f ((( L9'

rbl ( ( G,c.{

lJ
Ka\{, c1

.rnr
K
aa
;(
I

irD t).la(
Ncw
fta+
)t
t{;
6,
oL,* l-1r'l,hYv
J

tL (
.r/
144
THE MAJORITY FINDS ITS
PAST
an effort to alter traditional attitudes, large-scale experiments in redefining family roles and in attacking sex-role
indoctrination of children are now under way in
Sweden, including parental leaves for fathers, the recognition of the position of
"house-husband"
(a man staying at home to do the family's
housework).

\ovlc
i 0U\ ,fi1
10
It
is roo early
Placing
Women in to judge the success of such measures in a capitalist welfate state or

History: Definitions and Challenga those radical measures

enacted in
Socialist Cuba designed to up- grade rhe starus of women and change rhe
traditionalrnachismo atti- tudes of Cuban men by requiring them to
share household duties with their wives as a
political responsibility. It
is obvious from his- torical experience that legal and educarional
equalily for women wili not automatically lead to attitudinal
changes essential for al- tering the role of the housewife.
The confinement of women ro the sex-linked housewife-breeder- feeder role has been the key element in her
subordination in all
her

In
tl-re other liorated,
societal but roles. it
cannot The position be decisively of women altered in society until can "occupation be ame-
housewife" has ceased

hrief span of five

1'g4;c

in s'hirl A'1eri'an l'ictorians

112"" begun to develop women's history as an
independent field, they
to be gender-defined and has become sup- ported children or and supplanted the nurturance by other of people.
arrangemenrs To accomplish for the raising this will of

-
have sought propriate to to the
6nd task. a conceptual framework and a methodology .
ap-
The first level at which historians, trained in traditignai history, approach women's history is by writing the history of
"wQmen demand the rransforming and restructuring of all institutions of so- ciety and the c*eation of new-forms,of
community.
sl,orthies" ing from history?
or "compensatory lJfho
are history."
1 \(/ho are the women the women of achievement and miss-
a what did engaged, not they tell us achieve? nor much does

The it about tell resulting us those about activities

history the significance of in "notable which of women" most women's women does
ac-
-o
tivities to society as a whole. The history of notable women is the
This essay,

in
an earlier version, was presented at the panei, "Effects of Vomen's History Upon Traditional Concepts
of Historiography" at the
a
Second Mass., October Berkshire 2r-2:-, Conference

t974. on h
the was,
History in
revised of N7omen, Cambridge, form, presented as a
??per
1915.

^t I
the Sarah Lawrence Coliege Workshop-Syn-rposiurn, March r5, have greatly benefitted from discussion

with my
 co-panelists Renate Bridenthal and
Joan Kelly-Gadol, and critique pubiished of inFeminist audience participants Studies,
Voi. at III, both Nos. conferences. r-z r4t
from (Fali the comments It was revised 1975), 5-r4.
and and
(r((
((((t((((((((
146 THE MA'ORITY FINDS ITS
PAST
- history of exceptional, even deviant
-women,

t47
a
---!' : (

(((((((l'(((((1
(
PLACING \7OMEN IN
HISTORY
and does not describe
The ways in which
women were aided and affected by the work the experience and history of the mass of women. This insight is
a
of these refinement of an
awareness of
cla.ss differences

"great women," the ways in which they rhemselves grev, in

history: \7omen
into feminist awareness, are ignored.
J
ane of different
classes have different historical experiences. To compre- henci the full complexity of society at a given
stage
Addams' enormous con- tribution in creating a female support network and new structures of irs develop-

for living
are
subordinated ro her role asa Progressive, or to an in- ment,.it \Women
is essential also have to a take different account experience
of such differences.

to
con-
 terpretation which regards her as merely representativJ of a group with
respect
of frustrated college-
trained women with no place to go. In other sciousness, depending on whether their work, their expression,
words, a deviant from
male-defined norms. Margaret Sanger is seen their activity is male-defined or woman-oriented. $7omen, like
merely as the founder of rhe birth-conrol movement, not as

men, are indoctrinated in

a male-defined value sysrem and conduct
woman raising a
revolurionary challenge to the centuries-old prac- their lives accordingly. Thus, colonial and eady rgth-century fe-

tice by n'hich the

bodies and lives of women are dominaced and male reformers directed rheir acrivities inro channels
which were merely an extension of their domestic concerns and traditional
ruled scribed by as man-made "aiso
there-' laws. or In as the problems. labor movement, Their essenrial women role are de- on roles. They taught schooi,
cared for the poor, the sick, rhe aged.
behalf of themselves and of other women is seldom considered

As their
consciousness developed, they turned their attention to-

central theme in
writing their history. \7omen are the outgroup, ward to "uplift"
the needs prosrirutes, i.,tt
women. organize Becoming s/omen woman-orienred, for abolition they began
Simone de Beauvoir's

"Other." or temper-
Another set of quesrions concerns oppression and its

pposite, rr;;ri, iir<i Si)ir5irt iu upgrade female education, but onl1,

in order to
the struggie for woman's rigirts. lJ7ho
o
ppressed women and how equip' women better for their traditional roles. Only at a later
were they oppressed?
How did they respond to such oppression? stage, growing out of the recognition of the separate interests of
Such questions have
yielded detailed and very valuable accounts women as a group, and of their subordinare place in society, did
of economic or social
oppression, and of the various orgaoizational, their
 consciousness become woman-defined. Feminist thought scarts
at chis level and encompasses rhe active asserrion

of
the rights and grievances of women. These
various srages

of
female
* political sion. tion, Judging
why ways and in from how which the were womeo results,
women as it

a victimized;has group is clear have that fought to its

ask such usefulness. the
oppres- ques-
consciousness need to be considered in historical analysis.
\We
learn what society or
individuals or classes of people have done The next level of conceptualizing-women's history has .been
to wogren. and we iearn
how women themselves have reacted to "contribution history": describing women's conrriburion to, their
conditions imposeC-
trpon them. \/hile inferior status and oppres- status in, and rheir oppression by male-defined sive restraints_%ere no
doubt
a
spects of q,omers historical experi- category we 6nd a variery of questions being ence, that it
and makes
should be so recorded, the limitation of this approach is society.
asked:

\ilfhar
Underthis have \L'omen contributed to abolition, to reform, to the
Progressive movement, to the iabor movement, to the
Ner\,Deal? The move- ment in question stands in the foreground of inquiry; women made a "contriburionl' tc'ir; the
contribution is judged 6rst of all
v",ith respect

it
appear either that women were largely passive or that, at the most, thev reacred to male pressures
or to the restraints of patriarchal society. Such inquiry faiis to elicit the positive and essential na1, in rrhich v,'ornen have
iunctioned

n history. Mary to its effcct on that movemenr and secondlv by standards

Beard was the first to
poinr orrt rha-t the ongorng and continuing appropriate ro men.
contribution of women ro the development of human culture can-
((((({(((((((((((T(I
(((((((((((((((
148 THE MAJoRITY FINDS ITS.PAST
1 : ,i
PLACING VOMEN IN HISTORY r49
not be found by rrearing them only as
vicrims of oppression.2

It
is
tive of women's history.s
They have sharply distinguished between far more useful to deal
with rhis question as one aspect of women's
prescription and
behavior, berween myth and reality. history, but never to regard it
as the central aspect of women's his-
Other atcempts ro
deduce tory. Essentially, treating women as victims of oppression once again places them in a male-defined
conceptual framework: op- pressed, victimized by standards and values established by men. The true history of
women is the history of their ongoing function- ing in that male-defined'world on their lu)n tems. The question of
oppression does not elicit that story, and is therefore a tool of lim- ited usefulness to rhe historian.
A major focus of women's history has been on women's-rights struggles, especially the winning ofsuffrage, oo
organizational and institutional history of the s,omen's movements, and on its leaders. This, again, is an imporrant
aspecr of women's history, br-rt

io*.rr't
starus from popular litera- ture and ideology demonstrate similar
difficulties. Barbaru STelter, in an early and highly influential article, found rhe emergeace of "the cult of true
q'omanhood" in
sermons and periodicals of
the Jacksonian duced from era. this Many that Victorian historians, ideals feminisrs of woman's among them, place
periaded have de-
the society and were represenrative of its realicies. More detailed analysis revgrls that this mass-media concern wirh
woman's dor-nes- ticity was, in fact, a response ro the opposire trend in
society.4 Lower-class women were entering the factories, middle-class women were discontented with their
accustomed roles, and the it
can-
family,
as an institurion,
u
,as experiencing turmoil and grisis. Ide- not and should nor be its central concern.
alization is very frequently a
defensive ideology and an expression Some recent literature has dealt with marriage and divorce, with of tension
educational opportunities,.and with the economic struggles of
ing status within of women, socierv ir must To use be ideology ser r-elainst as a measure a
care6..rl of analysis the shift- o[ working women. Much of recent work has been concerned with the social structure,
image of women and "nomen's
sphere,"

with the
educational

popular values. economic Vith this conditions, caution society's institutional arrirudes changes,
roward and
ideals of society, the. values to which women are indoctrinated, and
women and toward gender-role indocrrination can be usefully ana-
a
with gender role acculturation as seen
in historical perspective. A
lyzed as manifestations
of a shifting value system and of tensions separate field of srudy has examined rhe ideals, values, and pre-

within patriarchal
scriptions cohcerning sexuality, especially female sexuality. Ron \Y/alters
anC Bcn Barker-B-enfield have tended to confirm tradi- tional stereotypes concerning Victoriao sexuality, the
double stan- dard, and the subordinate position of n,omen. Much of this mate- rial is
based on the study of such readily available sources as sermons, books. The educational picfall in
tracts, such womefl's interpretation, magazines, as and medical text-

Carl Degler
has pointed bur is the tendency to confuse
p:escriptive literature r,,,ith actual bel.r?vior. In fact, n,hat \ve are learning from rfiost of
these rncncgraphs is not r,'hat ii:omea did, feit, or
experielice,j, but what men in the past thought women should do. Charles Rosenberg, Carroll Sn-rith-Rosenberg, and
Carl Degler have shown how to approach tl.re same material and interpret it from the new perspec-
7

society. - . "Contribution"
history is an imporranr srage
t
in the creation of
a true history of women. The monographic
work which such inqui- such mostly men sophhticated ries prduce inquiry in done

the past is in in quesrions, essential mind. writing told women lWhen to bw contribution the it all
developmenr to is is wEI do said and history to and keep what of done, is more the men to
describe what limitarions complex in the we whar have
past and of
thought women should be. This is just another way of saying that historiafis of women's history have so far usel a
traditional concep- tuai frarnework. Essentiaiiy, they have appiieci quesrions from tra- ditional history to women, and
rried to fit women's pasr into the empty is that spaces it
deals of with historical v'omen scholarship. in male-defined The limiration sociery and of such tries work ro fit
 -!r (((
((((((((((((((
(1 ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ('( ( ( ( (
I'O THE MAJORITY FINDS ITS PAST
them into the caregories and value slrsrems which consider mdil the measure o[ significance. Perhaps
PLACING WOMEN

IN
HISTORY

I5I
but Social it
must history be placed methodology within is a very
useful for women's history, it v,ouid be usefui to refer to this
d
ifferenr conceptual framework. level of work.as "tran-sitional women's hisrory,"
seeing

it
as an in-
Historians working in
family history ask a great many quesrions evitable srep

in
rhe developmenr of new criteria and concepts. Another rnethodological question v,hich arises frequently con-

pertaining history. It to is women, no ionger bur family sufficient irisrory ro view is not women in
itself mainly
women's

s cerns the connection berween Eomen's hisrory and other receotly Emerging fields. $7hy is women's hisrory nor
simply an aspecr
members of families. Famiiy history has neglected by and large to

"8ood"
social hisrory? Are women nor parr of the anooymous in of
deal with unmarried and widowed v.,omen.
In irs applications to specific monographic studies, such as the work of Philip Greven, historyT Are they nor
oppressed
in the same way as racial or class or

family
hiscory has been
used to describe rhe relationships of fachers ethnic groups have been oppressed2
Are they nor marginal and
 and sons and the
properry arrangemenrs berlv,een rhem.5 The rela- are akin'in
not simple. m()sr respecrs It
is obvious ro minoriries? that rhere The has aoswers already to
been rhese rich quesrions cross-
tionships of fathers to daughters and morhers to rheir children have been ignored. The complex famiiy-supporr
parrerns, for example, fertilization but it
has
between .the nen' social history and women's hisrory,
wherebl, the work and wages of daughters are used co
suppoF.t the it
be a case of subsuming women's
education of brothers and
to maintain aged parenrs, while that of history under the iarger and already respectable field of sociai his- tory.
not been nor should
sons Another is not so way used, in have which been family ignored.

history has been interpreted

They [l]c:-.
Yes, ''
n,o,nsn re 'iiessed, also are parr and blrr oi alr,,,r',', r,,: rhe anonymous rlrite
have been 1:1:: in hisrory, but, unlike
s,ithin the context of patriarchal assun-rptions is by using a vaguely parr
of rhe ruling elite.
defined "domestic power" of N,omen, po\ver *,irhin the family,
as a
citlier racial or ethnic

measure Sroups, tr,-

,irtlh ,,r)ire
01:
of the societal stacus
of women. In a
methodologically theur are. They are subordinare and ex- p1i'i16'al -\\ r ,.
h,-rt rfot quite like lower classes, though some of rhem are. ,,: not yet really solved the problems of definition, but it
can
highly sophisticated article, Daniel kotr
Smirh discovered in
the rgth century the rise of something called
be aicepting-painful suggested that the though key ro th8t r-rnderstanding may be-thar \\'omen's it

is the historf history is in of the rru,jority of humankind.f r)7omen

are essenrially difierent from all the above categories, because they are the
majority now and always l-rave been at least half of humankind, and because their subjection to patriarchal
insritutions anredates all orher oppression and has outlasted all economic and socia! changes in recorded his- tory. tI
$s,as
"domesric feminism," expressed in a lowered birth rare from creasing
conrro] of
n;omen over rheir which he deduced an in- reproducrive lives.6 One might, from similar figures, as easilyJeduce.a
desire on rhe parr of men to curb their offspring due to the demands of a developing in- dustrial system .for a more
highlv educated labor force, hence for feu,er chiidren per family. Demographic data can indeed-tell
us something in the cootext about-female of an economic as weli and as male sociological status in analysis..
sociegy, but Further, only
rhe status of women within the family is something quire different
quite unan,are. in r974-75, publication of this article that

I
at the time of o'riting and at the first used the word "mankind,"
subsuming v,,omen and

I
have under ever the since teim useC "inen." the

,..- A
siu-r.lcnt "hi,)u,rkind]" brouglit rle
this shift to nrl.air'ntion, in conscious-
and distinct from their staus in the society in general.
In studying the history of blacl< Eomen and the black family
one can see thar relarirrly high sratus foi q/ornerr within rhe fhrnily does not signify "matriarchy" or "Dower for
women." since black ness this semantic shift caused is astonishiqg.
E/omen are not only members of families, but persons functioning
( ( ( { ( ( ( ( ( { ( ( ( ( ( (( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ((
I)2 .
THE MAJORITY FINDS ITS PAST
in a larger society. The sratus of persons is determined not in. one area of their functioning, such as
T -t I i i I
;jIIiI{
1
PLACING WOMEN IN
HISTORY
153
itable lin-ritation of the answers they yield. Not the least of
t
hese within the family, but in several.
limitations is that this
approach tends to separate the work and ac- The decisive historical fact about women is that
the area of their
tivities of women from
those of men, even where they were essen- functioning, not only their status witbin
those areas, have been de-
tially connected. As yet,
synthesis is lacking. For example, the rich termined by men. The effect on the consciousnesi of women has been
pervasive.

It
is one of the decisive aspects of their history, and
history of the abolition movement has been told
as though \ ,omeo pta;red a marginal, auxiliary, and a+ any anali'sis which does not take this complexity into
consideration must bc inadequate.
Then there. i.; r.re impact of demograplic techniquei, the st,.dy of iarge aggri.ir:i1.r:.
times maioly disruptive role in
of anonymous people by computer technology

women it. fund-raising writing Yet female abolitionists in and activities, antislavery distribution
largely did societies much financed of
newspapers of outnumbered the the movement
work and magazines. of
male propaganda- with
societies; their

he based on census tiarrL,

public documents, property records. Demo-
 enormous political
significance of women-organized petition cam- graphic techniques have led to'insights which are very useful for
paigns remains
unrecorded. Most importantiy, no historical work women's history. Ther' lrave yielded revealing data on fertility fluc-
tuarions, on changes

in illcgitimacy patterns aid

sex ratios, and
has as yet taken the orgatizational *'ork of female abolitionists seriously as an integral part of the ..rnrisiaveLy

itoYement. aggregaie studies of life cycles. The latter work has been done very
Slowly, as the field has
matured, historians of women's history successfully neth Kenistorr.' by
Joseph

Th. field Ketr, has

Roberr in the 'Wells, United Peter Stares Laslett, been and la.gJy Ken-
have become dissatisfied
with old questions and old methods, and have come up with new ways of approaching historical n-rateriai. dominared
by maie historiaos, mostly through self-imposed sex-
They have, for example,
begun to ask about the actual experience role stereotyping by women historians who have shared a prejudice against
the computer and statistics. .However, a group of younger scholars, trained in demographic techniques, has begun to
research and publishmaterial concerning working-class women. Alice Har- ris, Kleinberg, Vkginia andTamara
Mclaughlin,

F{areven Judith are and arnong Daniel those \7aikov.itz,

who have elicited Susan
. woman-oriented interpretations from aggregate data.8 They have - demonsrrated that social history cao be enriched
by combioing cliornetrics wirh sophisticated humanistic and feminist interpreta- tions. They have added
o{ women in the past. This is obviously
different from a description of the condition of women written-from the perspective of male sources, and leads one to
the use of women's letters, diaries. auto- biographies, and oral history sources. This shift from male-oriented
challenging to female-oriented oew interpretations. consciousness
is Historiail most important of wotnerr's and leads history' to
have point studied of view, female making sexuaiity imaginative and its use regulation of such sources from the as
medical female

-
"gender"
as a facror for analysis to such fa-
textbooks, tions concerning diaries, women's and case experience histories have of hospitai led to studies patients.

of Ques- birth miliar

concepts as class, race, and ethnicity.
control, as
The'compensatory questions raised by womgn's history special- isrs art proving interesting and vaiuabie in
a variety of fields.

it
affects women and as an issue expressing cultural and

Ii
is
symbolic values; of the physical conditions to which s'/omen ar€ p{qne, sucir as menarche ahd pregnancy and
women s aiiments; of perfectly understandable thar, after certuries cf neglect of the role
ri,istonrs, attitudcs, a,rd
fashions affectir,g woifie rt S of nnomen in history, compensatory questions and those concerning woman's
contributicn will
and musr be asked. In the
process
liealtli and r"om- en's lffe experience. Historians are now
exploring the impact of of answering such quesrions

it
is important ro keep in mind the inev-
female bonding, of female friendship and homosexuai relations, and the experience of women in groups, such as
women in utopian
((((((((((((((t(( ..-qr
(, (((((((((((((((
rr4
THE MAJORITY FINDS ITS
PAST
communities, been an int'eresr
in women's clubs and settlemenr houses. There has
PLACING \?OMEN II.i
HISTORY 115

in the possibility rhar women's centur-y-long

prescriptive behavior. If
one applies to both of these cases the kind of sophisticated and detaiied analvsis Kelly-Gadol attempts-thai
preoccupation wirh birch and wirh the care of rhe. sick and-dying
is, differentiations betweeo
women of different classes and compar- have led ro some specifrc female rituals.e
isons between the srarus of men o{ a given
c
lass and women of that S(/omen's history has already preseored a challenge to some basic
class-one finds the picture further complicaced. Status loss in

ne assumptious historians rnake. Vhile

mosr hisrorians are aware of

ag62-5s6ial
production-may be offsec by status gain in another- the fact th:rt their findings are not
vaJue-free and are trained to
access check their
biases
to education.lo bi'a variety of methods,
rhey are as yet quite un- What kind of periog[zatioo aq,are of their
ov,,n sexisr bias and, more importantiy, of the sexisr

odization.oi traciitionai hiscory might in order be for substituted it to be applicable fcr the peri- to bias
which language
s''i
,--crvades W'omen': iristor'. rhe value work.
presenrs a sysrem, the challenge ro -

culture,.and the very

u'omen? The
 ansrx,er depends Jargely
on the conceptual framework rlrin which they
in which the hisrorian works. Many historians of women's histori',

traditional i .,rory. ihe periods in which basic ciety and r.;rich rhe periodizarion of changes occur in so-
hisrorians have commonly regarded as rurning
in rheir search for a unifying framework, have tended to use the Marxist or neo-Marxist model
supplied by Juliet Mitchell
and recenrly elaborated by Sheila Ros'botham.lr The imporcant fact, poiitical points for that men
the for ?. tr: hr.rory. rirr tirionai .. historical q,omen. NTomen time development, This trame have is in not-surprising
been history are the not has one necessarily been v.,hen group deriverj we in
rhe consider
history same
from
says
Mitchell, which distinguished tl-re past of women from rhat of men is precisely that until very recentiy sexualiry and
reproduction were inevitably linked for women, while they were not so linked for men. Similarly, child-bearing and
child-rearing were inevitably longest exci:r.led from political
posver and rhey have,-by aod.Iarge, of been periodiz,,rion
exchr.i,,,l from based military on military decision-making. and political Thus de?elopmenrs the irrelevance to

linked for women and still

are
.so

their histori
,1 experience should tare been predictable. Renate E ,,jenrhal's and
Joan
linked. Women's freedom de- peods on breaking those links. Using lUitchell's
categories we cao and should ask of each historical period: What happened to the link between sexuality aad
reproductionT

Vhat
happen
ed to the Keily-Gadoi's work coir6rms tirar

link
between chilcl-
bearing and cirild -reartngl Imporrant changes the political irisrorl, hisrory. ,,i: women Neither demands the
Renaissance, differenr periodization it
appears, than nor
does rhe
a
in the status of women occur when it
becomes possible through-the availability of birth-control information and
technology to

ever period durii,g which women's suffrage was won, were periods in
sexuaiity from inevitabie
motherhood. which wonr.i.i experienced an advance
!

It
may be the .case,
how- in their srarus. Recent work of American historians, such as Linda Kerber's and
Joan

ever, that it is not the availability ancl distribution information and technology so much as the level of Hoff
Wil-
of birth medical control and

son's work on rhe American Revolution and my own work, con-

health care which is the

determinant of change. That is, when in- 6rms this conclusion. For example, neither during nor after the
fant mortaiity
decreases
, so that raising every child to adulthood American the in bcrh historicai pcliods Revolurion experience a loss nor of of
srarus, in men. the On a age iesiricrion the of
conrrary, Jackson
of did n,omen share
becomes the normal expectation of parents, family size declines. they
experienced
The above case illusrrates the difficulty that has vexed historians opriorrs as
ro oc- cupations and role choices, and certaini',,
of women's lii'seor1, oriate to

v,'omc'o. ir, $Torking trying to in

locate diff'erent a periodizatiorr fields
and mora apprc- in
Tacksonian America.

oecialities. there were restrictions imposed upon rheir sexuality, ar leasr in

maay historians have obsened tl.rat tl.re transition from agricultural
( ((((((
((((((((((((((((((((((((((
156
THE MAJoRITY FINDS ITS PAST
to industrializing society and then again the transition to fully de- veloped industrial society entails important changes
affecting women and the family. Changei in relations
1 ! ! 'l
PLACING WOMEN TN TTTSTON?
r57
incessant drudgery in'rhe home through agricultural stoop labor and the food-processing industry, both employing
low-paid female qf production affect
workers. women's status as
family members and as
q,orkers. Later, shifts in
is periqdization then
dependent as much on class as on genderT the mode of production affect the kinds of occupations women can
This question is just
one
of several which challenge the universalisr enter and their status
within them. Major shifts in health care and technological development, related to industrial
ization, also affect
assumptions answer, bur I of rhink all previous the questions historical themselves categories. point There us
is no ready

the lives of i,omen.

It
is nor too difficult to discern such patterns and to conclude that there must be a causal
reiationship betq'een
in the righr
_direction. Ali
conceptual models
of history hicherto developed have only changr-
ir.r the_mode of production and rhe status of r'omen. Here,

limited
usefulness for
women's history, since all are based rhe Ir{.
'',.ist
on
rhe
tion. ,
i.rcially
nidel
if, seems

folloning to offer Mitchell, an immediately "sexuality"

satis$ring as a factor
solu- is
assumptions of a patriarchal ordering of values. The structural- functionalist framework leaves out
c
lass and sex factors, the tradi- adC, th, b,-,, ' .
.rrcl-r ;

.,eial
factors casres, as class. ideology But and in
the prescription case
of women, internalized just
as by in
t'rr '.1nd men seem
to bc as;:.:uch a causative factor as are
tials, tional admlning tr{arxist framework rhem onl1, leaves as marginal out
sex and facrors. race Mitchell's
facrors as eJren- neo- Marxist rnodel includes these but slights ideas, values, and psy- ma:eri:ll ch"r:c: in production
relations. Does the entry of lower-
chological fictors. Still. her
four-structures model anci class rr,oni";, rnro industrial production really bring tl-rem closer to "liberati,':.': In the
absence
thc ,"iine- ments of it
proposed by Bridenthal a:e an excel.lenr
additior, :o the of institutional changes such as the
conceptual working tods of
the historian of women's history. They right tc, irr){)rtion and safe conrraception, altered chiid-rearing ar-

should be tried our,

discu
ssed, refined. But they are nor, in my rangemer:::;, and varied options for sexual expression, changes in
opinion, the whole answer.
econon.:ir ;elations may become oppressive. Unless such changes
Kelly-Gadol offers the
useful suggesaion rhar arrirudes tonard are accomf,anied by changes in
conse iousness,
which in turn resulr
sexuaiity should be studied in
e
ach historical period. She considers in insritutional changes, they do not favorably affecr the lives of
the constrainrs upon women's sexuality imposed by society a useful Ineasure of women's rrue srarus. This approach
would necessitate Is smaller-family size the result of "domestic freedom" of choice exercisftl by women, the freedom
of
ch-oice exercised by men, the
comparisons between prescribed behavior for women and men
as well as indicatioos of their actual sexual behavior at any given ideologically buttressed coercion of institutions in
the service of an
time. This challenging
method can be used economic class?
w
ith great effectiveness Is it liberating for women, for men, or for corpora-
for certain periods of history
and especially for upper- and middle- tions? This raises another tionship of upper-class to
diff,cult loq,er-class question: women? 'il/hat
To about the rela-
class women. It is doubtful whether ir
can be usefully employed

as what
extent is
a general criterion,
becaus
e of the difficulrv of finding substantiat- the relativt advance
ing i evidence, especially raiseci the question in the
status of upper-cias3 women predicated
as

it
p
ertai'ns ro lov,,e'rtlasses. on thc status loss of lov"'cr-clasS ?'oi-ierr? Exatirpies
oi .iris are. ilre liberation of the middle-class American
housewife

in
che

mid-r9th
women's history in
1969,12 of a conceptual reasoning framewor\for from rhe assumption dealing x,ith that centrlry through the availability
of cheap black or immigrant do- mestic workers: the liberation of the zoth-century housewife from

women were a subgroup quite 6ts tl-re model for describing in history. us.
Neirher
I
casae, class, nor
race have nov, come ro rhe
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