The only thing more frustrating than a man who doesn’t understand feminism is a woman who doesn’t understand feminism. Even though it’s easy to feel incredibly united by being at one of the Women’s Marches or by viewing coverage of it, some women seem to be immune to that feeling. And my question is why is that? What could possibly be a good reason for opposing other women in a cause that helps us all? The more women I’ve known to publicly come out against feminism, the more I’ve become increasingly frustrated and haunted. After some research, I learned that women against women, and women against change, are not necessarily new social concepts. In fact, some women have been opposing their own agendas since the very beginning of the fight for equality.
In 1920, the 19th amendment was ratified and voting rights were guaranteed for all women. I was surprised to learn that during this time, there was a female opposition to women’s suffrage. These ladies were deemed anti-suffragists. According to author and teacher Corrine McConnaughy, these women “were generally women of wealth, privilege, social status, and even political power…in short, they were women who were doing, comparatively, quite well under the existing system, with incentives to hang onto a system that privileged them.”Somehow, these women viewed suffrage as a threat to their comfortable lifestyles, to motherhood, femininity, and domesticated bliss. One prominent anti-suffragist, Josephine Jewell Dodge, daughter of the former US Minister to Russia, went as far to say that women “should serve the state in every way possible without jeopardizing the home by entrance into active politics.” It’s hard to imagine anyone opposing their own right to be a part of democracy— one of the building blocks this country was founded on. It is something that so many people fought terribly hard to attain, but after all, privilege can be blinding.
Forty years after this giant step for women was taken, the state of our gender in this nation was still far from equal. You may be surprised to learn, as I was, that less than sixty years ago women still couldn’t open a bank account in their own name, establish credit, own their own business, serve on juries in Alabama, South Carolina, and Mississippi, or have reproductive freedom. This was the 1960’s, idealized as the time of flower power and the sexual revolution, but the truth was that until the second half of the decade, most women couldn’t even get birth control unless they were married. Sexism was rampant in our private lives and in the work force. Stewardesses were forced to retire at the age of 42, fired if they got married, and kept to strict weight regulations.
In 1966, the National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded as women increasingly realized how unhappy and unfulfilled they felt in their domestic lives at home. NOW quickly started the fire that became the women’s liberation movement, which carried on into the 1970s. In 1967, NOW endorsed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which had been around since the 1920s but never passed. The ERA called for complete equality of men and women under the law. In 1970, NOW also sponsored the Women’s Strike for Equality, in which over 20,000 women protested in New York City on the 50th anniversary of the passing of the 19thamendment. At the time, it was the largest gathering for women’s rights in US history (until this year when over half a million people showed up to the women’s march on Washington this year). Women protested for equal opportunity in the workplace, for social equality, as well as political and reproductive rights. Another major event for women in the 1970s was the formation of the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971. They held the first national political convention of women in over 100 years, which, believe it or not, was non-partisan. This seems like almost an impossible feat to accomplish today, since the parties are so split. They proved that it doesn’t matter whether you’re a Republican or Democrat; equality for a woman benefits all women.
Women’s liberation at the time was very critical of the stereotypical housewife and domestic norms, because that’s all they had known for so long. With the Title IX ruling under the Department of Education, sexism in schools became illegal if those schools were federally funded. In the late 1960s, Ivy League schools started to admit women, which changed educational equality for the better. Women finally began to see a future that had just as much value and purpose as getting married and raising kids, and so many women were forsaking that traditional Norman Rockwell life. Of course, there were women who enjoyed their traditional domestic place in society and felt left out, even insulted by the movement. This is what led to backlash against the ERA, with Phyllis Schlafely as the voice.
Phyllis Schlafely helped to mobilize the opposition of the ERA, with the argument that it would disadvantage housewives.She also feared that it would cause women to have to participate in the draft (don’t get me started about the draft, that would be a whole other article). She said, “the laws of our country have given quite a wonderful status to the married woman.” The amendment needed 38 state ratifications to pass by 1979. It made it through both the House and the Senate. In 1977, the amendment had 35 of the 38 states on board, but five rescinded their ratifications before the deadline due to Schlafely’scampaigning. The amendment has still yet to be passed. During this time, women expected backlash from men. Senator Jennings Randolph of West Virginia called protestors “braless bubbleheads.” The backlash from other women like Schlafely in the 1970s (these were privileged housewives who were too afraid of losing their own comfortable situation to let other women experience equality) is the reason why we still have inequality today.
Women’s liberation still had some wins in the 1970s. Roe V Wade was passed in 1973, and hopefully one day we will live in a world where it is not constantly questioned. Susan Brownmiller, an activist, said it best; “A woman can really not be equal if she doesn’t have control over her reproductive ability.” That’s why women are still fighting today. We are fighting for the same things women fought for 40 years ago; reproductive freedom, equal pay, social equality. We should stand by each other. We should respect the women like Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinham, Susan B. Anthony and Bell Hook, who got us where we are today, and respect the women who are going to get us somewhere for the future.
Today, women who oppose the women’s march are just modern incarnations of some women from the past. The common theme for these women is that they’re happy in their current situation, so they’re unable to see a better future. They’re also largely forgotten by history, because as we know, the history books are written by the winners. So here we are, on the precipice of more great change in our country, yet many women oppose change. So, don’t just be comfortable with the way that things are. After all, the anti-suffragists were but aren’t you happy now that they didn’t prevail? If you don’t want change for yourself, think ahead for your daughters. Think about your mothers and grandmothers who weren’t able to enjoy the rights you have today. And think about your sisters, because that’s what all women are. You don’t have to march, or carry clever signs, or even bash Donald Trump, but please don’t belittle the strife of other women because you are privileged enough not to see it. Feminism is not the enemy.