Feminism's Future
Is the women's movement growing or losing power?
By Charles S. Clark

Thirty years of modern feminism have shattered old barriers in employment, education, sports and military service, bringing uncounted changes in American life. Most Americans endorse the progress, but many women resist the term “feminist”. They fear being stereotyped as strident, humorless and anti-male, or worry that feminists downgrade the importance of motherhood. The women's movement,. . . .

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Are feminists out of touch with the majority of women?

Elizabeth Powers Author and Lecturer, Manhattan School of Music,. From “A Farewell to Feminism,” Commentary, January 1997.	Eleanor Smeal President, The Feminist Majority.. From a speech at the National Press Club, Feb. 13, 1997.

Who Claims the Term 'Feminist'?

“American feminism is currently dominated by a group of women who seek to persuade the public that American women are not the free creatures we think we are,” writes Clark University philosophy Professor Christina Hoff Sommers.

The recent attacks on feminism by conservative women have added baggage to a term that many women already hesitate to use, fearing a stereotype of strident women with unshaven legs who are lesbians or unhappy in love. “There are those who feel it has a narrow and pejorative connotation and shy away for fear of being labeled a radical, deviant person,” says Susan McGhee Bailey, executive director of the Wellesley College Centers for Research on Women. “But others see it as a positive, clear description of a set of beliefs in the inherent equality of men and women and ensuring the widest range of opportunities for women and men. That's the understanding of most who use it.”

Back in 1989, a poll by Yankelovich Clancy Shulman for Time/CNN found that only 33 percent of American women considered themselves feminists (even though 77 percent said the women's movement since the 1960s had made things better for women). A 1990 poll by Voter Research and Surveys found women more likely to consider themselves feminists if they had a postgraduate degree (32 percent) compared with 7 percent of those with only a high school degree. Similarly, women earning more than $100,000 were more likely to claim feminism (31 percent) compared with only 19 percent of those earning less than $100,000 and 14 percent of those earning $30,000-$49,000.

More recently, however, the term shows signs of gaining favor. A poll by Redbook magazine in 1992 found that 77 percent of its readers agreed that a woman can be both feminine and a feminist. A 1995 Harris poll for The Feminist Majority found that 51 percent approved of “feminism.” “That's more than liberals, conservatives, Democrats or Republicans get,” says Eleanor Smeal, the group's president. “I'll take it.”

[1] Christina Hoff Sommers, Who Stole Feminism? How Women Have Betrayed Women (1994), p. 16.

Footnote: 1. Christina Hoff Sommers, Who Stole Feminism? How Women Have Betrayed Women (1994), p. 16.