fi ltered through the zeitgeist. Very Steinem, and Simone de Beauvoir ian philosopher Murray N. Rothbard
few people alive today remember mapped a new language directly on claimed the debate was a one-sid-
fi rst-wave feminism, the movement the female body. Sex was no longer ed hatchet job on men, “the harm-
of the 19th and early 20th centuries just a topic of men’s locker rooms, less, hard-working, adult WASP
when the real groundwork was laid, but one of serious academic scholar- American male, William Graham
winning women the right to own ship and psychological analysis in Sumner’s Forgotten Man.”
property and earn some equality in ways that directly implicated women. Rothbard alleged that the media
marriage. Women only achieved suf- Sex, they declared, was now about unquestioningly backed feminism’s
frage in 1920 as a result of the 19th pleasure for women, not some per- claims that “the society and econo-
Amendment to the Constitution. functory performance to please a my are groaning under a monolithic
Women (and men) of all political man or have a baby. male ‘sexist’ tyranny.”
leanings fought for women’s rights As Friedan put it: “No woman “If the men are running the
at that time in efforts that often gets an orgasm from shining the show,” Rothbard said, “how is it that
included a simultaneous push for kitchen fl oor.” they do not even presume to print or
civil rights. Penis envy was out, the vestigial present anyone from the other side?”
“The goal of the fi rst American organ of a pre-war, male-dominated Opposition came from women,
feminists, the original suffragettes societal psyche. Paycheck envy was too. The liberation movement char-
150 years ago, was a specifi c demand in. Friedan, Shirley Chisholm, and acterized women who may have
for women to have the same rights in others got women organized, lay- wanted more pay equality, but also
the law that men enjoy,” says Michelle ing the foundation for the National wanted to preserve traditional gen-
Easton, president of the Clare Boothe Organization for Women (NOW) der roles, as traitors and puritans.
Luce Policy Institute, a nonprofi t and countless women’s advocacy And nothing deepened the divide
think tank seeking to advance wom- groups to follow, addressing the new between feminists and traditionalists
en’s rights through conservative poli- challenges of modern womanhood. quite like the debate over abortion
cy. “Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth The post-war technological boom and reproductive rights.
Cady Stanton and their supporters may have made housework easier, During first-wave feminism,
concentrated on legal reforms and but it also diminished the value of women such as Susan B. Anthony
the main goal was equity.” women’s work as housewives and were staunchly against abortion and
The second-wave feminism of the mothers. If they weren’t appreciated campaigned for abstinence rights:
1960s through the 1980s was far at home, maybe they’d just up and the right of a woman to refuse sex
more political and ideological, and leave. And leave, they did. Women with her husband as a means of
as a result, more personal, as proved entered the workforce in unprec- preventing an unwanted pregnancy.
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in Carol Hanisch’s memorable term: edented numbers. Now, a century later, abstinence is
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“The personal is political.” That state- Steinem and others argued for beside the point, and sex is no longer
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ment became the rallying cry of a universal day care and against the a shackle but an act of emancipation.
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women’s lib movement focused on “ultimate myth . . . that children The pro-choice movement meant
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social and political inequalities from must have full-time mothers, women could decide what hap-
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the bedroom to the boardroom. The and that liberated women pened after that act, not just
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role of women — were they defi ned make bad ones.” It was also
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by their husbands, children, and an effort to relieve men of
SECOND WAVE
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home, or by their own individuality? the societal burden to be
Feminism in the
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’60s and ’70s ran
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— was fi nally up for debate. It wasn’t sole breadwinners and, as
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the gambit from
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A so much about whether the feminine Steinem put it, strangers (clockwise, from
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ideal was attainable anymore, but to their own children. left)Billie Jean
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whether it was something women Along the route, there
King, Betty Ford,
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even wanted. was always pushback.
Julia Child, and
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Barbara Walters.
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Feminists such as Friedan, Gloria Men such as libertar-
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&
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ICONS
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Feminism of yesterday (page 62): Bella Abzug,
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Gloria Steinem, Susan B. Anthony, Betty
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V Friedan; and today (page 63): Hillary Clinton,
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Sonia Sotomayor, Sarah Palin, Kay Bailey
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Hutchison.
NOVEMBER 2009 / NEWSMAX
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