The Women's Movement Hit My Neighborhood Like

My Feminist View - That Gender Is On A Continuum And We Are All Better Off Dropping A Lot Of Those Binary Notions - Is One That Is Shared By The More Recent Generation Of Trans Activists And Theorists.

We Think Of A Feminist As Someone A Woman Becomes In Reaction To Personal Indignities And Social Injustices. But The Truth Is, Such Inequities Only Awaken Her To The Feminist She Has Always Fundamentally Been - That Is, A Person Who Understands That Her First Responsibility Is To Her Own Humanity. That's Why, For My Money, The First Known Use Of The Word 'feminist' Is Still The Best, Appearing In An 1895 Book Review: A Woman Who 'has In Her The Capacity Of Fighting Her Way Back To Independence.

Feminism's Agenda Is Basic: It Asks That Women Not Be Forced To 'choose' Between Public Justice And Private Happiness.

All Of Women's Aspirations--whether For Education, Work, Or Any Form Of Self-determination--ultimately Rest On Their Ability To Decide Whether And When To Bear Children. For This Reason, Reproductive Freedom Has Always Been The Most Popular Item In Each Of The Successive Feminist Agendas--and The Most Heavily Assaulted Target Of Each Backlash.

To Be Unwed And Female Was To Succumb To An Illness With Only One Known Cure: Marriage.