recasting of women's traditional roles. At the core of these
efforts was the conviction that women's equality must begin not
with rights but with economic independence, based on participation
in productive labor outside the bounds of home and family. Although
women's roles in socialist countries have indeed changed
dramatically, such transformations did not occur without
considerable resistance and strain, nor did they guarantee an end
to gender-based discrimination. Moreover, women's organizing in
these countries raised suspicions among the virtually all-male
governing hierarchies, which viewed feminism as divisive and
repressed spontaneous activism in favor of state-sponsored women's
federations.
A New
Feminism
The rekindling
of feminist activism in the 1960s was closely related to other
liberation movements. The civil rights and black power movements in
the United States, as well as peace, decolonization, and student
movements in other countries, shared the assumption that
eliminating discrepancies of power and privilege required more than
legal changes and institutional reforms. The most basic, accustomed
patterns of awareness and behavior would have to be altered as
well. These movements, therefore, sought to create an environment
in which reforms could have lasting effects.
Within these
social justice movements, many women became conscious of the
discriminatory treatment they routinely faced, and began a separate
exploration into the causes of and remedies for their disadvantage.
Their efforts differed fundamentally from those of feminists in
previous decades. Whereas earlier generations of activists had
sought the "feminization" of politics, education, and the
professions, contemporary feminists inquired more deeply into the
very concepts of "femininity" and "masculinity." How much were they
truly natural, biologically determined, and universal, and how much
were they the complex products of particular cultures, customs, and
ideologies? Pressing these questions, the new generation of
feminists began looking for the roots of power and disadvantage in
the everyday, seemingly trivial relations between women and
men—on the street, in the workplace, and especially in the
home. Ingrained processes of gender differentiation were explored,
then challenged, and a vigorous, spontaneous movement for change
began to emerge in the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia,
and elsewhere.
In many ways,
the conditions were favorable for the rapid growth of what became
popularly known as "women's lib." In advanced industrial nations,
unprecedented