O Frnvuvv 10, 2001, eighteen thousand women lled Madison

Squaie Gaiden foi one of the moie notable feminist gatheiings of

oui time. Te eventTake Back the Gaidencenteied on a pei-
foimance of Eve Ensleis iaunchy play, Te Vagina Monologues. Te
Vulva Choii sang, self-desciibed Vagina Waiiioisincluding
Gloiia Steinem, Jane Fonda, and Donna Hanovei (Rudolph Giulianis
ex-wife)iecited pet names foi vaginas: Mimi, Monkey-box, and
Tamale. Glenn Close led the ciowd in spelling out an obscene woid
foi womens intimate anatomy: Give me a C . . . !!! A huge bannei
declaied the Gaiden to be a RAPE FREE ZONE.
Te evening was a neai-peifect distillation of contempoiaiy femi-
nism. Pick up a womens studies textbook, visit a college womens
centei, oi look at the websites of leading feminist oiganizations, and
you will likely nd the same xation on intimate anatomy combined
with left-wing politics and hostility to men. (Campus feminists weie
among the most vocal and zealous accuseis of the young men on the
Duke Univeisity laciosse team who weie falsely indicted foi iape in
2006.) Contempoiaiy feminism ioutinely depicts Ameiican society
as a dangeious patiiaichy in which women aie undei siegethat is
the message of the RAPE FREE ZONE bannei in the Gaiden.
In theii eye-opening book, Professing Feminism: Education and
Indoctrination in Womens Studies (2001), two once-committed
womens studies piofessois, Daphne Patai and Noietta Koeitge,
desciibe how the contempoiaiy feminist classioom tiansfoims
11
Feminism, Fieedom
and Histoiy
Christina Ho Sommers
211
Christina Hoff Sommers
212 CULTURE & CIVILIZATION
idealistic female students into ielentless giievance collectois. Histo-
iian Chiistine Stolba Rosen, in Lying in a Room of Ones Own: How
Womens Studies Textbooks Miseducate Students (2002), caiiied out
content analysis of the ve leading womens studies textbooks. She
shows the eld to be seiiously compiomised by ideology, misinfoima-
tion, and victim politics. Aie theie some sound and seiious scholais
woiking in womens studies? Yes, even moie than one might expect.
But Rosens oveiiiding veidict is just: Womens studies textbooks
encouiage students to embiace aggiievement, not knowledge.
Te embaiiassing spectacle at Madison Squaie Gaiden, the ei-
iatic state of womens studies, the outbieak of feminist vigilantism
at Duke Univeisitythese may suggest that the womens movement
in the United States is in a state of hopeless
confusion and disaiiay. Peihaps Ameiican
feminism has become hysteiical because it
has ceased to be useful. Aftei all, women
in this countiy have theii fieedom, they
have achieved paiity with men in most of
the ways that count. Why not let the feminist movement fade fiom
the scene? Te soonei the bettei. Good iiddance!
Tat is an undeistandable but mistaken ieaction. But the style
of feminism on paiade in Madison Squaie Gaiden and in typical
womens studies depaitments is iecent abeiiations. Feminism has
a long and distinguished histoiy. Women in Westein countiies did
foim a movement and did libeiate themselves in ways vital to the
evolution of libeial society. Feminism in its classical phase was a
momentous chaptei in the histoiy of fieedom. But foi most of the
woilds women, that histoiy has baiely begun, foi them, the classi-
cal feminism that succeeded heie oeis a tiied-and-tiue ioad map
to equality and fieedom. Te next step is to implement this model
foi women eveiywheie. Even in the West, theie aie still some un-
iesolved equity issues, and the woik of feminism is not ovei. Who
needs feminism? We do. Te woild does.
We cannot allow the movement to languish. Modeiates and con-
seivatives aie going to have to nd a way to iescue the movement
fiom its cuiient malaise. And libeial and iadical feminists aie going
to have to accept theii assistance. Foi inspiiation, we need to look back
Ameiican feminism
has become hysteiical
because it has ceased
to be useful.
Feminism, Freedom and History
213 CULTURE & CIVILIZATION
at the gloiy days of the stiuggle foi womens emancipationnot as it
is now taught in womens studies depaitments, but as it tiuly was.
CLASSICAL FEMINISM
Tnr cissici rrriisr of the eighteenth and nineteenth centu-
iies embodied two distinct schools of thought and social activism.
Te ist, egalitaiian feminism, was piogiessive, individualistic, and,
in the view of many contempoiaiies of both sexes, iadical. It viewed
women as independent agents iathei than wives and motheis, and
held that the sexes weie, in theii essential natuie, the same. It aimed
to libeiate women thiough appeals to social justice and univeisal
iights. Todays feminists think of themselves as heiis to this tiadition,
but theii eccentiic woildview places them at its iadical fiinge.
Te second school, conseivative feminism, was tiaditionalist and
family-centeied. It embiaced iathei than iejected womens estab-
lished ioles as homemakeis, caiegiveis, and piovideis of domestic
tianquility. It piomoted womens iights by iedening, stiengthen-
ing, and expanding these ioles. Te conseivative feminists aigued
that a piactical, iesponsible femininity could be a foice foi good in
the woild beyond the family, thiough chaiitable woiks and moie
enlightened political social policies.
Of the two schools, conseivative feminism was much moie in-
uential. Unlike its moie iadical sistei, conseivative feminism has
always had gieat appeal to laige majoiities of women. It is not,
howevei, my puipose to denigiate egalitaiian feminismquite the
contiaiy. Histoiically, pioponents of the two schools weie foithiight
and sometimes eice competitois, but theii competition shaipened
the aiguments on both sides, and they often coopeiated on piactical
causes to gieat eect. Te two movements weie (and will iemain)
iivals in piinciple but complementaiy in piactice. Tanks to egalitai-
ian feminism, women now have the same iights and oppoitunities
as men. But, as conseivative feminists have always insisted, fiee
women seldom aspiie to be just like men but iathei employ theii
fieedom in distinctive ways and foi distinctive puiposes.
Foi feminism to suivive and be useful to contempoiaiy women in
the West and in the developing woild, the movement is going to have
Christina Hoff Sommers
214 CULTURE & CIVILIZATION
to nd a way to accommodate and make use of the powei and iesouices
of its estianged sisteiconseivative feminism. A biief look at the lives of
both egalitaiian and conseivative feminists of the past will iemind us
what we have lost and the unity that we must ght to ieclaim.
EGALITARIAN FEMINISM
Eoii:vi rrriisr had its histoiical beginnings in the wiitings
of the Biitish philosophei Maiy Wollstoneciaft (1759-97). Wollstone-
ciaft, a iebel and fiee thinkei, believed that women weie as intelligent
as men and as woithy of iespect. Hei Vindication of the Rights of
Woman became an instant sensation. She wiote it in the spiiit of the
Euiopean Enlightenmentwhose piimaiy piinciple was the essential
dignity and moial equality of all iational beings. Wollstoneciafts
insistence that women, too, aie iational and deseiving of the same
iights as men, howevei, was then a contentious thesis.
Wollstoneciafts demand was a diamatic bieak with the past.
In 1776, Abigail Adams famously wiote a lettei to hei husband,
John, uiging him and his colleagues in the Continental Congiess
to iemembei the ladies . . . and to be moie geneious and favoiable
to them than youi ancestois. Adams was appealing to a tiadition
of chivaliy and gallantiy that enjoined male piotectiveness towaid
women. Sixteen yeais latei, in hei Vindication, Wollstoneciaft was
doing something maikedly dieient. She was not uiging legislatois
in Fiance and England to iemembei the ladies oi appealing to theii
geneious oi piotective impulses. Reason, she said, demanded that
women be gianted the same iights as men. She wanted nothing less
than total political and moial equality. Wollstoneciaft was peihaps
the ist woman in histoiy to insist that biology is not destiny: I view
with indignation the mistaken notions that enslave my sex.
Foi Wollstoneciaft, education was the key to female libeiation:
Stiengthen the female mind by enlaiging it, and theie will be an
end to blind obedience. She was a pioponent of coeducation and
insisted that women be educated on a pai with menwith all elds
and disciplines open to them. In the opening lines of Vindication,
she expiesses hei piofound conviction that the neglected education
of [women] is the giand souice of the miseiy I deploie.
Feminism, Freedom and History
215 CULTURE & CIVILIZATION
Wollstoneciaft led one of the most daiing, diamatic, and con-
sequential lives of the eighteenth centuiy. She was a lowei-mid-
dle-class, semi-educated nobody (as one Biitish histoiian has
desciibed hei) who was to become the ist woman to entei the
Westein canon of political philosophy. Hei fiiends included Tomas
Paine, William Woidswoith, and William Blake. She caiiied on a
famous debate with Edmund Buike about the meiits of the Fiench
Revolution. Soon aftei she published hei Vindication, she ian o
to Paiis to wiite about the ievolution.
Aftei hei death, hei husband, William Godwin, wiote what he
thought was an adulatoiy biogiaphy. He talked honestly about hei
unoithodox lifestyle that included love aaiis, an out-of-wedlock
child, and two suicide attempts ovei hei faithless Ameiican lovei.
He even piaised heicompletely inaccuiatelyfoi having iejected
Chiistianity. Godwin all but destioyed hei ieputation foi the next
hundied yeais. Te public ieacted to his disclosuies with fascina-
tion, hoiioi, and iepulsion. Foimei fiiends denounced hei. Feminists
distanced themselves. Political enemies called hei a whoie.
But by the eaily twentieth centuiy, hei ieputation as a valiant
iefoimei was secuie. In an essay published in 1932, Viiginia Woolf
wiote, One foim of immoitality is heis undoubtedly: she is alive
and active, she aigues and expeiiments, we heai hei voice and tiace
hei inuence even now among the living. Woolf piaised the book
as so tiue that it seems to contain nothing new. Its oiiginality,
she said, has become oui commonplace.
In the eaily 1990s, moie than 200 yeais aftei the publication of
Wollstoneciafts Vindication of the Rights of Women the Somali-boin
Dutch dissident feminist Ayaan Hiisi Ali (and my colleague at the
Ameiican Enteipiise Institute) would nd heiself stiuggling to nd
ways to asseit the iights of oppiessed Muslim women. She had been
ieading the contempoiaiy womens studies liteiatuiethe aggiieved
vaiiety desciibed by Daphne Patai, Noietta Koeitge and Chiistine
Stolba Rosen. None of it made any sense to hei, it all seemed ii-
ielevant to the plight of women tyiannized by Islamic Shaiia law.
But aftei a copy of Vindication fell into hei hands, Ali tells of being
inspiied by Maiy Wollstoneciaft, the pioneeiing feminist thinkei
who told women they had the same ability to ieason as men did and
Christina Hoff Sommers
216 CULTURE & CIVILIZATION
deseived the same iights. Wollstoneciaft has not been foigotten,
she suivives in histoiy and young women such as Hiisi Ali nd hei
poweiful, inspiiing, and vital.
HANNAH AND HER SISTERS
A: :nr :irr Wollstoneciaft was wiiting, Hannah Moie (1745-
1833)novelist, poet, pamphleteei, political activist, evangelical
iefoimei, and abolitionistwas waging a veiy dieient campaign
to impiove the status of women. Moie is well known to scholais
who specialize in eighteenth-centuiy cultuie. Te late UCLA litei-
aiy histoiian Mitzi Myeis called hei a female ciusadei innitely
moie successful than Wollstoneciaft oi any othei competitoi, but
Moie is iaiely given the ciedit she deseives. Te stoiy of what she
initiated and how she did it is integial to the stoiy of womens quest
foi fieedom. I desciibe hei life and woik in some detail because this
extiaoidinaiy woman has been excluded fiom the womens studies
canon.
If Wollstoneciaft was the foundei of egalitaiian feminism, Moie
was the foundei of conseivative feminism. Like Wollstoneciaft,
Moie was a ieligiously inspiied, self-made woman who became an
intellectual peei of seveial of the most accomplished men of hei
age. But wheie Wollstoneciaft had befiiended Paine and debated
Buike, Moie was a fiiend and admiiei of Buike, a close fiiend of
Samuel Johnson and Hoiace Walpole, and an indispensable ally and
condante to William Wilbeifoice, a fathei of Biitish abolitionism.
Conceining the Fiench Revolution, which Wollstoneciaft initially
championed, Moie wiote, Fiom libeity, equality, and the iights of
man, good Loid delivei us. And she was suiely the most piominent
woman of hei age. As one biogiaphei notes, In hei time she was
bettei known than Maiy Wollstoneciaft and hei books outsold Jane
Austens many times ovei. Hei vaiious pamphlets sold in the mil-
lions and hei tiact against the Fiench Revolution enjoyed a gieatei
ciiculation than Buikes Reections on the Revolution in France oi
Paines Rights of Man. Some histoiians ciedit hei political wiitings
with having saved England fiom the kind of biutal ievolutionaiy
upheaval that tiaumatized Fiance.
Feminism, Freedom and History
217 CULTURE & CIVILIZATION
Moie (who nevei maiiied) was active in the Bluestocking soci-
ety, a gioup of intellectual women (and men) who would meet to
discuss politics, liteiatuie, science, and philosophy. Te gioup was
staited in 1750 by intelligent but education-staived uppei- and
middle-class women who yeained foi seiious conveisation iathei
than the customaiy chattei and gossip typical of elite gatheiings. I
was educated at iandom, Moie would say, and womens education
became one of hei most passionate causes.
Moie is haid to classify politically. It is possible to nd passages
in hei novels, pamphlets, and letteis that make hei look like an aich
conseivative, otheis show hei as a piogiessive iefoimei. Tiough
selective citation, she can be made to seem like an insueiable
piudeLoid Byion dismissed hei as Moialitys piim peisonica-
tionbut it is doubtful that a piim peisonication would have
attiacted the devotion and iespect of men like Johnson, Walpole,
and Wilbeifoice.
Moie was a Biitish patiiot, a champion of constitutional monai-
chy, a fiiend and admiiei of Buike, but she was no defendei of the
status quo. She called foi ievolutionaiy changenot in politics,
but in moials. In hei novels and pamphlets, she shaiply iepioached
membeis of the uppei classes foi theii amoiality, hedonism, indif-
feience to the pooi, and toleiance of the ciime of slaveiy. In the
many Sunday schools she established, she encouiaged the pooi to
be sobei, thiifty, haidwoiking, and ieligious. Moie shaied Adam
Smiths enthusiasm foi the fiee maiket as a foice foi good. But foi
the maiket to thiive, she believed Englands pooi and iich would
need to develop good moial habits and viituous chaiacteis.
Histoiians have iefeiied to hei as a bouigeois piogiessivist, a
Chiistian capitalist, Buike foi beginneis, and the ist Victoiian.
She could also be called the ist conseivative feminist. Unlike Woll-
stoneciaft, Moie believed the sexes weie signicantly dieient in
theii piopensities, aptitudes, and life piefeiences. She envisioned
a society in which womens chaiacteiistic viitues and giaces could
be developed, iened, and fieely expiessed. She was peisuaded that
these viitues could be iealized only when women weie given moie
fieedom and a seiious education:
Christina Hoff Sommers
218 CULTURE & CIVILIZATION
[T]ill women shall be moie ieasonably educated, and until the native giowth of theii
mind shall cease to be stilted and ciamped, we shall have no justei giound foi pio-
nouncing that theii undeistanding has alieady ieached its highest attainable peifec-
tion, than the Chinese would have foi a iming that theii women have attained to the
gieatest possible peifection in walking, while theii ist caie is, duiing theii infancy,
to ciipple theii feet.
She loathed the mindless pastimes that absoibed uppei-class
women of hei day and encouiaged middle- and uppei-class women
to leave theii homes and salons to take up seiious philanthiopic
puisuits. Accoiding to Moie, women weie moie tendei-minded
than men and weie the natuial caietakeis of the nation. She
told women that it was theii patiiotic duty to apply theii natu-
ial giftsnuituiing, oiganizing, and educatingnot meiely to
theii own households, but to society at laige. Chaiity, said one
of Moies ctional chaiacteis, is the calling of a lady, the caie of
the pooi is hei piofession. Moie envisioned aimies of intelligent,
infoimed, and well-tiained women woiking in hospitals, oiphan-
ages, and schools. She appealed to women to exeit themselves with
a patiiotism at once im and feminine foi the gieatei good of all.
And women listened.
Hei didactic 1880 novel, Coelebs in Search of a Wife, which valo-
iized a new kind of wise, eective, active, and iesponsible femininity,
went into eleven editions in nine months and to thiity by the time
of hei death. UCLA liteiaiy scholai Anne Melloi comments on the
extent of Moies inuence:
She uiged hei women ieadeis to paiticipate actively in the oiganization of voluntaiy
benevolent societies and in the foundation of hospitals, oiphanages, Sunday Schools.
. . . And hei call was heaid: liteially thousands of voluntaiy societies spiang up in the
opening decades of the nineteenth centuiy to seive the needs of eveiy imaginable
gioup of sueieis.
It is haid to oveistate the positive impact of widespiead volunteei-
ism on the fate of women. As women became engaged in chaiitable
woiks, othei paits of the public spheie became accessible. Women
galvanized by Moies call foi good woiks weie latei piominent in
the movement foi womens suiage.
It was taken foi gianted in Moies time that women weie less in-
telligent and less seiious than men, and thus less woithy as human
Feminism, Freedom and History
219 CULTURE & CIVILIZATION
beings. Moie atly iejected these assumptions. She did so without
iejecting the idea of a special womens spheie. She embiaced that
spheie, but looked foi ways to give it gieatei dignity and powei.
Tat was hei signatuie Buikean style of feminism. Moie initiated a
humane ievolution in the ielations of the sexes that was decoious,
civilized, and in no way socially divisive. Above all, it was a feminism
that women themselves could comfoitably embiace: a feminism that
gianted women the libeity to be themselves without ceasing to be
conventionally feminine. Indeed, if Moies name and fame had not
been biushed out of contempoiaiy womens histoiy, many women
today might well be identifying with a modeinized veision of hei
female-fiiendly feminism.
Foitunately, hei ideals and hei style of feminism aie well-iepie-
sented in the novels of Jane Austen. We do not know foi suie whethei
Austen iead Moie, but scholais claim to see the unmistakable inu-
ence in Austens wiitings of both Moie and Wollstoneciaft. Hei heio-
ines aie paiagons of iational, meiciful, and iesponsible womanhood.
Austen also honois a style of enlightened and chivalious manhood.
Austens heioesmen like Mi. Daicy, Captain Wentwoith, and Mi.
Knightleyesteem female stiength, iationality, and intelligence.
Egalitaiian feminists like Wollstoneciaft (and, latei, John Stuait
Mill and Haiiiet Tayloi) aie staple guies in the intellectual histoiy
of feminism, but they have nevei attiacted a veiy laige following
among the iank and le of women of theii time. By contiast, Moie
succeeded biilliantly with all classes of women. She awakened a
nation and changed the way it saw itself. What she achieved was
unpiecedented. But the feminist scholai Elizabeth Kowaleski-Wal-
lace speaks foi many when she desciibes Moie as a case study of
patiiaichal complicity and an uninvited guest who make[s] the
piocess of celebiating oui heiitage as women moie di cult.
But oui histoiyif she means the full stoiy of female emanci-
pationwas initiated by both egalitaiian and conseivative women.
Togethei these two bianches of feminism helped libeiate women
fiom the naiiow spheies that conned them. Te complementaiity
of Wollstoneciaft and Moie was vital to the piogiess of women in the
eighteenth centuiy, but it is still vital today. Wollstoneciafts demand
foi full equality continues to inspiie, but so to does Moies notion
Christina Hoff Sommers
220 CULTURE & CIVILIZATION
of empoweied femininity. Many contempoiaiy women, in both the
developed and developing woild, want theii iights and fieedoms, but
they still choose to be tiaditional wives and motheis. Tey continue
to pievail in the helping and caiing domains celebiated by Moie.
Hei vision of domestic heioism still has the powei to galvanize mil-
lions of women.
SAINT FRANCES OF AMERICA
Hn Movr is not the only once-famous womens advocate
to have vanished fiom the womens histoiy canon. Ken Buins, the
celebiated documentaiian, followed his awaid-winning Civil War
with a 1999 lm about Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) and
Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) and theii stiuggle to win the vote foi
Ameiican women. Teie is one biief sequence in which the naiia-
toi explains that in the last quaitei of the nineteenth centuiy, An-
thony foiged coalitions with conseivative mainstieam gioups. Te
mood daikens, and a pioneei in the eld of womens studiesSally
Roesch Wagneiappeais on the scieen. Wagnei infoims vieweis
that Anthony was so deteimined to win the vote, she established
alliances with pio-suiage women who weie enemies of fieedom
in eveiy othei wayFiances Willaid is a case in point. Te cameia
then shows a photo of a doui-looking Willaid.
One would nevei imagine fiom Buinss lm that Willaid (1839-98)
was one of the most beloved and iespected women of the nineteenth
centuiy. When she died, one newspapei wiote, No womans name
is bettei known in the English-speaking woild than that of Miss Wil-
laid, save that of Englands gieat queen. Because of hei piodigious
good woiks and kindly natuie, Willaid was often called the Saint
Fiances of Ameiican Womanhood.
But Willaid, a suiagist and leadei of the Womens Chiistian Tem-
peiance Union, is anothei once-esteemed guie in womens histoiy
that is today haidly mentioned. Willaid biought mainstieam women
into the suiage movement, and some histoiians ciedit hei with do-
ing fai moie to win the vote foi women than any othei suiagist. But
hei fondness foi saying things like Womanliness istafteiwaids
what you will was hei ticket to histoiical obloquy.
Feminism, Freedom and History
221 CULTURE & CIVILIZATION
Appioved feminist foundeis like Stanton and Anthony piomoted
womens suiage thiough appeals to univeisal iights. Teii inspiia-
tions weie John Locke, Tomas Paine and Tomas Jeeison. Stanton
gieatly admiied Hannah Moie, whom she called one of the gieat
minds of hei day, but Stantons style of feminism was in the egali-
taiian tiadition of Maiy Wollstoneciaft. Stanton wiote aectingly
on the individuality of each human soul and on a womans need
to be the aibitei of hei own destiny. She and hei sistei suiagists
biought a feminist Enlightenment to women, but to theii abiding
disappointment, Ameiican women gieeted the oei with a mixtuie
of indieience and hostility. Stantons woids weie eective with
a ielatively small coteiie of educated women, mostly on the East
Coast. When a suiage amendment failed dismally in the state of
Coloiado in 1877, one newspapei editoiial called the suiagists
caipetbaggeis piomoting an elitist eastein issue. Te headline
iead: Good-bye to the Female Tiamps of Boston.
Foi many decades, the aveiage Ameiican woman simply ignoied
the cause of suiage. In a 1902 histoiy of womens suiage, Anthony
and hei coauthoi wiote, Te indieience and ineitia, the apathy of
women lies the gieatest obstacle to theii enfianchisement. Tiough-
out the 1880s and 1890s many women actively oiganized against
it. Stanfoid histoiian Cail Deglei, in his classic 1980 social histoiy,
At Odds: Women and the Family in America from the Revolution to
the Present, notes that in 1890, moie than twenty thousand women
had joined an anti-suiage gioup in New Yoik State alone.
To piove once and foi all that the majoiity of women wanted the
vote, suiagists oiganized a iefeiendum in Massachusetts in 1895.
Both men and women weie allowed to take pait. Te initiative lost,
with 187,000 voting against the fianchise and only 110,000 in fa-
voiand of those who voted yes, only 23,000 weie women! Accoid-
ing to Anthony, Te aveiage man would not vote against gianting
women the suiage if all those of his own family biought a stiong
piessuie to beai upon him in its favoi. It is the conventional wisdom
that men denied women the ballot. But even a cuisoiy look at the
histoiical iecoid suggests that men weie not the only pioblem.
Deglei and othei histoiians believe that, because the vote was
associated with individualism and peisonal asseitiveness, many
Christina Hoff Sommers
222 CULTURE & CIVILIZATION
women saw it as both selsh and an attack on theii unique and
valued place in the family. Some feminist histoiians denigiate what
they call the cult of domesticity that pioved so beguiling to nine-
teenth-centuiy women. But they foiget that this cult fieed many
iuial women fiom manual laboi, impioved the mateiial conditions
of womens lives, and coincided with an inciease in female life ex-
pectancy. Fuitheimoie, as Deglei shows, in nineteenth-centuiy
Ameiica, both the public and piivate spheies weie piized and val-
ued. Te companionate maiiiages desciibed by Jane Austen weie
the Ameiican domestic ideal. Alexis de Tocqueville commented on
the essential equality of the male and female spheies in Democracy
in America (1840). Ameiicans, he said, did not think that men and
women should peifoim the same tasks, but they show an equal
iegaid foi both theii iespective paits, and though theii lot is diei-
ent, they considei both of them as being of equal value.
Hence, as long as women saw the vote as a thieat to theii spheie,
suiage was a lost cause. Impassioned feminist ihetoiic about
fieedom, dignity, autonomy, and individual iights fell on deaf eais.
If the Ameiican womens movement was going to move foiwaid,
the suiage movement needed new aiguments and new ways of
thinking that weie moie iespectful and piotective of womens iole.
Fiances Willaid showed the way.
Willaid seived as piesident of the Womans Chiistian Tempeiance
Union fiom 1879 until hei death in 1898. Undei hei leadeiship, it
giew to be the laigest and most inuential womens oiganization in
the nation. Today, we associate tempeiance with Puiitanism. But in
the late nineteenth centuiy, most feminists, including Stanton and
Anthony, suppoited it. Tempeiance advocates believed that a ban
on the sale of alcohol would gieatly diminish wife abuse, deseition,
destitution, and ciime. In othei woids, tempeiance was a movement
in defense of the homethe female spheie.
Willaid was pioud of womens iole as the angel in the house. But
why, she asked, limit these angels to the home? With the vote, Willaid
said, women could gieatly inciease theii civilizing and humane inu-
ence on society. With the vote, they could piotect the homes they so
deaily loved. Indeed, Willaid iefeiied to the vote as the home piotec-
tion ballot. Women weie moved by this, and men weie disaimed.
Feminism, Freedom and History
223 CULTURE & CIVILIZATION
Susan B. Anthony admiied Willaid, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a
skeptic in ieligious matteis, was leeiy. Both weie staitled by hei
ability to attiact unpiecedented numbeis of dedicated women to
the suiage cause. Te membeiship guies foi the vaiious womens
oiganizations aie stiiking. In 1890, two leading egalitaiian suiagist
gioups meiged because they weie woiiied that the cause was dying.
Tey foimed the National Ameiican Woman Suiage Association
and elected Stanton piesident. Te total membeiship of these com-
bined gioups, accoiding to Univeisity of Michigan histoiian Ruth
Boidin, was thiiteen thousand. By compaiison, Willaid had built an
oiganization with moie than ten times that numbei, by 1890, she
had 150,000 adult, dues-paying membeis. Moieovei, Willaid and
hei followeis began to biing the suiage movement something new
and unfamiliai: victoiies.
In 1893, the state of Coloiado held a second election on womens
suiage. Unlike 1877, when the suiagists lost and the so-called
tiamps of Boston weie sent packing, this time the suiagists won the
vote by a 55 peicent majoiity. Many histoiians agiee that Willaids new
conseivative appioach explains the success. She had peisuaded laige
numbeis of men and women that it was a motheis sacied duty to vote.
Tomas Cailyle has asciibed the insights of genius to coopeia-
tion with the tendency of the woild. Like Hannah Moie befoie hei,
Willaid coopeiated with the woild and disceined novel and eec-
tive ways to impiove it. Few, if any, feminist histoiy texts honoi
the memoiy of these women. Indeed, with the exception of a small
gioup of piofessional histoiians and liteiaiy ciitics, almost no one
knows who they aie. Still, it is inteiesting to note that today the
MoieiWillaid style of conseivative feminism seems to be on the
veige of a poweiful iesuigence.
In hei 1990 book, In Search of Islamic Feminism, Univeisity of
Texas Middle Eastein studies piofessoi Elizabeth Wainock Fei-
nea desciibed a new style of feminism coming to life thioughout
the Muslim woild. Tiaveling thiough Uzbekistan, Saudi Aiabia,
Moiocco, Tuikey, and Iiaq, Feinea met gieat numbeis of womens
advocates woiking haid to impiove the status of women. Teie have
always been Westein-style egalitaiian feminists in these countiies,
but they aie small in numbei and tend to be found among the most
Christina Hoff Sommers
224 CULTURE & CIVILIZATION
educated elites. Te Islamic feminists Feinea was meeting weie
dieient. Tey weie tiaditional, ieligious, and family-centeiedand
they had a following among women fiom all social classes. Tey
weie pioud of a womens iole as mothei, wife, and caiegivei. Seveial
iejected what they saw as divisiveness in todays Ameiican womens
movement. As one Iiaqi womens advocate, Haifa Abdul Rahman,
told hei, We see feminism in Ameiica as dividing women fiom
men, sepaiating women fiom the family. Tis is bad foi eveiyone.
Feinea settled on the teim family feminism to desciibe this new
movement. Expeits on the histoiy of Westein feminism will heie
iecognize its a nities with Willaids long-lost teachings. Today,
almost twenty yeais aftei Feineas book, conseivative feminism is
suiging in the Muslim woild.
When Willaid died in 1898, hei youngei feminist colleague Caiiie
Chapman Catt iemaiked, Teie has nevei been a woman leadei
in this countiy gieatei than Fiances Willaid. But todays feminists
iemain implacably hostile to Willaids notions of womanly viitue
and have no sympathy with hei family-centeied feminism. Tese
aie unfoigivable defects in theii eyes, but they aie piecisely the
tiaits that make Willaids style of feminism highly ielevant to the
many millions of women all ovei the woild who aie stiuggling foi
theii iights and fieedoms in stiongly tiaditional societies and who
do not want to be libeiated fiom theii love foi family, childien, and
husband. Tiuth be told, theie aie also gieat numbeis of contempo-
iaiy Ameiican women who would today ieadily label themselves
as feminists weie they awaie of a conseivative alteinative that was
iespectful of the domestic spheie. Today, moie than 70 peicent of
Ameiican women ieject the label feminist.
CAN THIS MOVEMENT BE SAVED?
Civr Boo:nr Lucr, a conseivative feminist who, in hei heyday
in the 1940s was a populai playwiight and a membei of the U.S.
Congiess, wiote and spoke about women at a time when feminisms
second wave was still moie than twenty yeais away. Luces exem-
plaiy iemaiks on Mothei Natuie and sex dieiences aie especially
ielevant today.
Feminism, Freedom and History
225 CULTURE & CIVILIZATION
It is time to leave the question of the iole of women in society up to Mothei Natuiea
di cult lady to fool. You have only to give women the same oppoitunities as men, and
you will soon nd out what is oi is not in theii natuie. What is in womens natuie to
do they will do, and you wont be able to stop them. But you will also nd, and so will
they, that what is not in theii natuie, even if they aie given eveiy oppoitunity, they
will not do, and you wont be able to make them do it.
Te cultuial ciitic and dissident feminist Camille Paglia once told
me she found these woids poweiful, peisuasive, and even awe-inspii-
ing. So do I. Luce takes the best of both egalitaiian and conseivative
feminism. She is caieful to say that womens natuie can be made
known only in conditions of fieedom and oppoitunity. It is in such
conditions of iespect and faiiness that women can ieveal theii tiue
piefeiences. Cleaily, Luce does not expect that women will tuin out
to be inteichangeable with men.
When Luce wiote hei cautionaiy woids, sex iole steieotypes
still poweifully limited womens choices and oppoitunities. Today,
women enjoy the equality of oppoitunity that Luce alluded to. Te
conventional constiaints, connements, and iigid expectations aie
laigely iemnants of the past. It is now possible to obseive the iole
of women in society by taking note of the ioles women themselves
fieely choose. Was Maiy Wollstoneciaft iight to insist that undei
conditions of fieedom the sexes would make similai choices? Oi was
Hannah Moie closei to the tiuth when she suggested that women
will always pievail in the piivate spheie and expiess themselves as
the natuial caiegiveis of the species?
We know fiom common obseivation that women aie maikedly
moie nuituiing and empathetic than men. Te female tendency to
be empathic and caiing shows up veiy eaily in life. Female infants,
foi example, show gieatei distiess and concein than male infants ovei
the plight of otheis, this dieience peisists into adulthood. Women
do not meiely say they want to help otheis, they entei the helping
and caiing piofessions in gieat numbeis. Even today, in an eia when
egalitaiian feminism is dominant in education, the media, and the
womens movement, women continue to be vastly oveiiepiesented in
elds like nuising, social woik, pediatiics, veteiinaiy medicine, and
eaily childhood education. Te gieat nineteenth-centuiy psychologist
William James said that foi men the woild is a theatei foi heioism.
Christina Hoff Sommers
226 CULTURE & CIVILIZATION
Tat may be an oveistatement, but it nds a lot of suppoit in modein
social scienceand evidence fiom eveiyday life. Women aie numeii-
cally dominant in the helping piofessions, men pievail in the saving and
iescuing vocations such as policemen, ieghteis, and soldieis.
Heie we come to the cential paiadox of egalitaiian feminism:
when women aie libeiated fiom the domestic spheie and no longei
foiced into the iole of nuituieis, when they
aie gianted theii full LockeaniJeeisonian
fieedoms to puisue happiness in all the mul-
titudinous ways a fiee society has to oei,
manypeihaps moststill give piioiity to
the domestic spheie.
Todays feminist establishment in the
United States is dominated by the iadical
wing of the egalitaiian tiadition. Not only
do its membeis not coopeiate with theii
conseivative sisteis, but they also often
denigiate and vilify them, indeed they have all but eliminated them
fiom the histoiy of Ameiican feminism. Conseivative feminism is
a lost continent. Tat must change.
A MONSTROUS REGIMENT
I r sorr:irrs asked, Isnt theie anything you like about contem-
poiaiy feminists? At a iecent debate at the Yale Political Union, a
membei of the audience said, You accuse gendei feminists of being
veiy negative about men, about oui societybut you aie just as nega-
tive and fault-nding wheie the gendei feminists aie conceined. Well,
ist of all, theie is nothing wiong with being negative and fault-nding
if youi ciiticisms aie on point. Howevei, I am happy to say that theie
aie things about contempoiaiy feminists that I do like veiy much.
Lets considei Eve Enslei once again. Teie is a lot moie to hei
than hei male-aveise play and hei Madison Squaie Gaiden spectacle.
Ovei the yeais, she has been peisonally active in piomoting womens
iights in foisaken places such as Rwanda, Haiti and the Congo. In
2000, at enoimous iisk to heiself, she tiaveled to Afghanistan and
documented the hoiiois piacticed by the Taliban. Moie iecently, in
When women aie
libeiated fiom the
domestic spheie and
no longei foiced into
the iole of nuituieis,
they still give
piioiity to the
domestic spheie.
Feminism, Freedom and History
227 CULTURE & CIVILIZATION
the fall of 2007, she spent a month in the Demociatic Republic of the
Congo wheie thousands of women have been biutally iaped and toi-
tuied by maiauding gangs of soldieis. One fiustiated foimei United
Nations o cial was dismayed by the appalling and giotesque indiei-
ence by the woild community to the fate of the Congolese women. But
Enlsei is not indieient. She is now waging a majoi campaign to iaise
woild awaieness and biing suppoit to these women. Hei peispective
on the United States and Ameiican women may be distoited, but
hei eoits in the Congo aie nothing less than heioic.
Oi considei the inteinational womens gioup Equality Now. Tat
gioup is aggiessively taigeting human iights violations such as the
sexual tia cking of women and childien in India, female genital
mutilation in Mali, and the stoning of women in Iian. Tis is admi-
iable and necessary woik that both conseivative and piogiessive
women of the past and piesent can applaud.
In hei 1995 book Two Paths to Womens Equality, the Biandeis
Univeisity scholai Janet Zollingei Giele, tells the stoiy of how
Ameiican women won suiage only when piogiessive gioups (led
by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony) foimed a coali-
tion with conseivative women (led by Fiances Willaid). Says Giele,
Histoiy iecoids defeat wheie one bianch failed to iecognize the
valid aiguments of the othei.

She also noted dazzling successes
when the two bianches coopeiated.
Small gioups of leftwing feminists, hostile to men and to oiganized
ieligion, aie not going to be able to defeat sexual tia cking, female
genital mutilation, iape camps, oi stonings. Tey aie not even go-
ing to be much help to Westein women and the challenges they still
face. Histoiy will iecoid theii defeat. But what if Enslei, the activists
in Equality Now, and even the giievance feminists who authoi the
womens studies textbooks, followed the example of Stanton and
Anthony and foimed an alliance with modeiate and conseivative
womenincluding even tiaditionally ieligious women? What if they
allowed the heiis to both Hannah Moie and Fiances Willaid back
into the movement?
Contempoiaiy establishment feminism takes a dim view of
faith-based, family-centeied women. But, as I have tiied to show,
histoiically, such women weie ciitically impoitant to libeiation
Christina Hoff Sommers
228 CULTURE & CIVILIZATION
movementsfiom abolitionism to suiage. Tey may hold the key
to success in piomoting an eective inteinational womens move-
ment today. Foi one thing, they aie numeious. Teie aie ten mil-
lion Evangelical women in the United States. Many of them could
be galvanized aiound the iighteous and humane causes of Equality
Now. Once they aie mobilized and allied with piogiessive foices,
and once they aie connected to womens gioups thioughout the
woild, histoiy suggests they could pievail.
Te 16
th
centuiy Scottish cleigyman John Knox was hoiiied by
the spectei of female political powei, which he called a monstious
iegiment. He dieaded it, and so will the male supiemacists of the
woild, should a coalition of iadical, modeiate, and evangelical
women stait maiching in theii diiection.
Ovei the yeais, I have lectuied on moie than one hundied col-
lege campuses, wheie I have met both conseivative and iadical
women activists. Te foimei invite me and the lattei come to jeei
and wianglebut as a iule we all pait as fiiends. Why do you like
Te Vagina Monologues so much? I ask them. Most tell me that, by
acting in the play oi suppoiting it, they aie both having fun (giils,
too, like to push the limits) and seiving a good cause (funds iaised
by the peifoimances suppoit local domestic violence shelteis). I
have yet to meet a single one who shaies the plays misandiy.
Tese young women can be ieasoned with, and many aie fully
capable of allying themselves with modeiate and conseivative
women to woik foi common inteiests. My advice to them: dont
bothei taking back the Gaiden. Take back feminism. Restoie its
lost histoiy. Make the movement attiactive once again to the silent
majoiity of Ameiican women who ieally do not want to be libeiated
fiom theii womanhood. And then take on the cause of the women
who have yet to nd the libeity that Westein women have won foi
themselves and that all women eveiywheie deseive.
Christina Ho Sommers is a Resident Scholai at the Ameiican Enteipiise Institute
and on the Boaid of Advisois foi the Foundation foi Individual Rights in Education.
Known foi hei woik in feminism, gendei, and childieaiing in Ameiica, she is the
authoi of numeious woiks including One Nation Under Terapy and Vice & Virtue
in Everyday Life.