You also note, in your book's only indexed discussion of feminism, that "Jacobs never uses expressions like 'feminism' or 'women's rights' - in 1960 there were few words that were remoter from current concerns." Again: in 1960? Really? Feminism was gaining critical momentum at that point. In France, The Second Sex had been published. In America, The Feminine Mystique would shortly be published. 1960 was a liminal time. Some middle-class women in the 1950s embraced the privilege of not working - maybe because their mothers had to work during the Depression, or maybe because they'd had to work during the 1940s - but lots of them were starting to realize that this "privilege" was, in fact, limiting their potential and driving them crazy. Women who had enjoyed working in the 1940s, and were pushed out of the public sphere due to all the returning men who wanted their jobs back, had many years of built-up resentment that they were ready to unleash. Feminism may not have been hugely visible, but it was happening. Still: just because it was liminal, underground, not visible to men, does not mean it was at all "remote" from the "current concerns" of women. And even if we define the first visible wave of feminism as having ended in 1920, with the vote (which it really didn't - folks like Margaret Sanger and Emma Goldman continued to work long after it had been obtained), it was still less than 40 years in the past. Again: this might be a nitpick, or it might just be that your historical reckoning is faulty.And yes, it's an old book. It's still being cited.
ETA: Posting deleted. Probably should delete this post. I'll see how I feel in the morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment