
terms, do, we have remained on a highly subjective or hypo-
thetical level when i t comes to how people use media. That
conscious subjectivity, again, was one of our i ni t i al
strengths, but it has also been the source of a certain sol-
ipsism. Words like manipulation go only so far in defin-
ing women's (or, for that matter, anyone's) response to me-
dia images. My own assumption is that the range of possible
reactions is a great deal wider than our mechanical meta-
phors would imply. Certainly, some members of the audience
simply assimilate whatever the media expose them to, allow-
ing the images to desensitize them to their own experience.
But others transform what they see, making it actually func-
tion in their livesto provide social alternatives or solve
problems in ways that are very different from those suggest-
ed by the media "models" themselves. And many people, I am
convinced, consciously resist the media, either by with-
drawing from their assigned role as audience-consumer or by
actively struggling against the ideas and images projected.
What is needed, instead of these assumptions and convic-
tions, is scholarship about how the masses to whom mass cul-
ture is addressed make use of the images, the information,
and the myths the culture generates. I do not expect that
the results will indicate that there is really nothing to
worry about, after allespecially as far as children and
their media experiences are concernedbut I do believe that
research of this sort is a necessary basis for long-term re-
sistance .
Mass culture cannot be comprehended by intrinsic study of
me dia "t e xt s ," e ve n if these are place d in some sort of re la-
tion wit h the s o cie t y wit hin which they have de ve lo pe d; the
audie n ce that "re ce ive s " the text is , as I have in dicat e d,
an o t he r impo rt an t as pe ct of the e xpe rie n ce . But mas s cul-
ture is not s imply an in t e ract io n be t we e n me dia and audi-
e n ce , e it he r. It is the pro duct of a po we rful in dus t ry, and
it is e s s e n t ial for us to co mpre he n d the n at ure of mas s
me dia as a bus in e s s in the capit alis t s ys t e mwit h all that
that e n t ails in t e rms of pro ce s s , pro duct , and pro fit in o r-
de r to un de rs t an d why it pro je ct s what it do e s abo ut wo me n
and what re me die s are available .
The past de cade has seen the cre at io n of larger me dia co n -
glo me rat e s and the abs o rpt io n of a n umbe r of these in t o mul-
t in at io n al co rpo rat io n s for which me dia re pre s e n t only one
are a of in ve s t me n t . This pe rio d has als o seen n e w re lat io n s
e me rge be t we e n the co rpo rat e s po n s o r and the time he buys .
A n e w s t yle of me dia man age me n t has be co me the do min an t o n e .
Each of these phe n o me n a has bo t h dire ct and in dire ct impact
on the co n t e n t and mo dalit ie s of what we see on the s cre e n ,
he ar on re co rds , and read in magazin e s . A rigo ro us an alys is
of the co n n e ct io n s be t we e n s e llin g t ime , s e llin g s o ap, and
s e llin g ide o lo gy is an urge n t n e ce s s it y if we are to un de r-
s t an d, as we ll, the image of o urs e lve s curre n t ly be in g sold
and be able , fin ally, as s cho lars and fe min is t s , to stop
t hin gs from s o me ho w ge t t in g wo rs e while they are s uppo s e d to
be ge t t in g be t t e r.
Notes
1. In 1963, for in s t an ce , the playwright Lo rrain e Han s be r-
ry, n o t e d n in e po in t s an yo n e wo uld "le arn " abo ut "Ame r-
ica as Seen Thro ugh the Eye of a TV Tube ." The last
two are e s pe cially pe rt in e n t to this dis cus s io n :
8. Wo me n are idio t s .
9. Ne gro e s do not e xis t .
Lo rrain e Han s be rry, To Be Yo un g, Gift e d, and Black
(New Yo rk: Sign e t -NAL, 1969), p. 226.
2. The t e xt ual crit icis m of s o cie t y as pract ice d by such
fe min is t t hin ke rs as Mille t t , Fire s t o n e , Fige s , Jan e -
way, and He ilbrun is dis cus s e d in the s e co n d chapt e r
of a bo o k of which I am one of the co -aut ho rs : E.
DuBo is et al., Fe min is t Scho lars hip: C halle n ge ,
Dis co ve ry, and Impact (C hampaign : Un ive rs it y of
Illin o is Pre s s , 1983).
3. Be t t y Frie dan , "The Happy Ho us e wife He ro in e ," in The
Fe min in e Mys t ique (Ne w Yo rk: De ll, 1963), pp.
28-61.
4. Se e , for in s t an ce , No rman Frucht e r, Todd Git lin et al.,
"The Mo ve me n t and the C ult ure of the Spe ct acle ,"
Libe rat io n (Summe r 1970) and He rbe rt Marcus e ,
On e -Dime n s io n al Man : St udie s in the Ide o lo gy o f
Advan ce d In dus t rial So cie t y (Bo s t o n : Be aco n Pre s s ,
1964).
5. See Je rry Rubin , Do It ! (New Yo rk: Ballan t in e , 1970);
Abbie Ho ffman , Re vo lut io n fo r the He ll o f It (New
Yo rk: Dial Pre s s , 1968); and Wo o ds t o ck Nat io n (Ne w
Yo rk: Dial Pre s s , 1969).
6. I am t hin kin g, he re , primarily o f the e me rge n ce of
fe min is t me dia, an as pe ct of re s is t an ce that this
pape r, which is co n ce rn e d wit h mas s cult ure do e s n o t
o t he rwis e addre s s . In addit io n , the e arly 1970s
wit n e s s e d fe min is t pro t e s t s t hro ugh "zap" at t acks and
publicit y abo ut what was o ffe n s ive to wo me n , wit h
t act ics ran gin g from challe n ge s to FC C lice n s e
re n e wals to the "t ake o ve r" of the Ladie s Ho me
Jo urn al, which re s ult e d in the s pe cial "fe min is t "
in s e rt in the Summe r of 1970.
7. I firs t learned the co n ce pt of "n at uralizat io n ,"
re ducin g the fe male to he r bio lo gical ide n t it y, fro m a
lecture by Se rafin a Bat hrick fo cus in g on Bus by
Be rke le y's Go ld Digge rs o f 1933 (State Un ive rs it y of
Ne w Yo rk at Buffalo , Sprin g 1976).
8. Alt ho ugh it was a "limit e d s e rie s " and did not de al wit h
the co n t e mpo rary family, Ro o t s s ho uld als o be
me n t io n e d he re .
9. Le s bian s on t e le vis io n tend to be s ucce s s ful bus in e s s or
pro fe s s io n al wo me n ; in co n fe s s io n magazin e s , they are
als o likely to be the e mplo ye r of the s t raight wo man
who has be e n t he ir pre y. In bo t h cas e s , they po s s e s s
male po we r. The re are als o le s bian image s that
s urface o n ly in one part icular me dium; s e e , for
in s t an ce , Bo n n ie Zimme rman 's art icle abo ut le s bian
vampire mo vie s in Jump Cut (Win t e r 1980).
10. Fo r a fulle r dis cus s io n of "family" re lat io n s hips in the
t e le vis e d wo rk place , see Lillian S. Ro bin s o n , "A TV
Guide to the Wo rkin g Wo man ," Wo rkin g Pape r n o . 5
(Un ive rs it y of C alifo rn ia at Be rke le y, C e n t e r for the
St udy, Educat io n and Advan ce me n t of Wo me n , 1982).
ELLEN WILLIS
The Challenge of Profamily Politics: A
Feminist Defense of Sexual Freedom (1981)
The t radit io n al pat riarchal family main t ain s s e xual law and
o rde r on two fro n t s . It re gulat e s the re lat io n s be t we e n the
s e xe s , e n fo rcin g male do min an ce , fe male s ubo rdin at io n and
the s e gre gat io n of "mas culin e " and "fe min in e " s phe re s . It
als o re gulat e s s e xualit y pe r s e , de fin in g as illicit any s e x-
ual act ivit y un re lat e d to re pro duct io n or o ut s ide the bo un ds
of he t e ro s e xual, mo n o gamo us marriage . Acco rdin gly, the Ne w
Right 's milit an t de fe n s e of the t radit io n al family and its
value s has a dual t hrus t : it is at once a male -s upre macis t
backlas h again s t fe min is m and a re act io n by cult ural co n s e rv-
at ive s of bo t h s e xe s again s t the "s e xual re vo lut io n " of the
pas t t we n t y ye ars .
The re is , of co urs e , an in t e gral co n n e ct io n be t we e n s e xis m
and s e xual re pre s s io n . The s uppre s s io n of wo me n 's s e xual de -
sire and ple as ure , the de n ial of o ur right to co n t ro l re pro -
duct io n , and the e n fo rce me n t of fe male abs t in e n ce o ut s ide
marriage have be e n t o ge t he r wit h o ur e xclus io n fro m e qual
part icipat io n in e co n o mic and po lit ical act ivit yprimary
un de rpin n in gs of male s upre macy. C o n ve rs e ly, a re s t rict ive
s e xual mo ralit y in e vit ably co n s t rain s wo me n mo re t han me n ,
e ve n in re ligio us s ubcult ure s that pro fe s s a s in gle s t an -
dard. Not only is un wan t e d pre gn an cy a built -in pun is hme n t
for fe male part icipat io n in s e x (as s umin g the pro hibit io n o f
birt h co n t ro l or abo rt io n on the o n e han d, and le s bian is m o n
the o t he r) and t he re fo re a po we rful in hibit o r; it is vis ible
e vide n ce of s e xual "de lin que n cy," which s ubje ct s wo me n who
bre ak the rule s to s o cial s an ct io n s their male part n e rs n e v-
er have to face . No n e t he le s s , it is impo rt an t to re co gn ize
that the Right 's o ppo s it io n to s e xual pe rmis s ive n e s s as e x-
pre s s e d in its at t acks on abo rt io n , ho mo s e xualit y, "po rn o g-
raphy" (de fin e d as an y s e xually e xplicit mat e rial), s e x e du-
cat io n , and ado le s ce n t s ' right of acce s s to co n t race pt io n ,
abo rt io n , or t re at me n t for ve n e re al dis e as e wit ho ut pare n t al
co n s e n t has co n s e que n ce s for bo t h s e xe s . Gays and t e e n -
age rs are o bvio us t arge t s . But the s ucce s s of the pro family
age n da wo uld als o impin ge on the live s of adult he t e ro s e xual
men, who would have to contend with the unwanted pregnancies
of their wives and lovers, women's increased sexual fears
and inhibitions, restrictions on frank discussion and public
legitimation of sex and sexual fantasy, and a general chi l l -
ing of the sexual atmosphere. Although some men are willing
to accept such constraints on their own freedom in order to
reassert certain traditional controls over women, many are
not.
At present, our opponents have us at an enormous disadvan-
tage . The profatnily movement has a coherent ideology and
program whose antifeminist and antisexual aspects reinforce
each other. In contrast, feminists are ambivalent, con-
fused, and divided in their views on sexual freedom. Al-
though there have been feminist sexual libertarians in both
the nineteenth-century and contemporary movements , for the
most part women's liberation and sexual liberation have de-
veloped as separate, at times even antagonistic, causes.
The sexual libertarian movement that began in the 1950s was
conspicuously male dominated and male supremacist. Though
it advocated a single standard of freedom from sexual guilt
and conventional moral rest ri ct i ons, it displayed no insight
into the social reasons for women's greater inhibition and
conformity to moral norms. On the contrary, women were
blamedoften in virulently misogynist terrasfor adhering
to the sexual prohibitions men and a patriarchal society had
forced on them. At the same time, male libertarians intensi-
fied women's sexual anxieties by equating repression with
the desire for love and commitment, and exalting sex without
emotion or attachment as the ideal. From this perspective,
liberation for men meant rebelling against the demands of
women, while liberation for women meant the opportunity
(read obligation) to shuck their "hang-ups" about casual
sex.
The question that remained unasked was whether men had sex-
ual hang-ups of their own. Was the rejection of any link be-
tween sexual desire and tenderness really an expression of
freedomor merely another form of repression? To what ex-
tent did men's demand for "pure" sex represent a predatory
disregard of women as peoplean attitude that could only re-
inforce the conventionally feminine sexual reluctance, passi-
vity, and unresponsiveness that men found so frustrating?
There was also the touchy issue of whether sex as convention-
ally initiated and orchestrated by men was pleasurable for
women. In theory, there was much concern with female orgasm
and the need for men to satisfy women; in practice, that con-
cern often translated into a demand that women corroborate
men's ideas about female sexuality and protect men's egos by
acting satisfied, whether they were or not. Nor did the
A Feminist Defense of Sexual Freedom 327
sexual revolution seriously challenge the taboo on lesbian-
ism (or homosexuality in general).
At i t s inception, the contemporary women's liberation move-
ment was dominated by young women who had grown up during or
since the emergence of sexual libertarian ideology; many rad-
ical feminists came out of the Left and the counterculture,
where that ideology was particularly strong. Unsurprising-
ly, one of the fi rst issues to surface in the movement was
women's pent-up rage at men's one-sided, exploitative view
of sexual freedom. From our consciousness-raising sessions,
we concluded that women couldn't win, no matter how they
behaved. We were s t i l l oppressed by a sexual double stan-
dard that, while less rigid, was by no means obsolete: wom-
en who took too l i t eral l y their supposed right to sexual
freedom, assertiveness, and pleasure were regularly put down
as "easy," "aggressive," or "promiscuous." We s t i l l lived
in fear of unwanted pregnancy; in 1968 abortion was i l -
legalexcept in the most dire circumstancesin every
st at e. Yet at the same time, men were demanding that we
have sex on their terms, unmindful of the possible consequen-
ces and without reference to our own feelings and needs. In
addition to suffering sexual frustration from the inhibi-
tions instilled by pre-sexual-revolutionary parents, fear of
pregnancy, and men's exploitative behavior, we had to swal-
low the same men's humiliating complaints about how neurot-
i c, frigid, and unliberated we were. Unfortunately, the
movement's efforts to make political sense of this double
bind led to confusions in feminist thinking about sexuality
that are s t i l l unresolved.
At least in theory, organized feminism has been united in
endorsing sexual freedom for women, including the right to
express our sexual needs freely, to engage in sexual act i vi -
ty for our own pleasure, to have sex and bear children out-
side marriage, to control our f er t i l i t y, to refuse sex with
any particular man or all men, to be lesbian. Almost as uni-
versally, feminists have regarded male sexuality with sus-
picion if not outright host i l i t y. From the beginning, radi-
cal feminists argued that freedom as men defined it was
against women's i nt erest s; if anything, men already had too
much freedom at women's expense. One faction in the move-
ment strongly defended women's traditional demands for mar-
riage and monogamy against the anti-nuclear-family, sexual-
liberationist rhetoric of the counterculture. Proponents of
this view held that the sexual revolution simply legitimized
the age-old tendency of men in a male-supremacist society to
coerce, cajole, or fool women into giving them sex without
getting anythinglove, respect, responsibility for the chi l -
dren, or even erotic pleasurein return. At the other ex-
treme were feminists who argued that, under present condi-
tions, any kind of sexual contact with men, in marriage or
out, was oppressive, and that the issue for women was how to
resist the relentless social pressure to be with a man.
Later, lesbian separatists elaborated this argument, claim-
ing that only women were capable of understanding and sat i s-
fying women's sexual needs.
Although the idea that in order to achieve equality wom-
en' s sexual freedom must be expanded and men's restricted
has a surface common-sense logic, in practice i t is full of
contradictions. For one thing, the same social changes that
allow greater freedom for women inevitably mean greater free-
dom for men. Historically, a woman's main protection from
sexual exploitation has been to be a "good gi rl " and demand
marriage as the price of sexin other words, relinquish the
freedom to spontaneously express her sexuality in order to
preserve i t s bargaining power. Furthermore, this t radi t i on-
al strategy will not work for individual women unless most
women adhere to i t , which implies the need for some form of
social or moral pressure to keep women in l i ne. If the as-
sumption is that women as a group will voluntarily exchange
their increased freedom for security, why bother to demand
freedom in the fi rst place? In practice, relaxing social
condemnation of female "unchastity" and permitting women ac-
cess to birth control and abortion allays social concern
about men's "ruining" or impregnating respectable women, and
so invariably reduces the pressure on menboth from women
and from other mento restrain their demands for casual
sex. Thus the feminist critique of male sexuality tends to
bolster the familiar conservative argument that a morality
restricting sex to marriage is in women's interestindeed,
that i t s purpose is to protect women from selfish male l ust .
Another difficulty is that judgments of men's heterosexual
behavior necessarily imply judgments about what women want.
Dissenters within feminist groups immediately challenged the
prevailing judgments, arguing with monogamists that they
wanted to sleep with more than one man or that they didn' t
want the state messing into their sex lives, and arguing
with separatists that they enjoyed sex with men. As a re-
sul t , assumptions about what women want were soon amended to
authoritative pronouncements on what women really want/
ought to want/would want if they were not intimidated /bought
off/brainwashed by men. The ironic consequence has been the
development of feminist sexual orthodoxies that curtail wom-
en' s freedom by setting up the movement as yet another
source of guilt-provoking rules about what women should do
and feel.
That irony is compounded by another: the orthodoxies in
question dovetail al l too well with traditional patriarchal
ideology. This is most obviously true of polemics in favor
of heterosexual monogamy, but it is no less true of lesbian
separatism, which in recent years has had far more impact on
feminist thinking. Here it is necessary to distinguish
(though of course there has been considerable overlap) be-
tween two tendencies in lesbian feminist pol i t i cs: the
first has emphasized lesbianism as a forbidden erotic choice
and lesbians as an oppressed sexual minority; the other
aligning itself with the separatist faction that surfaced in
the radical feminist movement before lesbianism as such be-
came an issuehas defined lesbianism primarily as a pol i t i -
cal commitment to separate from men and bond with women (1).
The l at t er tendency has generated a sexual ideology best
described as neo-Victorian. It regards heterosexual rel a-
tions as more or less synonymous with rape, on the grounds
that male sexuality is by definition predatory and sadistic:
men are exclusively genitally oriented (a phrase that is
always used pejoratively) and uninterested in loving rel a-
tionships. Female sexuality, in contrast, is defined as ten-
der, nonviolent, and not necessarily focused on the geni-
t al s: intimacy and physical warmth are more important to us
than orgasm; we like to kiss and hug and hold hands a lot.
The early prelesbian separatists argued that celibacy was a
reasonable alternative to sleeping with men, and some sug-
gested that the whole idea of a compelling sexual drive was
a male invention designed to keep women in their place: wom-
en didn' t need sex, and men's lust was less for pleasure
than for power. In short, to the neo-Victorians men are
beasts who are only after one thing, while women are nice
girls who would just as soon skip i t . The inescapable impli-
cation is that women who profess to enjoy sex with men,
especially penile-vaginal intercourse i t sel f, are liars or
masochists; in either case they have chosen (or been forced)
to be victims and to uphold an oppressive system. Nor are
lesbians automatically exempt from criticism; gay women
whose sexual proclivities do not conform to the approved fem-
inine stereotype are assumed to be corrupted by hetero-
sexism.
Though neo-Victorianism has been most militantly promoted
by lesbian separatists, in modified form (one that concedes
the possibility that mensome men at leastcan change
their ways and be good lovers) i t has also had wide appeal
for heterosexual feminists. (Conversely, lesbians have been
among the loudest cri t i cs of this stance; this is not a gay-
straight spl i t .) Its most popular current expression is the
antipornography movement, which has seized on pornography as
an all-purpose symbol of sex that is genitally oriented,
hence male, hence sadistic and violent, while invoking the
concept of "erotica" as code for sex that is gentle, roman-
t i c, relationship-orientedin a word, feminine. Clearly,
this conventional view of female as opposed to male sexuali-
ty is consistent with many women's subjective experience.
Indeed, there are probably few women who don't identify with
it to some degree. But to take that experience at face val-
ue is to ignore i t s context: a patriarchal society that has
systematically inhibited female sexuality and defined di -
rect, active physical desire as a male prerogative. Femin-
i st neo-Victorians have made the same mistakeonly with the
sexes reversedas male libertarians who cri t i ci ze female
sexual behavior while adopting stereotypical male sexuality
as the standard for judging sexual health and happiness. In
the process, they have actively reinforced the larger socie-
t y' s taboos on women's genital sexuality. From a conserva-
tive perspective, a woman who has aggressive genital desires
and acts on them is "bad" and "unwomanly"; from the neo-Vic-
torian perspective, she is "brainwashed" and "male-identi-
fied."
Overtly or implicitly, many feminists have argued that sex-
ual coercion is a more important problem for women than sexu-
al repression. In the last few years, the women's movement
has increasingly emphasized violence against women as a pr i -
maryif not the primaryconcern. Although sexual vio-
lence, coercion, and harassment have always been feminist
issues, earlier feminist analyses tended to regard physical
force as one among several ways that men ensure women's com-
pliance to a sexist system, and in particular to their sub-
ordinate wife-and-mother role. The main function of sexual
coercion, in this view, is to curb women's freedom, includ-
ing their sexual freedom. Rape, and the tacit social t ol er-
ance of it , convey the message that simply by being sexual
women are "provocative" and deserve punishment, especially
if they step out of their place (the home) or transgress
society' s definition of the "good" (inhibited) woman. Simi-
larly, sexual harassment on the street or on the job, and
exploitative sexual demands by male "sexual revolutionar-
i es, " punish women for asserting themselves, sexually and
otherwise, in the world.
The current feminist preoccupation with male violence has
a very different focus. Rape and pornography (defined as a
form of rape) are regarded not as aspects of a larger sexist
system but as the foundation and essence of sexism. Sexual
victimization is seen as the central fact of women's oppres-
sion. Just as male violence against women is equated with
male supremacy, freedom from violence is equated with wom-
en ' s liberation. From this standpoint, the positive aspect
of freedomfreedom for women to actis at best a second-
ary concern, and freedom for women to assert an active geni-
tal sexuality i s , by the logic of neo-Victorianism, a contra-
diction in terms.
Whatever i t s intent, the objective effect of feminists' em-
phasis on controlling male sexualityparticularly when that
emphasis is combined with a neo-Victorian view of women's na-
ture and the conviction that securing women's safety from
male aggression should be the chief priority of the women's
movementis to undercut feminist opposition to the profami-
ly backlash. It provides powerful reinforcement for the
Right's efforts to manipulate women's fear of untrammeled
male sexuality and intimidate women into stifling their own
impulses toward freedom in order to cling to what l i t t l e pro-
tection the traditional roles s t i l l offer. The convergence
of neo-Victorian and profamily ideology is most striking in
the recent attempts by so-called feminists for life to argue
that abortion is "violence against women" and a way for men
to escape responsibility for their sexual behavior. Al-
though this argument did not come from within the feminist
movement but from antiabortion pacifists seeking to justify
their position to feminists, i t is perfectly consistent with
neo-Victorian logic. No tendency in organized feminism has
yet advocated outlawing abortion, but one does occasionally
hear the argument that feminists should spend less energy de-
fending abortion and more on educating women to understand
that the real solution to unwanted pregnancy is to stop
sleeping with men.
Neo-Victorians have also undermined feminist opposition to
the Right by equating feminism with their own sexual a t t i -
tudes , in effect reading out of the movement any woman who
disagrees with them. Since their notion of proper feminist
sexuality echoes conventional moral judgments and the ant i -
sexual propaganda presently coming from the Right, their
guilt-mongering has been quite effective. Many feminists
who are aware that their sexual feelings contradict the neo-
Victorian ideal have lapsed into confused and apologetic s i -
lence. No doubt there are also thousands of women who have
quietly concluded that if this ideal is feminism, then femin-
ism has nothing to do with them. The result is widespread
apathy, dishonesty, and profound disunity in a movement
faced with a determined enemy that is threatening i t s very
existence.
The foregoing suggests that feminists are at a theoretical
impasse. If a feminist politics that advocates restrictions
on male sexuality leads inexorably to the sexual repression
of women and the strengthening of antifeminist forces, such
a po lit ics is o bvio us ly un t e n able . But ho w can we s uppo rt
s e xual fre e do m for bo t h s e xe s wit ho ut le git imizin g the mo s t
o ppre s s ive as pe ct s of male s e xual be havio r? I be lie ve o ur
ho pe for re s o lvin g this dile mma lies in re -e xamin in g ce rt ain
wide ly shared as s umpt io n s abo ut s e x, male ve rs us fe male s e xu-
alit y, and the me an in g of s e xual libe rat io n .
The philo s o phy of the s e xual re vo lut io n as we kn o w it is
an e xt e n s io n of libe ralis m: it de fin e s s e xual fre e do m as
the s imple abs e n ce of e xt e rn al re s t rict io n s laws and o ve rt
s o cial t abo o s o n s e xual in fo rmat io n and act ivit y. Sin ce
mo s t pe o ple acce pt this de fin it io n , t he re is wide s pre ad
agre e me n t that we are alre ady a s e xually e man cipat e d s o ci-
e t y. The easy availabilit y of cas ual s e x, the virt ual lack
of re s t rict io n s (at least for adult s ) on s e xual in fo rmat io n
and s e xually e xplicit mat e rial, the acce s s ibilit y (for
adult s again ) of co n t race pt io n , legal abo rt io n , the pro life r-
at io n of mas s age parlo rs and s e x clubs , the ubiquit y of s e xu-
al image s and re fe re n ce s in the mas s me dia, the re laxat io n
of t abo o s again s t "de vian t " s e xual pract ice s all are re gu-
larly cited as e vide n ce that t his cult ure has largely o ve r-
co me its an t is e xual his t o ry. At the same t ime , it is cle ar
that s e xual libe ralis m has n o t bro ught n irvan a. No t in g that
"libe rat e d" s e xualit y is o ft e n de pre s s in gly s hallo w, e xplo it -
at ive , and jo yle s s , man y me n as we ll as wo me n have co n clude d
that s e xual libe rat io n has be e n tried and found wan t in g,
that it is irre le van t o r e ve n in imical to a s e rio us pro gram
for s o cial chan ge .
This is a s upe rficial vie w, in that it fo cus e s on the quan -
tity and varie t y of s e xual act ivit y, rat he r than on the qual-
ity of s e xual e xpe rie n ce . Po lit ical o ppo s it io n to re s t ric-
tive s e xual mo re s is ult imat e ly bas e d on the pre mis e that a
grat ifyin g s e xual life is a le git imat e human n e e d, who s e
de n ial caus e s un n e ce s s ary and un jus t s uffe rin g. C e rt ain ly,
e s t ablis hin g pe o ple 's right to purs ue s e xual happin e s s wit h
a co n s e n t in g part n e r is a step t o ward e n din g that s uffe rin g.
Yet as mo s t of us have had o ccas io n to dis co ve r, it is e n -
t ire ly po s s ible to part icipat e "fre e ly" in a s e xual act and
feel frus t rat e d, in diffe re n t , or e ve n re pe lle d. Fro m a radi-
cal s t an dpo in t , t he n , s e xual libe rat io n in vo lve s not o n ly
the abo lit io n of re s t rict io n s but the po s it ive pre s e n ce of
s o cial and ps ycho lo gical co n dit io n s that fo s t e r s at is fyin g
s e xual re lat io n s . And from that s t an dpo in t , this s o cie t y
can hardly be co n s ide re d s e xually fre e . Mo s t o bvio us ly, s e x-
ual in e qualit y and the re s ult in g an t ago n is m be t we e n me n and
wo me n co n s t it ut e a de vas t at in g barrie r to s e xual happin e s s .
I will argue in addit io n that s e xual libe ralis m n o t wit hs t an d-
in g, mo s t childre n 's upbrin gin g pro duce s adult s wit h pro -
fo un dly n e gat ive at t it ude s t o ward s e x. Un de r these co n di-
A Feminist De fe n s e o f Sexual Fre e do m 333
t io n s , the re laxat io n of s e xual re s t rict io n s leads pe o ple to
try de s pe rat e ly to o ve rco me the o bs t acle s to s at is fact io n
t hro ugh co mpuls ive s e xual act ivit y and pre o ccupat io n wit h
s e x. The e mphas is on s e x t hat curre n t ly pe rme at e s o ur pub-
lic life e s pe cially the e n o rmo us de man d for s e xual advice
and t he rapyat t e s t s not to o ur s e xual fre e do m but to o ur
co n t in uin g s e xual frus t rat io n .
It is in this co n t e xt that we need to e xamin e the male s e x-
ual pat t e rn s that fe min is t s have pro t e s t e dt he e mphas is on
co n que s t and do min an ce , the t e n de n cy to abs t ract s e x fro m
love and s o cial re s po n s ibilit y. Se xual libe ralis m has al-
lowed man y me n to as s e rt t he s e pat t e rn s in ways that we re
o n ce s o cially t abo o . But to co n clude from t his fact that
male s e xual fre e do m is in he re n t ly o ppre s s ive to wo me n is to
make the un crit ical as s umpt io n that me n find pre dat o ry, s o l-
ips is t ic s e xual re lat io n s s at is fyin g and in he re n t ly pre fe ra-
ble to s e x bas e d on love and mut ualit y. As I have n o t e d,
some fe min is t s argue that male s e xualit y is n at urally s adis -
t ic. Ot he rs gran t that me n 's pre dat o ry t e n de n cie s are a
fun ct io n of s e xis m, but as s ume that they are a s imple , di-
re ct e xpre s s io n of me n 's (e xce s s ive ) fre e do m and po we r, the
implicat io n be in g that an yo n e who has the o ppo rt un it y to do m-
in at e and use o t he r pe o ple s e xually will of co urs e wan t to
take advan t age of it .
This as s umpt io n is o pe n to s e rio us que s t io n . If one pays
at t e n t io n to what me n co n s cio us ly or un wit t in gly re ve al
abo ut t he ir s e xual at t it ude s in t he ir fict io n and co n fe s -
s io n al writ in g, in s o cio lo gical and ps ycho lo gical s t udie s ,
in e ve ryday in t e ract io n s wit h wo me n t he pict ure that e me r-
ge s is far mo re co mplicat e d and ambiguo us . Mo s t me n , in
fact , pro fe s s to wan t and need mut ual s e xual lo ve , and o ft e n
be have acco rdin gly, t ho ugh they have ple n t y o f o ppo rt un it y
to do o t he rwis e . Man y me n e xpe rie n ce bo t h t e n de r and pre da-
tory fe e lin gs , toward the same or diffe re n t wo me n , and find
the co n t radict io n be wilde rin g and dis t urbin g; o t he rs e xpre s s
e n o rmo us pain o ve r t he ir in abilit y to co mbin e sex wit h lo ve .
Oft e n me n 's impuls e s to co e rce and de grade wo me n seem to e x-
pre s s n o t a co n fide n t as s umpt io n of do min an ce but a de s ire
to re t aliat e for fe e lin gs of re je ct io n , humiliat io n , and im-
po t e n ce . As man y me n see it , they need wo me n s e xually mo re
t han wo me n need t he m, an in t o le rable balan ce of po we r. Fur-
t he rmo re , much male s e xual be havio r cle arly re fle ct s me n 's
irrat io n al fe ars that loss of do min an ce me an s loss of male -
n e s s it s e lf, that t he ir cho ice is to "act like a man " o r be
cas t rat e d, to e mbrace the ro le of o ppre s s o r or be de grade d
to the s t at us of vict im. No n e of this is to de n y me n 's o b-
je ct ive s o cial po we r o ve r wo me n , t he ir re luct an ce to give up
t hat po we r, or t he ir t e n de n cy to blame wo me n for t he ir un hap-
piness rather than recognizing that their own oppressive be-
havior is largely responsible for women's sexual diffidence.
My point is only that the behavior that causes women so much
grief evidently brings men very l i t t l e joy; on the contrary,
men appear to be consumed with sexual frustration, rage, and
anxiety. With their compulsive assertions of power, they
continually sabotage their efforts to love and be loved.
Such self-defeating behavior cannot, in any meaningful
sense, be described as free. Rather it suggests that for
all the undoubted advantages men derive from "acting like a
man" in a male-supremacist society, the price is repression
and deformation of spontaneous sexual feeling.
The view that untrammeled male sexuality must inevitably
be oppressive is rooted in one of our most universal cultur-
al assumptions: that the sexual drive itself is inherently
antisocial, separate from love, and connected with aggres-
sive, destructive impulses. There i s , however, another
possibility, advanced by a small minority of Utopians, roman-
t i cs, and cultural radicals: that sexual desire, tender-
ness, and empathy are aspects of a unified erotic impulse,
that the split between sex and love and the attendant perver-
sion of sexual desire into exploitative, solipsistic lust
are an art i fi ci al social product. This thesis has been most
systematically and convincingly elaborated in Wilhelm
Reich's radical critique of Freud, which has provided the
basis for much subsequent cultural radical thought. In
Reich's view, parental condemnation of infantile genital
desires and sensationsquite harmless in themselvesforces
the child to split (bad) sex from (good) affection. The
child reacts to this thwarting of its sexual expression with
frustration, rage, and a desire for revenge; thus its sexual-
ity becomes sadistic. If the sadistic feelings are also for-
bidden they turn inward, producing guilt and masochism.
People's guilt at their own overt or repressed sadism, as
well as their observation of other people's antisocial be-
havior, is behind the conviction that sex is inherently
destructive. Yet that conviction rests on a piece of circu-
lar reasoning: repression creates the destructiveness that
is then cited as proof of the eternal need for repression.
Reich saw sexual repression as the self-perpetuating basis
of a sadomasochistic psychology which was in turn crucial to
the maintenance of an authoritarian, hierarchical social
order. He argued that people with an antisexual upbringing
tend to uphold established authorityeven when the prac-
tical conditions for rebellion existbecause that authority
fulfills several functions. It reinforces people's inner
controls over their sadistic impulses and protects then from
the uncontrolled sadism of others; it invites people to ex-
express sadistic feelings vicariously by identifying with
authority; and it permits people to vent those feelings in-
directly on those below them in the social hierarchy. Thus
the anger that should inspire social rebellion is trans-
formed into a conservative force, impelling people to submit
masochistically to their oppressors while bullying their
"inferiors." Yet even for ruling classes, Reich maintained,
power is at best a substitute for genuine fulfillment.
It is beyond the scope of this essay to attempt to prove
that the cultural radical view of sexor Reich's specific
formulation of itis correct. Rather, I propose this view
as the only hypothesis that is wholly consistent with a fem-
inist sexual pol i t i cs. I have tried to show how efforts to
control male sexuality undermine women's struggle for free-
dom and equality, and vice versa. To take the argument a
step further, if the sexual impulse is intrinsically selfish
and aggressive, there are two possible explanations for why
men's sexuality, far more than women's, has displayed these
chartacteristics. One is that sexual desire, per se, is in-
herently male; the pitfalls of this idea have been discussed
at length. The other is that women have simply not been al -
lowed to be as selfish and exploitative as men. To adopt
this notion puts feminists in the position of agreeing with
conservatives that liberating women from the feminine role
would destroy the social cement that keeps civilization go-
ing. If, on the other hand, sexual destructiveness can be
seen as a perversion that both reflects and perpetuates a re-
pressive system, i t is possible to envision a coherent femin-
ist politics in which a commitment to sexual freedom plays
an integral part.
If we accept the premise that parents, by rejecting their
children's genitality, atomize the erotic impulse and direct
infantile sexuality into a sadistic mode, the source of the
difference between "masculine" and "feminine" sexual pat-
terns seems clear. While boys are permitted, indeed encour-
aged, to incorporate their sadistic impulses into their sexu-
al identities and to express those impulses in socially
approved ways, gi r l s' aggression is no more tolerated than
their genitality. Like men, women experience a split be-
tween lust and love, but the lustful component of their sexu-
ality is subjected to severe inhibition. Women who do not
suppress their lustful feelings altogetheror sublimate
them into disembodied romanticism or mother loveusually
feel free to express them only in the relatively safe and so-
cially validated context of marriage or a quasi-marital com-
mitment. Thus what looks like women's superior ability to
integrate sex and love is only a more hidden form of aliena-
tion .
I am suggesting, then, that sexual repression and sexism
function symbiotically to transform male and female children
into masculine and feminine adults. To understand this pro-
cess, it is useful, in my view, to take another look at two
Freudian concepts that feminists have generally rejected or
interpreted in purely symbolic termscastration anxiety and
penis envy. Children in this culture absorb two sets of mes-
sages about their genitals: that to desire genital pleasure
is bad (indeed, the prohibited desire is soon contaminated
with actual "badness," i . e. , vengeful aggression); and that
there are two classes of people, one superior and dominant,
one inferior and subordinate, distinguished from each other
by the presence or absence of the penis. From these facts,
i t would be quite reasonable for children to infer that
girls have been castrated and devalued for bad sexual de-
si res, and that boys risk being punished for their badness
in similar fashion. There is also reason to assume an enor-
mous emotional difference between fear of mutilation and the
conviction that one has already been mutilated. A boy's
fear of castration would be mitigated by the knowledge that
so far he had been bad and gotten away with i t . A gi r l , in
contrast, would imagine that her defiance had already pro-
voked terrible retribution, and that worse might be in store
if she persisted. The boy's fear could be expected to stimu-
late his sexual aggression. It is only by "acting like a
man" that he can assure himself he is not a woman; besides,
he must vigilantly maintain his control over those deprived
beings who surely must hate him and covet his precious
organ. But the gi r l ' s observation of men's power and sexual
host i l i t y would only add to her terror and confirm her in
the belief that whatever her feelings of hate and envy, she
must be good at al l costs.
If women's childhood experience leads them to associate
their sexuality with violation and doom, it is no wonder
that many feminists are more preoccupied with their fears of
male violence than with their hopes for sexual freedom. The
idea that women who are sexually mistreated have "asked for
i t , " while those who behave will be protected, s t i l l has an
enormous hold over women's minds. It not only discourages
women from rebelling but often moves them to defend rigid
standards of sexual morality and resist any blurring of the
line between good and bad women: the clearer the rules, the
more likely that obeying them will ensure safety. Yet of
course "goodness" does not ensure safety and never did. In
practice, women can never be good enough, for both women and
men know that in their secret hearts al l women are "bad"
that i s , sexual. This knowledge gives men license to consid-
er all women fair gametheir goodness is after all just a
A Feminist Defense o f Sexual Fre e do m 337
hypo crit ical facade an d impe ls bo t h s e xe s to blame wo me n
for be in g rape d. Fin ally, the o n ly way wo me n can e s cape
t his trap is to re pudiat e and de s t ro y the as s o ciat io n be -
t we e n sex and badn e s s .
De s pit e the cult ural uphe avals wit h which we are fatniliar-
o f which we as fe min is t s are a pro duct t he bas ic in gre di-
e n t s of a pat riarchal upbrin gin g re main . Fo r all the e ro -
s io n of s e xual ro le s and impro ve me n t s in wo me n 's s t at us ,
there are s t ill two un e qual clas s e s of pe o ple dis t in guis he d
by the po s s e s s io n , or lack, of a pe n is . De s pit e (and in
part be caus e o f) the s pre ad of s e xual libe ralis m, mo s t pe o -
ple in cludin g mo s t fe min is t s are s t ill too de e ply afraid
of the s e xual impuls e to fully acce pt their babie s as s e xual
be in gs . As a re s ult , the s ymbio s is of s e xis m and s e xual re -
pre s s io n co n t in ue s to re -cre at e a co mple x of pat riarchal at -
t it ude s that e xe rt a s t ro n g pull on o ur e mo t io n s e ve n as
they in cre as in gly co n flict wit h bo t h o ur rat io n al ide as and
as pirat io n s and the act ual co n dit io n s of o ur live s . It is
in fact the s o cial in s t abilit y and ps ycho lo gical t e n s io n s
this co n flict pro duce s that have made pe o ple so re ce pt ive to
pro family ide o lo gy. The Right pro po s e s to re s o lve the co n -
flict by chan gin g s o cial re alit y to co n fo rm to o ur mo s t co n -
s e rvat ive e mo t io n s . Fe min is t po lit ics , in co n t ras t , o ft e n
s e e m to e mbo dy the co n flict in s t e ad of o ffe rin g an alt e rn a-
tive s o lut io n . No r is this an y wo n de r, if such a s o lut io n
mus t in clude a fun dame n t al t ran s fo rmat io n in pe o ple 's s e xual
ps ycho lo gy. Yet ho we ve r dan ge ro us and un chart e d the t e rrit o -
ry, it is pre cis e ly this task that we mus t s o me ho w be gin to
addre s s .
The firs t s t e p, I be lie ve , is to affirm the validit y, in
prin ciple , of s e xual libe rat io n as a fe min is t go al. This in
it s e lf will clarify man y co n fus io n s and co n t radict io n s in
curre n t fe min is t t hin kin g and in dicat e pract ical po lit ical
dire ct io n s . Fo r in s t an ce , my an alys is s ugge s t s that crus ad-
ing again s t po rn o graphy as a s ymbo l of male vio le n ce will
impe de fe min is m rat he r than advan ce it ; that fo cus in g primar-
ily on is s ue s of wo me n 's s afe t y (like rape ) is mo re pro ble m-
at ic and less e ffe ct ive that fo cus in g on is s ue s of wo me n 's
s e xual fre e do m (like abo rt io n right s ); that it is impo rt an t
for fe min is t s to de fe n d pe o ple 's (in cludin g me n 's ) fre e do m
to e n gage in co n s e n s ual s e xual act ivit y, in cludin g act s we
may find dis t as t e ful. In s ho rt , it is a losing pro po s it io n
for fe min is t s to co mpe t e wit h the Right in t ryin g to s o o t he
wo me n 's fears of s e xual an archy. We mus t of co urs e ackn o wl-
e dge those fe ars and the le git imat e re as o n s for t he m, but
o ur in t e re s t as fe min is t s is to de mo n s t rat e that a law-an d-
o rde r appro ach to s e x can only re s ult in a dras t ic curt ail-
me n t of o ur fre e do m. In the long run , we can win o n ly if
women (and men) want freedom (and love) more than they fear
i t s consequences.
Note
Fo r a lucid e xpo s it io n of this dis t in ct io n , I am in de bt -
ed to Alice Echo ls 's "C ult ural Fe min is m: Fe min is t C ap-
it alis m and the An t i-Po rn o graphy Mo ve me n t " (un pub-
lished pape r). A s ho rt e r ve rs io n of this pape r will
appe ar in Po we rs o f De s ire : The Po lit ics o f
Se xualit y, e d. An n Sn it o w, C hris t in e St an s e ll, and
Sharo n Tho mps o n , to be publis he d in 1983 by Mo n t hly
Re vie w Pre s s .
Notes on Contributors
LOURDES BENERIA is an as s o ciat e pro fe s s o r of ecomoraics at
Rut ge rs Un ive rs it y. She is in t e re s t e d in the e ffe ct s of
e co n o mic de ve lo pme n t and of the dyn amics of labor marke t s on
wo me n 's wo rk in and o ut s ide the ho us e ho ld. She is the aut h-
or of "Re pro duct io n , Pro duct io n and the Se xual Divis io n of
Labo r," amo n g o t he r art icle s , and e dit o r of Wo me n and De ve l-
o pme n t : The Se xual Divis io n o f Labo r in Rural So cie t ie s
(New Yo rk: ILO/Prae ge r, 1982).
NANC Y BOYD-FRANKLIN is a clin ical as s is t an t pro fe s s o r and s u-
pe rvis in g ps ycho lo gis t at the C o lle ge of Me dicin e and De n t is -
try of Ne w Je rs e y in Ne wark. In addit io n , she has a privat e
pract ice in Bro o klyn , Ne w Yo rk. She re ce ive d he r do ct o rat e
in clin ical ps ycho lo gy at Te ache rs C o lle ge , C o lumbia Un ive r-
s it y. She is a family t he rapis t who re ce ive d he r t rain in g
in this s pe cialt y at the Philade lphia C hild Guidan ce C lin ic
and has writ t e n n ume ro us art icle s and chapt e rs on Black fami-
lies in t he rapy. A s ign ifican t part of he r clin ical wo rk
has be e n fo cus e d on wo me n 's is s ue s and wo me n 's gro ups .
RENATE BRIDENTHAL is an as s o ciat e pro fe s s o r of his t o ry at
Bro o klyn C o lle ge , The C it y Un ive rs it y of Ne w Yo rk. She is
co e dit o r of Be co min g Vis ible : Wo me n in Euro pe an His t o ry,
co aut ho r of Ho us e ho ld and Kin : Familie s in Flux, aut ho r
of art icle s in wo me n 's his t o ry and fe min is t t he o ry, and a
me mbe r of the e dit o rial bo ard of Scie n ce and So cie t y.
EVELYN BROOKS is an as s is t an t pro fe s s o r in the Afro -Ame ri-
can St udie s Pro gram at the Un ive rs it y of Marylan d, C o lle ge
Park. She is curre n t ly writ in g a his t o ry of the wo me n 's
mo ve me n t in the Black Bapt is t C hurch.
LISA M. DESPOSITO is a co mmun it y o rgan ize r for Plan n e d Par-
e n t ho o d of NYC , wo rkin g wit h wo me n 's and co mmun it y gro ups to
pre s e rve re pro duct ive fre e do m. She is a fo un de r and bo ard
me mbe r of NYS C at ho lics for a Fre e C ho ice and fo rme r n at io n -
340 No t e s o n Contributors
al s e cre t ary. She als o s e rve s on the Po licy C o un cil of
NY/Me t ro po lit an Re ligio us C o alit io n for Abo rt io n Right s .
She was named by Ms . Magazin e as "One of the 80 Wo me n to
Wat ch in the 1980's ."
BONNIE THORNTON DILL is as s is t an t pro fe s s o r of s o cio lo gy and
dire ct o r of the C e n t e r for Re s e arch on Wo me n at Me mphis
State Un ive rs it y. She has publis he d s e ve ral art icle s on
Black wo me n and on ho us e ho ld wo rke rs . She is curre n t ly do -
ing re s e arch on the ways in which clas s s t ruct ure and labor
marke t o rgan izat io n affe ct Black wo me n 's labor fo rce part ici-
pat io n and in co me . In addit io n , she is a me mbe r of a re -
s e arch gro up e xplo rin g the in t e rs e ct io n of ge n de r, race , and
clas s for min o rit y wo me n in the Un it e d St at e s .
LISA DUGGAN is curre n t ly a graduat e s t ude n t in wo me n 's his t o -
ry at the Un ive rs it y of Pe n n s ylvan ia. She has writ t e n and
le ct ure d on vario us as pe ct s of le s bian his t o ry and is a
fo un din g me mbe r of the Ne w Yo rk Le s bian and Gay His t o ry
Pro je ct .
ZILLAH EISENSTEIN is an as s o ciat e pro fe s s o r of po lit ics at
It haca C o lle ge , It haca, Ne w Yo rk. She is the aut ho r o f The
Radical Fut ure o f Libe ral Fe min is m, e dit o r of and co n t ribu-
tor to C apit alis t Pat riarchy and the C as e fo r So cialis t Fe m-
in is m, and s e ve ral art icle s on the po lit ics of the family.
He r pre s e n t re s e arch is fo cus e d on the an t ife min is t po lit ics
o f the Ne w Right and n e o co n s e rvat is m.
C HERYL TOWNSEND GILKES is an as s is t an t pro fe s s o r of s o cio lo -
gy at Bo s t o n Un ive rs it y and a vis it in g le ct ure r and re s e arch
as s o ciat e in wo me n 's s t udie s at the Harvard Divin it y Scho o l.
She als o t e ache s a co urs e , "The Black Wo man in Ame rica" at
Simmo n s C o lle ge . She is the aut ho r of art icle s on race re la-
t io n s , Black wo me n in co mmun it y affairs , Afro -Ame rican re li-
gio n , and Black wo me n 's ro le s in Black churche s . He r mo s t
re ce n t art icle s appe are d in Ps ycho lo gy o f Wo me n Quart e rly
Jo urn al o f the In t e rde n o min at io n al The o lo gical C e n t e r and
La Fran ce s R. Ro s e s 's The Black Wo man .
ATINA GROSSMANN curre n t ly t e ache s wo me n 's and mo de rn Euro -
pe an his t o ry at Rut ge rs Un ive rs it y and is co mple t in g a dis -
s e rt at io n on "Fe min is m, Se xual Re fo rm and the Le ft " in We i-
mar Ge rman y. An act ive me mbe r of Ne w Yo rk C ARASA (C o mmit t e e
for Abo rt io n Right s and Again s t St e rilizat io n Abus e ), she
publis he s , t e ache s , and le ct ure s o n re pro duct ive right s in
his t o rical pe rs pe ct ive .
No t e s o n Contributors 341
NANC Y HARTSOC K is an as s o ciat e pro fe s s o r of po lit ical s ci-
e n ce at Jo hn s Ho pkin s Un ive rs it y, has be e n a me mbe r of the
staff of Que s t : a fe min is t quart e rly, and is as s o ciat e e d-
itor of Sign s . She is the aut ho r of Mo n e y, Se x, and Po w-
e r: An Es s ay o n Do min at io n and C o mmun it y and is wo rkin g on
a fe min is t crit ique of the lin ks be t we e n mas culin it y, war,
and cit ize n s hip in We s t e rn po lit ical t he o ry.
ELIZABETH HIGGINBOTHAM, a s o cio lo gis t t rain e d at Bran de is
Un ive rs it y, is an as s is t an t pro fe s s o r in the Divis io n of
Urban Plan n in g at C o lumbia Un ive rs it y. She has do n e re -
s e arch on e ducat e d Black wo me n and has aut ho re d man y art i-
cle s on vario us as pe ct s of Black wo me n 's live s . She is part
of a re s e arch co lle ct ive in ve s t igat in g the un ique s it uat io n
of racial e t hn ic wo me n in the Un it e d St at e s .
ANGELA JORGE is an as s is t an t pro fe s s o r of Span is h at the
State Un ive rs it y of Ne w Yo rk, Old We s t bury. She is the aut h-
or of "Implicat io n s (of the African Dias po ra) for Black, C ar-
ibbe an and Lat in Ame rican St udie s ," C aribe ; "The Pue rt o Ri-
can Wo man : A Family Mo de l," Pulp; "Si, Si Dio s Quie re , or
Nat ure 's Amazin g Expe rime n t (Race C ris is in the Pue rt o Rican
C o mmun it y)," Pe rs pe ct ive s ; and "The Black Pue rt o Rican Wo m-
an in C o n t e mpo rary Ame rican So cie t y," The Pue rt o Rican
Wo man .
ROSALIND POLLAC K PETC HESKY t e ache s po lit ical t he o ry and wo m-
e n 's s t udie s at Ramapo C o lle ge of Ne w Je rs e y and is a me mbe r
of C ARASA (C o mmit t e e for Amo rt io n Right s and Again s t St e rili-
zat io n Abus e ). She is the aut ho r of Re pro duct ive Fre e do m:
Fe min is t The o ry and the Abo rt io n Is s ue , fo rt hco min g from
Lo n gman Publis he rs , and of n ume ro us publis he d art icle s o n
fe min is t t he o ry and re pro duct ive right s que s t io n s .
FRANC INE QUAGLIO is an as s is t an t pro fe s s o r of human it ie s at
C hris t ian Bro t he rs C o lle ge in Me mphis , Te n n e s s e e .
RAYNA RAPP t e ache s an t hro po lo gy at the Graduat e Facult y Ne w
Scho o l for So cial Re s e arch. She e dit e d To ward an An t hro po l-
o gy o f Wo me n , writ e s on fe min is t an t hro po lo gy, and has co -
aut ho re d s e ve ral o t he r art icle s wit h Elle n Ro s s . She wo rks
wit h the Ms . Magazin e Bo ard of Advis o rs , he lps to e dit Fe m-
in is t St udie s , and is act ive in the re pro duct ive fre e do m
mo ve me n t .
LILLIAN S. ROBINSON spent the Fall 1982 s e me s t e r as Me llo n
Scho lar at We lle s le y C o lle ge and Sprin g 1983 as Vis it in g
342 No t e s o n Contributors
Scho lar at the Tuls a C e n t e r for the Study of Wo me n 's Lit e ra-
t ure . She is the aut ho r of Se x, C las s , and C ult ure , co -
aut ho r of Fe min is t Scho lars hip: C halle n ge , Dis co ve ry, and
Impact , and is co mple t in g two o t he r bo o ks , one of which is
a crit ical s t udy of t e le vis io n .
JAN ROSENBERG, a s o cio lo gis t , t e ache s at Long Island Un ive r-
s it y. He r bo o k, Wo me n 's Re fle ct io n s , was publis he d in
Spring 1983 (U.M.I. Re s e arch Pre s s ). He r art icle s on wo me n ,
the family, and film have appe are d in De mo crat ic Le ft ,
Fro n t ie rs , and the So ho Ne ws . She is curre n t ly at wo rk
on a s t udy of mo t he r-daught e r re lat io n s amo n g Jamaican im-
migran t s .
ELLEN ROSS t e ache s his t o ry and wo me n 's s t udie s at Ramapo C o l-
le ge , Ne w Je rs e y. She has writ t e n abo ut s e x, marriage , and
the family and is at wo rk on a bo o k abo ut wo me n 's n e ighbo r-
ho o d life in n in e t e e n t h-ce n t ury East Lo n do n .
GITA SEN is as s is t an t pro fe s s o r of e co n o mics at the Ne w
Scho o l for So cial Re s e arch. C urre n t ly at the C e n t e r for De -
ve lo pme n t St udie s in Trivandurutn, In dia, she in ve s t igat e s
the links be t we e n ge n de r and clas s in India and o t he r agri-
cult ural e co n o mie s . He r art icle s in clude "Wo me n Wo rke rs and
Agrarian C han ge " in Wo me n 's Wo rk in Rural Eco n o mie s and
(with L. Be n e ria) "Accumulat io n , Re pro duct io n and Wo me n 's
Ro le in Eco n o mic De ve lo pme n t : Bo s e rup Re vis it e d," Sign s :
Jo urn al o f Wo me n in C ult ure and So cie t y 7, n o . 2 (Win t e r
1981):279-98.
NADINE TAUB is an as s o ciat e pro fe s s o r and dire ct o r of the
Wo me n 's Right s Lit igat io n C lin ic at Rut ge rs Law Scho o l
Ne wark. She has re pre s e n t e d s e xual haras s me n t vict ims in
To mkin s v. PSE & G C o . and Ale xan de r v. Yale Un ive rs i-
t y. He r mo s t de t aile d dis cus s io n of s e xual haras s me n t ap-
pe ars in Ke e pin g Wo me n in The ir Place : St e re o t ypin g Pe r Se
as a Fo rm o f Emplo yme n t Dis crimin at io n , 21 Bo s . C .L. Re -
vie w 345 (1980).
BETTYLOU VALENTINE is an an t hro po lo gis t and n o ve lis t . She
is an Afro -Ame rican who kn o ws life on "we lfare " at first
han d. He r mo s t re le van t bo o k is Hus t lin g and Ot he r Hard
Wo rk: Life s t yle s in the Ghe t t o . She has be e n an act ivis t
and a t e ache r, ho ldin g po s it io n s at SUNY, St o n y Bro o k, o t he r
Ame rican un ive rs it ie s , and in Papua, Ne w Guin e a, and C hin a.
JUDITH R. WALKOWITZ is an as s o ciat e pro fe s s o r of his t o ry at
Rut ge rs Un ive rs it y. She is an e dit o r of Fe min is t St udie s
No t e s o n Contributors 343
and the aut ho r of Pro s t it ut io n an d Vict o rian So cie t y: Wo m-
an , C las s and the St at e . She is curre n t ly at wo rk on a
bo o k on pro s t it ut io n and s e xual s can dals in lat e -Vict o rian
Lo n do n for which she wo n the Be rks hire C o n fe re n ce bo o k award
in 1980.
ELLEN WILLIS is the aut ho r of Be gin n in g to See the Light ,
a co lle ct io n of e s s ays on wo me n 's libe rat io n , radical
po lit ics , and po pular cult ure . He r art icle s have appe are d
in man y pe rio dicals , in cludin g the Ne w Yo rke r, Ro llin g
St o n e ,an d the Ne w Yo rk Re vie w o f Bo o ks . She is curre n t ly
a s t aff writ e r at the Village Vo ice .
Index
Abo rt io n : C at ho lic at t it ude
t o ward, 146, 149-51; C at ho -
lic hie rarchy's allian ce
wit h Ne w Right an d, 140-
41; on de man d, 66; Ne w
Right an d, 140-41; in We i-
mar Re public, 62, 63.
See als o Le gal abo rt io n
Ado le s ce n t pe e r cult ure ,
gro wt h o f, 103-4
Adve rt is in g: fe min is t crit i-
cis m o f, 311; gro wt h o f,
99-100
Aframe rican Wo man 's Jo ur-
n al, The , 293
Age of co n s e n t , campaign
again s t whit e s lave ry in
En glan d an d, 15-18
Aid to Familie s of De pe n de n t
C hildre n (AFDC ), e We l-
fare
Alle n de , see Un idad Po pu-
lar go ve rn me n t in C hile
Ame rican cult ure : mo vie in -
dus t ry an d, 103; t ran s fo r-
mat io n in 1920s , 93
Ame rican Le gis lat ive Ex-
chan ge C o un cil, 142
Ame rican Me dical As s o ciat io n
(AMA), 95
Ame rican Nat io n al Bapt is t
C o n ve n t io n , 32, 33, 35,
36, 37, 38, 47, 48-49
"Amo s 'n
1
An dy," 294-95
An t iabo rt io n mo ve me n t , see
Right to Life mo ve me n t
"An t ifamily," as label for
wo me n 's gro ups in 1920s ,
97
An t ifamily ide o lo gy, 127-
31
An t ife min is m: an t ivice cam-
paign s an d, 17; co mpan io n -
ate marriage an d, 82;
co n s cio us n e s s of de pe n de n t
wo me n an d, 236; fe min is t
mo ve me n t 's need fo r, 8-9;
fe min is t t he o lo gy an d,
43-45; Re agan admin is t ra-
t io n an d, 120-24; in t we n -
ties and e ight ie s co m-
pare d, 93-94, 104-5. See
als o Ne w Right
An t ilyn chin g mo ve me n t , 97,
102; whit e fe min is t s an d,
176
An t iun io n act ivit ie s , of Ne w
Right , 142
An t ivice campaign s , 10-25;
fo rmat io n of Nat io n al Vigi-
lance As s o ciat io n an d, 18;
re pre s s ive laws an d, 17-
18. See als o Pro s t it u-
t io n ; Whit e s lave ry
As ian s , me dia po rt rayal o f,
308, 316
As s o ciat io n of Wo me n for the
Pre ve n t io n of Lyn chin g,
98-99
Aut o n o my of wo me n : le s bian -
ism an d, 101; re ligio n and
de n ial o f, 302
346 Index
Aut o n o my of wo me n 's gro ups ,
Black Bapt is t wo me n o n ,
46-47
Bapt is t church, e qualit y o f
wo me n an d, 36-37, 48-49
Bapt is t me n , at t it ude s
t o ward wo me n , 36
Bapt is t whit e wo me n , Black
Bapt is t wo me n o n , 47
Barn e t t , Ida We ls , 176
Bas ic n e e ds s t rat e gy for de -
ve lo pme n t , wo me n an d, 244-
48, 253-56
Be e che r, He n ry Ward, 41
Be t hun e , Mary McLe o d, 293
Bible : fe min in e s ymbo lis m
in , 45; libe ral t he o lo gy
at end o f 19th ce n t ury
an d, 40-43; racial e quali-
ty an d, 32; wo me n 's right s
an d, 32, 33-34, 36, 37,
48. See als o C hris -
t o lo gy
Biblical Wo rld, 42-43
Birt h co n t ro l, 63; he t e ro s e x-
ual re vo lut io n an d, 101;
libe ral s e x re fo rme rs an d,
80-81, 87; mo ve me n t
again s t , 18; Third Wo rld
wo me n an d, 251-52; in We i-
mar Re public, 63, 64, 66,
70, 80-81; wo rk fo rce par-
t icipat io n o f wo me n an d,
77, 230-31
Birt h co n t ro l pills , s t udie s
wit h Pue rt o Rican wo me n
o f, 220
Birt h rat e , in po s t -Wo rld
War I Ge rman y, 61
Black Bapt is t church: ra-
cial in e qualit y an d, 32;
role of wo me n in , 31, 50
Black Bapt is t fe min is t t he -
o lo gy, 31-50; at t it ude s
toward me n , 46; impact o f,
50; in t e lle ct ual t re n ds in -
flue n cin g, 39-40; s e cular
fe min is m an d, 41; s o cial
re fo rm mo ve me n t an d, 37-
38; s uppo rt by Bapt is t me n
t o , 48-49; whit e Bapt is t
wo me n an d, 45-46
Black Bapt is t wo me n : bo rn
in t o s lave ry, 51-52n 6; o n
cult ivat io n o f fe male in -
t e lle ct , 46; dual ge n de r
co n s cio us n e s s o f, 44-45;
on Je s us , 35-36; on mar-
riage , 35; on mo t he rho o d,
34-35; on whit e wo me n , 47;
role in church, 32-34, 36-
37, 48-49; un e ve n n e s s of
fe min is m o f, 46-47. See
als o Black Bapt is t fe mi-
n is t t he o lo gy
Black churche s , role o f wo m-
e n in , 195-96. See als o
Black Bapt is t church
Black familie s : at t it ude s
t o ward e lde rly, 192-93;
childke e pin g by, 192; e du-
cat io n al o rie n t at io n o f,
197-98; Mo yn ihan Re po rt
an d, 121-22; po rt rayal by
me dia, 316; re ligio us o ri-
e n t at io n o f, 195-96; role
adapt abilit y in , 194-95;
s t re n gt hs o f, 191-94; as
s urvival mo de ls , 198-99;
wo rk o rie n t at io n o f,
196-97
Black fe min is t mo ve me n t , 177
Black libe rat io n mo ve me n t ,
in flue n ce o n fe min is t mo ve -
me n t , 160
Black macho myt h, 195
Black mat riarchy, 190; cas -
t rat in g wo me n image o f,
294-95
Black po we r, e qualit y in
mo ve me n t s for s o cial
chan ge an d, 159-60
Black s upe rwo man myt h, 195
Black wo me n : at t it ude
t o ward e ducat io n , 171n l3;
Index 347
Black wo me n (C o n t in ue d): at -
t it ude t o ward fe min is t s ,
168; bo urge o is in dividual-
is m o f wo me n 's mo ve me n t
an d, 175-78; co lle ge -
e ducat e d, clas s diffe re n -
ces an d, 182; de ve lo pme n t
of co n s cio us n e s s amo n g,
180-84; middle -clas s , dur-
ing Pro gre s s ive e ra, 95;
race and clas s fact o rs in
s t udy o f, 179; racis m and
co n t ro l o f, see Racis m
and Black wo me n ; re lat io n s
wit h whit e wo me n , s e e
Sis t e rho o d; re s po n s ibili-
t ie s o f, 193-94; role of
churche s in lives o f, 195-
96; s e t t le me n t wo rk an d,
102; s is t e rho o d amo n g,
175-76; slave e co n o my an d,
202; s t e re o t ype d image o f,
we lfare an d, 282-83; we l-
fare re cipie n t s , see We l-
fare . See als o Black
familie s ; Emplo yme n t of
Black and His pan ic wo me n ;
Ho us e ho ld wo rke rs ; Racis m
Black wo me n 's o rgan izat io n s ,
s t ruggle again s t racis m
an d, 292-94
Bo o k ce n s o rs hip, an t ivice
campaign an d, 18; Ne w
Right an d, 143
Bo urge o is de mo cracy, de n ial
of diffe re n ce an d, 159-60
Bo urge o is fe min is m, 3; at t i-
t ude t o ward ho us e ho ld wo rk-
e rs an d, 184-85
Bro t he ls : Jack the Rippe r
co n t ro ve rs y an d, 22; laws
again s t pro s t it ut io n in
En glan d an d, 18
Bryan t , An it a, 8
C apit alis m: fe min is m an d,
3, 9; labor re quire me n t s
and wo rkin g marrie d wo me n
an d, 122-23; Ne w Right at -
t it ude t o ward, 122-23; e x-
pan s io n in n in e t e e n t h-
ce n t ury U.S., wo me n an d,
76, 78
C ar o wn e rs hip, ado le s ce n t
pe e r cult ure an d, 103
C art e r, Jimmy, 119; vo t e in
1980 e le ct io n s , 117
C art e r admin is t rat io n , co n -
flict o ve r fe min is t is s ue s
durin g, 120
C at ho lics : Ne w Right an d,
146; Right to Life mo ve -
me n t an d, 146-49; s uppo rt -
ing abo rt io n , 149-51
C at ho lics for a Fre e C ho ice ,
149
C e libacy, libe ral s e x re fo rm-
e rs an d, 80
Charlie's Angels, 319-20
C hican as , e mplo yme n t o f,
203-4
Child labor laws , s o cial fe m-
in is t s an d, 96
C hild pro s t it ut e s , in Mid
Vict o rian En glan d, 16
C hildle s s n e s s , chan ge s in ,
239-40n 27
C hild-re arin g, s o cial clas s
an d, 235-36
C hildre n : as s o urce of la-
bo r in Third Wo rld, 251-
52; me dia s e xual e xplo it a-
t io n o f, 320-21; s e xual
re pre s s io n an d, 336-37
C hile , s o cial clas s and po -
lit ical be havio r o f wo me n
in , 248-50
C hris t , see C hris t o lo gy
C hris t ian C o alit io n for
Le gis lat ive Act io n , 133
C hris t ian Ne w Right , 143-45
C hris t ian it y, s lave ry an d,
51n
C hris t o lo gy, 42-45
Churches, women's role i n,
45
348 Index
Civil right s mo ve me n t , de n i-
al of diffe re n ce s an d, 159
C las s , see So cial clas s
C las s s t ruggle , fe min is m
an d, 3, 5-6, 7-9
C le rgy, wo me n in 56n 39
C lit o ris , Sex Re fo rm mo ve -
me n t in We imar Re public
an d, 69-70
C o e ducat io n , he t e ro s e xual
re vo lut io n an d, 102
C o e rcive n e s s , s e xual haras s -
me n t cas e s and , 269
C o it us in t e rrupt us , 63
C o lle ge e n ro llme n t s of wo m-
e n , durin g Pro gre s s ive
e ra, 94
C o lle ge s e le ct io n , s o cial
clas s an d, 182
Colored Wo me n 's Le ague , 292
C o mbahe e Rive r C o lle ct ive ,
179
C o min g-t o -co n s cio us n e s s , 5-
7. See als o Fe min is t
co n s cio us n e s s
C o mmit t e e for Re s po n s ible
Yo ut h Po lit ics , 143
C o mmit t e e for the Survival
of a Fre e C o n gre s s , 133,
142-43
C o mmun is t part y (U.S.), Red
Scare and , 95
C o mmun is t part y (We imar Re -
public), s o cial re fo rm
mo ve me n t an d, 72-73, 74n
C o mpan io n at e marriage , 80-
82, 100, 102
C o n gre s s io n al C lub, 142-43
C o n s cio us n e s s : of de pe n de n t
wo me n , 236; ge n de r-race -
clas s re lat io n s hips for
Black wo me n an d, 180-84.
See als o Fe min is t co n -
s cio us n e s s
C o n s cio us n e s s -rais in g
gro ups , as mo de ls fo r fe mi-
n is t o rgan izat io n s , 160
C o n s e rvat ive C aucus , 142
C o n s e rvat ive Dige s t , 141
C o n s e rvat ive Po lit ical Ac-
t io n C o n fe re n ce (C PAC ),
142
C o n s ume r re vo lut io n , 80, 93,
99-102
C o n s ume ris m, me dia sex s t e -
re o t ype s an d, 312-13
C o n t agio us Dis e as e s Act , 11
C o n t race pt io n , see Birt h
co n t ro l
C o o rs , Jo s e ph, 142
C re at ivit y, diffe re n ce s
amo n g wo me n an d, 166-69
C rimin al Law Ame n dme n t Act
of 1885 (En glan d), 17-18
"C rit ical C ho ice s for the
80s ," 119
C ult ure o f racial e t hn ics ,
racis m an d, 201-2
Darwin is m, fe min is t t he o lo gi-
cal writ in gs an d, 40
Daught e rs o f the Ame rican
Re vo lut io n (DAR), 95; ERA
an d, 97
De mo crat s , Ne w Right an d,
145-46
De mo n s t rat io n s : again s t
whit e s lave ry, 16; "e mpt y
po t s ," 248-49; by One Na-
t io n Un de r Go d, 144; by
wo me n in We s t e rn In dia,
249-50
De pe n de n cy o f wo me n , fe rt ili-
ty rat e s an d, 233-34
De pre s s io n : abo rt io n s in
Ge rman y an d, 62-63; we l-
fare s ys t e m an d, 277-78
Diale ct ic o f t he o ry and prac-
t ice , diffe re n ce and do mi-
n at io n in wo me n 's mo ve me n t
an d, 157-70
Diale ct ical fe min is m: cur-
re n t cris is of capit alis m
an d, 9; He ge lian mo de l o f,
7; Marxian mo de l o f, 7-8;
ps ycho an alyt ic mo de l o f,
6-7
Index 34 9
Diale ct ics of race , clas s ,
and ge n de r, 179
Diffe re n ce , s o cially co n -
s t ruct e d, diffe re n ce s an d,
158
Diffe re n ce s be t we e n wo me n :
aban do n me n t of s is t e rho o d
co n ce pt an d, 184-86; cre a-
t ivit y an d, 166-69; de n ial
o f, 159-60; do min at io n
pro ble ms in wo me n 's mo ve -
me n t an d, 157-70; n e gat ive
and po s it ive us e s fo r,
158-59; s e lf-pe rce pt io n of
Black wo me n an d, 181;
t ran s fo rmat io n into s pe ci-
ficit y, 162-63
Divo rce : at t it ude s toward
in 1920s , 88; in cre as e d
n umbe rs of wo me n in wo rk
fo rce an d, 78
Divo rce d wo me n , family in -
co me s o f, 228-29
Do me s t ic wo rk, see Ho us e -
wo rk
Do me s t ic wo rke rs : clas s dis -
t in ct io n s an d, 223;
co n s cio us n e s s of clas s
diffe re n ce s , 182-83;
racial co mpo s it io n o f,
205, 208; s e xual
haras s me n t o f, 263; Third
Wo rld, 253; whit e middle
clas s at t it ude s t o ward,
184-86
Do me s t icit y: Black Bapt is t
t he o lo gy an d, 45; cult o f,
54n 24
Do min at io n in wo me n 's mo ve -
me n t , 157-70; diffe re n ce
and cre at ivit y an d, 166-
69; diffe re n ce s and po we r
an d, 159-60; po we r as e n e r-
gy an d, 163-64; s e parat is m
an d, 161, 162; s o cial
clas s diffe re n ce s an d,
164-66; t ran s fo rmat io n of
diffe re n ce into s pe cifi-
city an d, 162-63
Do n ahue , Phil, 10
Do uble day, 227-28; fe min is t
co n s cio us n e s s of marrie d
wo rkin g wo me n , 114; in s o -
cialis t co un t rie s , 255;
Third Wo rld wo me n an d, 253
Eco n o mic de ve lo pme n t , wo m-
e n 's role in , see Third
Wo rld wo me n
Eco n o mic gro wt h, dis man t lin g
of s o cial fe min is m an d,
99-100
Eco n o my, an t ife min is t back-
lash in 1920s an d, 93.
See als o De pre s s io n
Educat io n : at t it ude of Black
wo me n t o ward, 171n l3; at t i-
t ude s of Black familie s
t o ward, 197-98; e mplo yme n t
dis crimin at io n an d, 38
Educat io n al le ve l: at t it ude
t o ward wo rk vs . ho us e wife
ro le an d, 135n 3; fe rt ilit y
rat e s an d, 232-33; of wo rk-
ing clas s and pro fe s s io n al
wo me n , 135n 3
Educat io n al re fo rm, wo me n 's
mo ve me n t an d, 185
1844 Man us cript s (Marx),
167-68
Ele ct io n s of 1980: an t ife mi-
n is m in , 115-18; C at ho lic
vo t e in , 146; s t re n gt h of
Ne w Right in , 117-18
Emplo yme n t of Black and His -
pan ic wo me n , 200-13; co m-
pare d wit h whit e wo me n in
1977, 210; in t ragro up dif-
fe re n ce s in , 219; o ccupa-
t io n al s t at us by race ,
206-7; in rural are as ,
203-5; s lave ry and Re co n -
s t ruct io n an d, 203; in ur-
ban are as , 205, 208-9,
211, 212. See als o
Black wo me n ; C hican as ;
Pue rt o Rican wo me n
350 Index
Emplo yme n t dis crimin at io n :
Black wo me n an d, 38-39;
e ducat io n an d, 38; pro s t i-
t ut io n an d, 12-13, 14-15
Emplo yme n t of wo me n : e co n o m-
ic n e e ds o f pat riarchal s o -
cie t y an d, 303; fe rt ilit y
an d, 230-37, 239n 23. See
als o Emplo yme n t of Black
and His pan ic wo me n ; Mar-
ried wo rkin g wo me n
Empt y po t s de mo n s t at io n s in
C hile , 248-49
Equal pay de man ds , 227; mar-
ried wage e arn in g wo me n
an d, 113-14
Equal Right s Ame n dme n t
(ERA), 6; divis io n s in fem-
in is t mo ve me n t in 1920s
an d, 93, 97; e ducat io n al
level and at t it ude s
t o ward, 136n 3
Equalit y of wo me n : diffe re n -
ce s an d, 159-60; Quake rs
and , 59n
Et hio pian land re fo rm, wo me n
an d, 253-54
Euge n ics : co mpan io n at e mar-
riage an d, 82; Sex Re fo rm
mo ve me n t an d, 71-72, 81;
s t e rilizat io n in We imar Re -
public an d, 65
Evan ge lical libe rals , 40-43,
54n 31
Evan ge lical right , 111
Evan ge licals , mo ve me n t
again s t re gulat io n o f pro s -
t it ut io n an d, 13
Ext e n de d Black family, 192;
adapt at io n to we lfare and
e mplo yme n t dis crimin at io n ,
202
Ext e n de d family, wo rkin g
clas s life an d, 131-32
Ext ramarit al re lat io n s , at t i-
t ude s in 1920s t o ward, 88
Falwe ll, Re v. Je rry, 120,
143-44
Family: dual-wage -e arn in g,
112-15; fe min is t at t it ude
t o ward, 127-31; he t e ro s e x-
ual re vo lut io n an d, 102;
impact of co n s ume ris m o n ,
99-100; in t ras t at e co n -
flict s o ve r po licie s o n ,
121; me dia po rt rayal o f,
313-14, 317; Re agan -
St o ckman budge t an d, 118-
20; wo rkin g clas s vie w o f,
126-34. See als o Black
familie s ; Pat riarchal
family
Family in co me s , of divo rce d
wo me n , 228-29
Family life : chan ge s s in ce
Wo rld War II, 126; marrie d
wo rkin g wo me n an d, 121-22
Family Pro t e ct io n Act , 121-
22
Family Pro t e ct io n Re po rt ,
143
Family s ize : labor fo rce
part icipat io n of wo me n
an d, 241n 40; in We imar Re -
public, 62
Family wage , e mplo yme n t dis -
crimin at io n an d, 21
Fe de ral Eme rge n cy Re lie f Ad-
min is t rat io n (FERA), 277-
78
Fe male e mplo yme n t , see Em-
plo yme n t o f wo me n
Fe male o rgas m, Sex Re fo rm
mo ve me n t an d, 68-71
Fe male s e xualit y: advan -
tage of de s e xualizat io n ,
19-20; co n t ro l o f, an t i-
vice campaign s an d, 16-17;
Jack the Rippe r co n t ro -
ve rs y an d, 22; me dia an d,
314; Sex Re fo rm mo ve me n t
in We imar Re public an d,
68-72; s o cial purit y mo ve -
me n t an d, 19-20; wo me n 's
re vo lt an d, 23
Fe min in e ide al, t he o lo gy
an d, 43-44
Index 351
Fe min is m: backlas h in 1920s
again s t , 76, 85-86; bo ur-
ge o is ide o lo gy an d, 3; cap-
it alis m an d, 3; co min g-t o -
co n s cio us n e s s an d, 5-6;
dis t in ct io n be t we e n s is t e r-
ho o d an d, 174-75; impact
of an t ife min is m o n , 8-9;
n at ure o f, 5-6; pro in divid-
ualis t e t ho s o f, 136n ; s o -
cialis m an d, 3, 6; s uppo rt
fo r, 117-18
Fe min is t co n s cio us n e s s :
clas s s t ruggle an d, 7-8;
fight again s t Ne w Right
an d, 123-24; of marrie d
wo rkin g wo me n , 113-14;
j mo de of pro duct io n an d,
7-8
Fe min is t diale ct ic, 3-10
Fe min is t in s t it ut io n s , de -
fe n s e o f, 104-5
Fe min is t mo ve me n t : ado le s -
cent pe e r cult ure an d,
103; as s ault again s t Ne w
Right an d, 123-24; Black
Bapt is t fe min is t t he o lo gy
an d, 91; civil right s of
le s bian and gay mo ve me n t
an d, 91; co n flict o ve r
male s e xualit y in , 327-31;
co n flict s o ve r s e xualit y,
327-31; crit icis ms of mas s
me dia by, 309-14; de clin e
aft e r win n in g s uffrage in
U.S., 79; lynch law an d,
176; n e e d for an alys is of
mas s cult ure by, 322-23;
Ne w Right an d, see Ne w
Right ; in 1920s , 79, 93-
105; s e xual fre e do m as
go al o f, 337-38. See
als o Fe min is t s ; Wo me n 's
mo ve me n t
Fe min is t t he o lo gy, s e e
Black Bapt is t fe min is t t he -
o lo gy
Fe min is t t he o ry, s o cial
clas s an d, 221-22
Fe min is t s : an t ivice cam-
paign s o f, see An t ivice
campaign s ; chan ge s in me -
dia an d, 314-22; ide n t ifi-
cat io n wit h me dia audi-
e n ce , 311; libe ral sex
re fo rme rs in 1920s an d,
81; s e xual fre e do m an d,
s e e Se xual fre e do m; s o -
cial purit y mo ve me n t an d,
19-23; vie w o f family,
127-31
Fe rt ilit y rat e s , 242; clas s
divis io n s an d, 229-37.
See als o Birt h co n t ro l;
Re pro duct ive right s
Films , pro t e s t s again s t , 308
Flappe r image , cre at io n o f,
80
Fre e C o n gre s s Fo un dat io n ,
143
Fre ud, Re ich's crit ique o f,
334-35
Fre udian mo de l of diale ct i-
cal fe min is m, 6-7
Frigidit y: he t e ro s e xual rev-
o lut io n an d, 101; libe ral
s e x re fo rme rs an d, 68, 81
Fun dame n t alis t s , Darwin is m
an d, 40
Furie s , clas s diffe re n ce s
an d, 164-66
Galbe r, No rma, 143
Gallup Po ll, on C at ho lic at -
t it ude s t o ward abo rt io n ,
149
Garme n t in dus t ry in Ne w Yo rk
C it y, Pue rt o Rican wo me n
wo rkin g in , 209, 211
Gas pe r, Jo An n , 143
Ge n de r re lat io n s , e xpan s io n
of capit alis m in U.S., 77
Ge n e s is s t o ry, wo me n 's
right s an d, 34
Ge rman wo me n in We imar Re pub-
lic, 4-5, 8-9; Se x Re fo rm
mo ve me n t an d, see Sex
352 Index
Ge rman wo me n in We imar Re pub-
lic (C o n t in ue d), Re fo rm
mo ve me n t in We imar
Re public
Go ldman , Emma, 81
Gre at Brit ain : mo ve me n t to
re pe al laws re gulat in g
pro s t it ut io n in , 11-15.
Se e als o An t ivice cam-
paign
Grie van ce me chan is ms , s e xual
haras s me n t cas e s an d, 273-
74
Hardin g, Warre n , 94
Hat fie ld, Mark, 121
He alt h po licy, in We imar Re -
public, 64-66
He ge lian mo de l of diale ct i-
cal fe min is m, 7
He lms , Je s s e , 142
He n ry St re e t Se t t le me n t , 94-
95
He rit age Fo un dat io n , 142
He s burgh, Fat he r The o do re ,
150
He t e ro s e xual bias , of Sex Re -
fo rm mo ve me n t , 71-72
He t e ro s e xual re vo lut io n :
ado le s ce n t pe e r cult ure
an d, 102-3, co n s ume ris m
an d, 100-101; fe min is t
mo ve me n t in 1920s an d, 93;
mo vie in dus t ry an d, 103
He t e ro s e xualit y: e n fo rce -
me n t in U.S. in 1920s , 79-
91; re de fin it io n in 1920s ,
80-81
His pan ic wo me n : in t ragro up
diffe re n ce s , 217; re lat io n -
s hips wit h whit e s , 218;
we lfare re cipie n t s , s e e
We lfare . See als o Em-
plo yme n t of Black and His -
pan ic wo me n
His pan ics , me dia po rt rayal
o f, 316
Ho me , fe min is t at t it ude s
t o ward, 129-30
Ho mo s e xualit y: laws again s t
in En glan d, 17-18; me dia
po rt rayal o f, 318-19.
See als o An t ivice cam-
paign s ; Le s bian s
Ho mo s o cial in s t it ut io n s , he t -
e ro s e xual re vo lut io n an d,
102-3
Ho us e wife ro le : at t it ude s
of Black wo me n t o ward,
175; middle clas s an d,
225-26. See als o Ho us e -
wo rk
Ho us e wo rk: clas s and at t i-
tude t o ward, 225-26; e co n -
o mic ro le of Third Wo rld
wo me n an d, 250-52; s lave
wo me n an d, 290-92; s o ciali-
zat io n o f, 255
Ho us in g po licy, po pulat io n
po licy in We imar Re public
and , 64
Ille git imacy: in cre as e d n um-
be rs of wo me n in wo rk
fo rce an d, 78; we lfare
an d, 279
Image of wo me n , me dia an d,
308-23
Immigran t wo me n : Black Bap-
tist wo me n an d, 37-38; e m-
plo yme n t o f, 201; ho us e -
ho ld labo r an d, 185
In ce s t Act of 1908, 19
In dia: re s is t an ce to birt h
co n t ro l in , 251-52; po lit i-
cal act ivit y of po o r wo me n
in , 249-50
In dividualis m: Black wo me n
an d, 193-94; clas s and ra-
cial divis io n s an d, 174-
75; fe min is m an d, 136n 5
In dus t rial e mplo yme n t , Me xi-
can -Ame rican s an d, 203-4
In t e rn at io n al age n cie s , at t i-
t ude s t o ward e co n o mic de -
ve lo pme n t and Third Wo rld
wo me n , 243
Index 353
In t e rn at io n al Labo r Organ iza-
t io n , bas ic n e e ds s t rat e gy
o f, 244-48, 252-55
Jack the Rippe r murde rs , con-
t ro ve rs y o ve r, 21-22
Je s us , re ligio us do min at io n
of wo me n an d, 305-6
Jo hn Paul II, Po pe , 303-6
Jo urn alis m, see Me dia;
Scan dal jo urn alis m
Jo yce at 34 (film), 129
Jury s e rvice for wo me n , 96
Ke lly, Jo an , 73
"Kiddie po rn ," 320-21
Kin s hip t ie s , Black familie s
an d, 191-92
Ku Klux Klan , in 1920s ,
95-96
Labo r, racial divis io n o f,
po we r an d, 178
Labo r un io n s , an t ife min is t
backlas h an d, 105
Ladie s Ho me Jo urn al, 100,
310
Ladie s Man ife s t o , 11-12
Land o wn e rs hip, Third Wo rld
wo me n an d, 253-54
Law for the Pre ve n t io n of
Ve n e re al Dis e as e , 64-65
Law for the Pro t e ct io n o f
Mo t he rs , 64
Laws : again s t in ce s t , 19;
age of co n s e n t , 17; an t iho -
mo s e xual, 17-18; re gu-
lating pro s t it ut io n , o ppo -
s it io n t o , 11-15; on
s e xual haras s me n t , s e e
Se xual haras s me n t
Laxalt Family Pro t e ct io n
Bill, 118, 120
Le ade rs hip, in wo me n 's mo ve -
me n t , 160-62
Le ague of Wo me n Vo t e rs , 99;
impact of re d-bait in g o n ,
98
Le gal abo rt io n , re fo rm mo ve -
me n t in We imar Re public
an d, 66, 72-73
Le s bian fe min is m, diffe re n -
ces and do min at io n an d,
163. See als o Furie s ;
Le s bian s e parat is m
Le s bian s e parat is m, s e xual
fre e do m an d, 329
Le s bian is m: in cre as e d e co n -
o mic in de pe n de n ce of wo me n
an d, 78; in 19th ce n t ury,
77
Le s bian s : libe ral sex re -
fo rme rs an d, 70, 81, 88-
90; me dia po rt rayal o f,
316, 324n 9; in 1920s , 76,
88-90, 93, 101-2; re s is -
t an ce to e n fo rce me n t of
he t e ro s e xualit y, 88-91
Libe ral fe min is t s , Ne w Right
an d, 227-28
Libe ral sex re fo rme rs : at -
t acks on fe min is m and le s -
bian is m by, 76; co mpan io n -
ate marriage an d, 81-83;
in flue n ce o f, 88; le s bian
re s is t an ce to in 1920s ,
88-90; re de fin it io n of
he t e ro s e xualit y in , 1920s
and , 80-86
Libe rat io n s t ruggle s , impact
on wo me n 's co n s cio us n e s s ,
3, 5-6, 8-9
Libe rt y, Ne w Right at t it ude
t o ward, 119
Library C o urt , 133, 141
Lit e rat ure in 1920s , re s is -
t an ce to e n fo rce me n t of
he t e ro s e xualit y an d, 89
McGraw, On ale e , 143
McHugh, Ms gr. Jame s , 148
Male -fe male diffe re n ce s :
Bapt is t le ade rs o n , 39-40;
co mpan io n at e marriage an d,
82-83; in pe rs o n alit y, 42-
45
354 Index
Male s e xualit y: co mple xit y
and ambiguit y o f, 333-34;
fe min is t co n flict o ve r,
327-31; fe min is t in t e rpre -
t at io n s o f, 331-32; s e x-
ual libe rt arian mo ve me n t
of fift ie s an d, 326-27
Male vice , see An t ivice
campaign
Male vio le n ce , fe min is t pre -
o ccupat io n wit h, 330-31
Marriage : at t it ude of wo rk-
ing clas s wo me n t o ward,
132; Black Bapt is t wo me n
o n , 35; n e w de fin it io n s
o f, 86-88
Marriage co un s e lin g clin ics ,
in We imar Re public, 65
Marriage rat e s , of fe male
co lle ge graduat e s durin g
Pro gre s s ive e ra, 94
Marriage re fo rm, in 1920s ,
80-81
Marrie d wo rkin g mo t he rs :
e me rge n ce o f, 226-27;
family s ize an d, 241n 40;
fe rt ilit y t re n ds an d, 231-
36; pat riarchal state an d,
112-16, 121-22
Marx, Karl, 167-68, 222
Marxian mo de l of diale ct ical
fe min is m, 7-8
Mary (mother of Je s us ):
Black Bapt is t t he o lo gy
an d, 34-35, 53n l6; re -
ligio us co n t ro l of wo me n
an d, 303-6
Mas culin it y, t he o lo gy an d,
43
Mas s pro duct io n , impact on
U.S. e co n o my, 99
Mas t e r-s lave re lat io n s hip,
co min g-t o -co n s cio us n e s s
and , 7
Mat e rn al Pro t e ct io n laws , in
We imar Re public, 64
Me dia: chan ge s in , 314-22;
co n t ro llin g image s of
Black wo me n an d, 294-97;
co n ve yan ce of n o rms by,
313-14; cre at io n of Flap-
pe r image by, 80; fe min is t
crit icis m o f, 309-14; ide o -
lo gical in flue n ce o f, 309;
n e e d for an alys is of mas s
cult ure , 322-23; Ne w Right
an d, 321; o rgan ize d pro -
t e s t s again s t , 308-9; po r-
t rayal o f Blacks by, 316;
po rt rayal of ho mo s e xualit y
by, 318-19; po rt rayal of
wo rkin g clas s wo me n by,
316; re pre s e n t at io n of wom-
en in , 308-23; s e xual
haras s me n t cas e s an d, 263-
64; s e xual in n ue n do an d,
319-20; vio le n ce o n ,
320-21
Me dical e s t ablis hme n t , o ppo -
s it io n to s e x re fo rm clin -
ics in We imar Re public, 64
Me t ho dis t Wo me n 's Mis s io n ary
C o un cil, 98
Me xican -Ame rican wo me n ,
s e e C hican as
Middle clas s : Black-whit e
co mparis o n s o f, 197; s o -
11-15, 18-20
Middle -clas s wo me n , do min a-
t io n of wo me n 's mo ve me n t
by, 164-66
Midwive s , abo rt io n an d, 67
Migran t farm wo rk, Me xican -
Ame rican s an d, 203-4
Mis s io n ary wo me n , role o f,
45-46
Mo de of pro duct io n , fe min is t
co n s cio us n e s s an d, 7-8
Mo ral crus ade rs , s e e An t i-
vice campaign s
Mo ral Majo rit y, 111, 144;
campaign s again s t s e xual
vio le n ce an d, 25; me dia
ce n s o rs hip an d, 308, 321
Index 355
Mo t he rho o d: Black Bapt is t
ide alizat io n o f, 34-35,
39, 45; Black wo me n an d,
181. See als o Po lit ics
of mo t he rho o d
Mo t he rho o d-e uge n ics co n s e n -
s us , 64-66, 71-72
Mo vie in dus t ry, in flue n ce on
cult ure , 103
Mo yn ihan re po rt , 111, 119,
121-22, 190-91; n e gat ive
image s of Black wo me n an d,
295-96
Narcis s is m, re pro duct ive
right s an d, 115-16
Nat io n al As s o ciat io n o f C o l-
o re d Wo me n (NAC W), 97
Nat io n al As s o ciat io n of C o l-
o re d Wo me n 's C lubs , 292-94
Nat io n al As s o ciat io n Oppo s e d
to Wo man Suffrage , see
Wo man Pat rio t s
Nat io n al As s o ciat io n o f Wo m-
en Re ligio us , 149-50
Nat io n al Bapt is t C o n ve n t io n ,
U.S.A., In c., 31
Nat io n al Bapt is t Magazin e ,
49
Nat io n al C at ho lic Re -
po rt e r, 150
Nat io n al C o alit io n of Ame ri-
can Nun s , 150
Nat io n al C o n fe re n ce of C at ho -
lic Bis ho ps , 147
Nat io n al C o n s e rvat ive Po lit i-
cal Act io n C o mmit t e e
(NC PAC ), 111, 141-43
Nat io n al C o un cil of Wo me n ,
41
Nat io n al Fe de rat io n o f Afro -
Ame rican Wo me n , 292
Nat io n al Fe de rat io n of Bus i-
n e s s and Pro fe s s io n al Wo m-
e n , 98
Nat io n al Organ izat io n of
Wo me n (NOW), 130, 131
Nat io n al Rifle As s o ciat io n ,
142
Nat io n al Right to Life C o m-
mit t e e (NRTLC ), 147-48
Nat io n al So cialis t s (Ge r-
man y): co min g to po we r
o f, 61; po pulat io n co n t ro l
by, 66; wo me n 's gro ups s up-
po rt in g, 4
Nat io n al Vigilan ce As s o cia-
t io n (NVA), 18
Nat io n al We lfare Right s
Organ izat io n , 283
Ne o co n s e rvat ive s : Ne w Right
an d, 124n l; Re agan -
St o ckman budge t an d, 119
Ne o -Vict o rian s , 327-31
"Ne w Family," po pulat io n cri-
s is in We imar Re public
an d, 61-62
Ne w Le ft , at t it ude toward
me dia, 310
Ne w Right : abo rt io n issue
an d, 138-51; Black wo me n
an d, 297-99; campaign s
again s t s e xual vio le n ce
an d, 26; co mpare d wit h
"o ld" Right , 140; co mpo -
n e n t s o f 111; co n s cio us -
n e s s of de pe n de n t wo me n
an d, 236; co n s t it ue n cy o f,
145-46; cult ural t radit io n -
alis t s wit hin , 132-33; dif-
fe re n ce s wit hin , 132-34;
in t e rn al o ppo s it io n in ,
149-51; libe ral s t at e an d,
111; marrie d wage -e arn in g
wo me n an d, 113, 121-22;
me t ho ds of co un t e rin g in -
flue n ce o f, 123-24, 150-
51; n e o co n s e rvat ive s an d,
124n l; o rgan izat io n and
le ade rs hip o f, 140-42;
pre s s ure again s t me dia
fro m, 321; racis m and an t i-
fe min is m o f, 288; Re agan
vo t e an d, 117; re as o n s for
an t ife min is t fo cus o f,
111; re as o n s for de fe n s e
of t radit io n al family by,
325; s e le ct io n of is s ue s
356 Index
Ne w Right (C o n t in ue d), by,
123, 133, 140-41, 144-45;
s e xual haras s me n t cas e s
an d, 266; s e xual po lit ics
of 1980 e le ct io n an d, 115-
18; s e xual po lit ics of
Re agan -St o ckman budge t
an d, 119-20; s pe cial in t e r-
est gro ups o f, 142-43;
umbre lla gro ups o f, 142-
43; wo me n le ade rs o f, 142-
43; wo rkin g clas s vie w of
fe min is m an d, 126-34.
See als o C hris t ian Ne w
Right
"Ne w Wo man ": po pulat io n cri-
sis in We imar Re public
an d, 61-62, 66; wo rkin g
clas s wo me n an d, 20
No rms , me dia co n ve yan ce o f,
313-14
Nucle ar family, Sex Re fo rm
mo ve me n t in We imar Re pub-
lic an d, 70
On e Nat io n Un de r Go d, 144
Oppre s s io n , re lat io n s hip to
re s is t an ce to o ppre s s io n ,
3-10
Ordin at io n of wo me n , 56n 39
Orgas m, he t e ro s e xual re vo lu-
tion an d, 68-69, 100
Origin s , 150
Out s ide rs , Black pe o ple as ,
289-90
Pacific Le gal Fo un dat io n ,
142
Pall Mall Gaze t t e , 15
Pan khurs t , C hris t abe l, 23
Pan khurs t , Sylvia, 23
"Pas t o ral Plan for Pro -Life
Act ivit ie s ," 147-48
Pat riarchal family, s o cial
co n t ro l an d, 325
Pat riarchal s t at e : co n t ro l
of wo me n an d, 301; de -
fin e d, 112-13; e co n o mic
n e e ds and t re at me n t of wo m-
en by, 303; e qual wage s
for wo me n an d, 113-14;
n e e d for marrie d wo me n
wage -e arn e rs by, 116; po w-
er in U.S. s o cie t y an d,
178-79; s e xual po lit ics of
Re agan -St o ckman budge t
an d, 118-20; s in gle -pare n t
familie s an d, 119-20.
See als o Pat riarchy
Pat riarchy: bas ic n e e ds
s t rat e gy for de ve lo pme n t
an d, 246-48; Ne w Right
an d, 112; re pro duct ive
right s an d, 112; s o cial
purit y mo ve me n t an d, 21
Pe ace gro ups , fe min is t s in
1920s an d, 97-98
Pe rs o n alit y, male -fe male dif-
fe re n ce s in , 39-40, 42-45
Pimps , laws again s t pro s t it u-
t io n and , 18
Pio n e e r Fun d, 142
Po de r Fe min in o , El (C hile ),
248-49
Po lit ical Act io n C o mmit t e e s ,
142
Po pulat io n cris is , re act io n
in We imar re public t o , 63-
72
Po rn o graphy, see An t ivice
campaign s
Po ve rt y, by family he ad,
119-20, 287n 45
Po we r: in U.S. s o cie t y,
178; of wo me n o ve r wo me n ,
223-24, 251. See als o
Do min at io n in wo me n 's mo ve -
me n t
Pre marit al and t e e n age s e x-
ualit y, in We imar re pub-
lic, 69, 78
Pro -Family C o alit io n o n the
Whit e Ho us e C o n fe re n ce ,
143
Pro family mo ve me n t : advan -
tage o ve r fe min is t s , 326;
Index 357
Pro family mo ve me n t (C o n t in -
ue d): co mpo n e n t s o f, 142-
43; fe min is t de fe n s e of
s e xual fre e do m an d, see
Se xual fre e do m; plat fo rm
o f, 132
Pro fe s s io n al wo me n : Black,
38-39, 208-9; e ducat io n
o f, 135n 2; in cre as e d n um-
be rs of durin g Pro gre s s ive
e ra, 92, 93; po lit ical
be havio r o f, in C hile ,
248-49
Pro fe s s io n s , Black fe male
vs . male acce s s t o , 197-98
Pro gre s s ive e ra: left po li-
t ics durin g, 94; po lit ical
act ivis m of wo me n durin g,
94-95
Pro life mo ve me n t , 111; s e x-
ual po lit ics an d, 115-16.
See als o Pro family mo ve -
me n t
Pro s t it ut io n in En glan d:
Jack the Rippe r murde rs
an d, 21-23; mo ve me n t to
re pe al laws re gulat in g,
11-15; See als o An t i-
vice campaign s ; C hild
pro s t it ut e s
Pro t e s t an t is m, n e w s o cial
and s cie n t ific t he o rie s
and , 41
Ps ycho lo gical t he o rie s , un -
marrie d, childle s s , and
le s bian wo me n an d, 78-79,
83
Pue rt o Rican wo me n : birt h
co n t ro l pill e xpe rime n t s
wit h, 220; co lo r que s t io n
and s e lf-image o f, co m-
pare d wit h Me xican -
Ame rican wo me n , 219-20; in
Ne w Yo rk garme n t in dus t ry,
209, 211; race and clas s
is s ue s re lat in g t o , 216-
20; s t e rilizat io n o f, 220
Quake rs , t he o lo gy of wo me n 's
e qualit y o f, 5
Quixo t e C e n t e r, 146
Race : Pue rt o Rican wo me n
an d, 218-19; s is t e rho o d
an d, 174-86; we lfare recip-
ie n t s an d, 276-77
Racial co n s cio us n e s s , of
Black Bapt is t wo me n , 47-48
Racial dis crimin at io n :
Black wo me n 's at t it ude
toward fe min is m an d, 175-
78; urban labor marke t s
an d, 208
Racial e qualit y: Bible as
s o urce o n , 32; Black Bap-
tist le ade rs an d, 32
Racis m: at t it ude of Black
wo me n toward fe min is m an d,
177-78; Black middle clas s
an d, 197; e mplo yme n t o f
Black and His pan ic wo me n
an d, 200-202; in me dia,
308; s t e re o t ypical image s
of Black family an d, 189-
91; wo me n 's mo ve me n t and ,
164, 185-86. See als o
Racis m and Black wo me n
Racis m and Black wo me n :
Black wo me n 's s e parat e
ro le s an d, 290-92; le gacy
of s t ruggle by Black wo me n
an d, 292-94; n e gat ive
image s of Black wo me n an d,
294-97; Ne w Right an d,
297-99; po lit ical act ivi-
t ie s o f Black wo me n an d,
288-90; s o cial co n t ro l
an d, 289-90; wo me n 's mo ve -
me n t an d, 292-94, 297
Radical fe min is t s : at t ack
on co mme rcial s e x, 10, 24-
25; s e xual libe rt arian
ide o lo gy an d, 327
Radical o be die n ce , Black
Bapt is t church s t an ce o f,
31-32, 50
358 Index
Radicale s bian s , 91
Ran dall, To n y, 318-19, 321
Re agan , Ro n ald, 94; vo t e s in
1980 e le ct io n , 117
Re agan admin is t at io n : an t i-
fe min is m an d, 120-24; cut -
backs in s o cial we lfare
by, 119-20. See als o
Ele ct io n s of 1980
Re as o n able pe rs o n co n s t ruct ,
in s e xual haras s me n t
cas e s , 268
Red bait in g, fe min is t mo ve -
me n t an d, 93, 97-98, 104
Red Scare , gain s of Pro gre s -
s ivis m an d, 95
Re dbo o k, 81
Re fo rm mo ve me n t s , wo me n dur-
ing Pro gre s s ive e ra an d,
95. See als o Sex Re fo rm
mo ve me n t
Re ich, Wilhe lm, 334-35
Re ligio n , role in Black fami-
lie s , 195-96
Re ligio n and s o cial co n t ro l,
301-6; de fin it io n of re li-
gio n an d, 302; Mary as
ide al ro le mo de l an d,
303-6
Re ligio us Ro un dt able , 144-45
Re pro duct io n of clas s divi-
s io n s , 221-37; de rivat io n
of wo me n 's clas s po s it io n
an d, 224; fe rt ilit y t re n ds
an d, 229-37; pro po s als
fo r, 235-36; Third Wo rld
wo me n an d, 250-52
Re pro duct ive right s : an t i-
abo rt io n mo ve me n t an d,
115-16; e valuat io n of Sex
Re fo rm mo ve me n t in We imar
Re public an d, 67-69, 72-
74; pat riarchal co n t ro l
an d, 112; Third Wo rld wo m-
en an d, 251-52
Right to Life mo ve me n t :
C at ho lic C hurch an d, 146-
49; wo me n as o rgan ize rs
in , 142-43
Right to Life part y (New
Yo rk St at e ), 149
Right to Wo rk C o mmit t e e , 142
Ro o s e ve lt , Fran klin D., 277
Ro un t re e , Mart ha, 143
Rural are as , e co n o mic co n di-
t io n s of Blacks and His pan -
ics in , 203-5
Rus s ian Re vo lut io n , Red
Scare in U.S. an d, 95
Sapphire (in "Amos 'n '
An dy"), 294-95
Scan dal jo urn alis m, Maide n
Tribut e affair an d, 15-16
Schlafly, Phyllis , 8
Scho o l de s e gre gat io n , 195
Scie n ce , impact o n t he o lo gy,
40-41
Senate C o mmit t e e on In t e rn al
Te rro ris m and Subve rs io n ,
104
Se parat is m: avo idan ce of
do min at io n in wo me n 's mo ve -
me n t an d, 162; Black fe mi-
n is t mo ve me n t an d, 177
Se t t le me n t ho us e s , 94, 102
Sex e ducat io n , Sex Re fo rm
mo ve me n t in We imar Re pub-
lic and , 65
Sex Re fo rm mo ve me n t in We i-
mar Re public, 66-73
Sex re fo rme rs , le s bian is m
an d, 101-2
Sex ro le s : adapt abilit y of
Black familie s an d, 194-
95; s lave wo me n an d, 290-
92; in We imar re public, 68
Se xis m: Mary as mo de l for
wo me n an d, 303-6; s e xual
re pre s s io n an d, 325-26
Se xual co e rcio n , s e xual fre e -
do m an d, 330-31
Sexual divis io n of labo r,
bas ic n e e ds s t rat e gy for
de ve lo pme n t an d, 245-48
Index 359
Sexual freedom, 325-28;
child-rearing practices
and, 332-33; connection be-
tween sexism and sexual re-
pression and, 325-26; femi-
nist conflict over, 326;
Neo-Victorians and, 327-
31; reaffirmation as femi-
nist goal, 337-38; results
of profamily agenda suc-
cess on, 325-26; sexual
libertarian movement of
fifties and, 326-27; use
of Freudian theories and,
334-35
Se xual haras s me n t , 263-74;
de fin it io n al pro ble ms o f,
264-71; de fle ct e d e n e r-
gie s , pro ble m o f, 271-74;
de man d for in s t it ut io n al
grie van ce me chan is ms , 273-
74; Fe de ral re gulat io n s
o n , 267; legal prin ciple s
go ve rn in g, 263-64; s e le c-
tive re co gn it io n o f, 272;
whit e male po we r an d,
271-72
Sexual libe rt arian mo ve me n t ,
326-27
Se xual mo ralit y, do uble s t an -
dard o f, see Do uble s t an -
dard
Se xual po lit ics of e le ct io n
of 1980, 115-18; Re agan -
St o ckman budge t an d, 118
20
Se xual re pre s s io n : childre n
an d, 336-37; s e xis m an d,
325-26
Se xual vio le n ce , s t rat e gie s
for co mbat t in g, 24-25
Se xualit y, see Fe male s e x-
ualit y; Male s e xualit y
She ppard-To wn e r Bill, 96, 97
Single pare n t s : Black wo me n
as , 196; me dia po rt rayal
o f, 313-14; Re agan cut -
backs an d, 119-20
Sin gle wo me n : fear o f, 82;
durin g Pro gre s s ive e ra,
94-95; Sex Re fo rm mo ve me n t
an d, 69
Sis t e rho o d, 173-86; Black
wo me n an d, 175-76; de -
fin e d, 174; limit at io n s
o f, 173-78; pro s pe ct s fo r,
184-86; s t ruct ural bar-
rie rs t o , 178-80
Slave wo me n , s e xual haras s -
me n t o f, 263-64
Slave ry: C hris t ian it y an d,
51n 5; impact on Black wo m-
e n , 202-3; in t e rs e ct io n of
race , s e x, and clas s un -
de r, 179; kin s hip ties of
Black familie s an d, 191
92; ro le of Black wo me n
an d, 290-92
So cial clas s : at t it ude s
toward family an d, 127-31;
as barrie r to s is t e rho o d,
178-80; diffe re n ce s , co n -
s t ruct io n of Diffe re n ce
o ut o f, 164-66; fe rt ilit y
rat e s an d, 233-34; me an in g
of ge n de r for Third Wo rld
wo me n an d, 247-48; po lit i-
cal act ivit y of wo me n an d,
248-50; s is t e rho o d an d,
174-85; s ubo rdin at io n o f
Third Wo rld wo me n an d,
243-44. See als o Uppe r
clas s ; Wo rkin g clas s me n ;
Wo rkin g clas s wo me n
So cial co n t ro l: pat riarchal
family an d, 325; racis m as
s ys t e m o f, 289-90; re li-
gio n an d, s e e Re ligio n
and s o cial co n t ro l
So cial Darwin is m, 56n 42; fe m-
in is t ide o lo gy an d, 40
So cial fe min is m: ERA an d,
97; failure o f, 98-99;
le gis lat io n an d, 96; re -
o rgan izat io n of U.S. e co n -
o my an d, 99
Social purit y mo ve me n t : an -
t ivice campaign s an d, 11-
25; co n t ro ve rs y o ve r Jack
the Rippe r murde rs , 21-22;
360 Index
So cial purit y mo ve me n t
(C o n t in ue d), fe min is t s
an d, 19-21
So cial Se curit y Act , we lfare
s ys t e m an d, 276, 277-78
So cialis m, fe min is m an d, 3,
6
So cialis t de ve lo pme n t plan s ,
wo me n an d, 244, 253-55
So cialis t part y of Ame rica,
94, 95
St e re o t ype d image s : of
Black familie s , 189-91; of
Black wo me n , 294-97; of
wo me n , 312
St e rilizat io n : of Pue rt o
Rican wo me n , 220; Sex Re -
fo rm mo ve me n t in We imar Re -
public an d, 70-71
Subs t it ut e fat he rs , we lfare
pro hibit io n again s t , 281-
82
Suffrage mo ve me n t in U.S.:
Black male vo t e an d, 177;
de clin e of fe min is t mo ve -
me n t aft e r win n in g, 78; im-
pact on wo me n , 5, 6
Survival s t rat e gie s , of ra-
cial e t hn ics , 201-2
Tax in ce n t ive s , for large
familie s , 63
Te ague , Kat hy, 143
Te le vis io n , see Me dia
The o lo gy, impact of n e w s o -
cial and s cie n t ific t he -
o rie s o n , 40-41. See
als o Black Bapt is t fe mi-
n is t t he o lo gy; Re ligio n
and s o cial co n t ro l
Third Wo rld wo me n , 243-56;
bas ic n e e ds s t rat e gy an d,
244-48; birt h co n t ro l an d,
251-52; clas s and po lit i-
cal be havio r o f, 248-50;
Et hio pian land re fo rm an d,
253-55; impact o f re pro duc-
tive ro le o n , 250-52; in
So cialis t n at io n s , 254-55;
pat riarchy an d, 246-48;
re pro duct io n and de ve lo p-
me n t s t rat e gie s an d, 252-
55; t radit io n al mo de rn iza-
t io n t he o ry an d, 243-44
Truth, Sojourner, 46, 292
Tubman, Harri et , 292
Unidad Popular government of
Chile, women's organiza-
tions and, 248-49
Un it e d Nat io n s , co n ce rn o ve r
pro ble ms of Third Wo rld
wo me n , 243
U.S. C at ho lic C o n fe re n ce ,
148
Un it e d Wo me n 's An t i-Price
Ris e Fro n t (In dia), 249-50
Un marrie d mo t he rs , on we l-
fare , 279
Uppe r clas s , pro s t it ut io n
an d, 16-17
Vigilan ce co mmit t e e s , Jack
the Rippe r murde rs an d,
22-23
Vigue rie , Richard, 111, 123,
141, 142, 145
Vo lun t ary s t e rilizat io n , in
War on Po ve rt y, labe lin g of
Black wo me n an d, 297
Wall St re e t Jo urn al, 94
Wars , fre e do m of wo me n an d,
3
We imar Re public: po pulat io n
plicy in , 61; Sex Re fo rm
mo ve me n t in , see Sex Re -
fo rm mo ve me n t in We imar Re -
public; wo me n in , 4-5, 8-9
We lfare : chan ge s aft e r
Wo rld War II in , 278-80;
chan ge s in make -up of re -
cipie n t s , 276-77; e ligibil-
ity re quire me n t s fo r, 280-
82; gro wt h in n umbe r o f
re cipie n t s o f, 278-79;
his t o ric backgro un d o f,
277-78; po o r n o n re cipie n t s
Index 361
We lfare (C o n t in ue d), o f,
283; public o pin io n o f,
279; re fo rm o f, 283-84;
s uit able ho me and s ubs t i-
tute fat he r pro vis io n s o f,
280-82; wo rk an d, 282-83;
Wo rk In ce n t ive Pro gram
an d, 282-83
We yrich, Paul, 111, 133,
141, 142, 143, 144
Whit e Bapt is t wo me n , Black
fe min is t t he o lo gy an d, 45-
46
Whit e s lave ry: fe min is t cam-
paign again s t , 15-18, 23.
See als o An t ivice cam-
paign s
Whit e Slavery Act of 1912,
12
Wo man Pat rio t s , 95
Wo man 's part y, ERA is s ue
an d, 96-97
Wo me n : chan ge s im me dia po r-
t rayal o f, 315-16; clas s
po s it io n o f, see Re pro -
duct io n and clas s divi-
s io n s ; co n s ume ris m an d,
99-100; diffe re n ce s amo n g,
see Diffe re n ce s amo n g
wo me n ; Ku Klux Klan an d,
95-96; me dia po rt rayal o f,
323; re ligio n and co n t ro l
o f, see Re ligio n and s o -
cial co n t ro l; as right -t o -
life mo ve me n t o rgan ize rs ,
142-43; ro le in e co n o mic
de ve lo pme n t , see Third
Wo rld wo me n ; s e xual haras s -
me n t o f, see Sexual
haras s me n t ; we lfare re cipi-
e n t s , see We lfare
Wo me n Again s t Po rn o graphy,
10
Wo me n do ct o rs , 67
Wo me n Un it e d, 293
Wo me n wo rke rs : ERA in 1920s
an d, 97; gro wt h in n umbe rs
o f, from 1920 to 1930, 76-
77. See als o Marrie d
wo me n wo rke rs
Wo me n 's C o o pe rat ive Guild,
21
Wo me n 's magazin e s : chan ge s
in , 317-18; life s t yle fe mi-
n is m in 1920s an d, 104
Wo me n 's mo ve me n t : diffe r-
e n ce and do min at io n in ,
157-70; fo cus on whit e
middle -clas s wo me n , 200;
image of wo me n in me dia
an d, 308-23; o rgan izat io n -
al me t ho ds o f, 160-62; ra-
cial is s ue s an d, 185-86
Wo me n 's right s : Biblical
pre ce de n t s fo r, 32, 33;
fe min is t t he o lo gy an d, 41-
42
Wo me n 's ro le s : in Black Bap-
tist church, 35-36, 50;
me dia an d, 319-20; sex re -
vo lt of 1920s an d, 86; in
Wo me n 's s t udie s , is s ue s of
race and clas s in , 216-20
Wo me n 's Trade Un io n Le ague
(WTUL), s o cial fe min is t
le gis lat io n an d, 96, 97,
98
Wo o lf, Virgin ia, 88, 89
Wo rk: at t it ude s of Black
wo me n t o ward, 168, 175,
183; Black familie s an d,
196-97; s e xual haras s me n t
an d, see Se xual haras s -
me n t ; un alie n at e d, 167-68;
we lfare mo t he rs an d, 282
Wo rk In ce n t ive Pro gram
(WIN), 282-83
Wo rkin g clas s : at t it ude s
toward family, 131-32;
de clin in g birt h rat e s in
po s t -Wo rld War II Ge rman y,
61-62; s e xual purit y mo ve -
me n t an d, 19
Wo rkin g clas s me n : advan -
t age s of wife wo rkin g,
362 Index
Wo rkin g clas s me n (C o n t in -
ue d), 228; mo ve me n t
again s t re gulat io n of pro s -
t it ut io n an d, 13-15; s o -
20-21
Wo rkin g clas s radicals , mo ve -
me n t again s t re gulat io n of
pro s t it ut io n an d, 13
Wo rkin g clas s wo me n : do min a-
tion of middle clas s in
wo me n 's mo ve me n t an d, 164-
66; e ducat io n al le ve ls o f,
135n 2; fe min is m and an t i-
fe min is m an d, 126-34; Flap-
pe r image an d, 79; laws
again s t pro s t it ut io n an d,
18; LNA an d, 14-15; me dia
po rt rayal o f, 316; s o cial
purit y mo ve me n t an d, 20
Wo rkin g mo t he rs , see Mar-
ried wo rkin g wo me n
Wo rks Pro gre s s Admin is t ra-
t io n (WPA), 277
Yale Un ive rs it y, s e xual ha-
ras s me n t firin gs at , 272
Yippie s , 310

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The Dynamics of Control

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