When The Enemy Has No Face, Society

In Place Of Equal Respect, The Nation Offered Women The Miss America Beauty Pageant, Established In 1920-the Same Year Women Won The Vote.

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.

The Central Argument Of The Backlash - That Women's Equality Is Responsible For Women's Unhappiness.

The American Woman Has Not Yet Slipped Into A Cocoon, But She Has Tumbled Down A Rabbit Hole Into Sudden Isolation.

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.