Chapter 5

Chapter 5, The Women's Movement, From Liberation to Feminism.
A. Orientation Listening.
The women's movement in the United States is a social movement that is nearly a century and a half old,
according to Barbara Ryan, author of Feminism and the Women's Movement.
According to Ryan, organized activity on behalf of women's rights began in the mid-1800s,
when both by law and by custom, women were considered non-persons.
Married women, for example, were prevented by law from inheriting property,
from controlling the money that they earned, or from retaining custody of their children
if they were divorced by their husbands.
In addition, no woman was allowed to vote on the laws that governed her life.
In the early 1900s, important changes occurred in the social and political climate
in Europe and the United States as a result of World War I.
After the war, a number of countries granted women the right to vote,
and in 1920, American women gained the right to vote.
Twenty years later, another war brought major social changes that affected the lives of many men and
women.
One of the social changes involved women working outside the home.
During World War II, large numbers of women entered the job market
to do the jobs of the men who had been drafted into military service.
A great many of these women became factory workers,
and they proved themselves to be capable and dependable workers.
Today, women have gained more employment and job opportunities,
and they hold different jobs and occupations.
Women are breaking into male-dominated fields, from sports writing, to police work, to firefighting,
though their progress into these male-dominated professions is slow.
In fact, women make up only 1.5% of the 200,000 professional firefighters in the United States today,
and they make up only 4% of airline pilots and navigators.
In addition to entering male-dominated professions,
many women are starting their own businesses and operating successful businesses today.
It is becoming more common to find women occupying positions of leadership in American business.
In fact, women-owned business is one of the fastest growing segments of the United States economy.
In 2003, for example, the U.S. Small Business Administration reported that in the United States,
9.1 million women-owned businesses employed 27.5 million people,
and contributed $3.6 trillion to the American economy.
In other words, women business owners are critically important to the American economy.
According to a 2004 study by the Center for Women's Business Research,
the nation's hotspots for women entrepreneurs are clustered in the western part of the United States.
Idaho and Wyoming are tied for first place, followed by Utah, Nevada, and Arizona.
As the five states in the United States were the greatest growth and expansion in women-owned
businesses occurred.
Between 1997 and 2004, on average, the number of women-owned businesses in these five states
grew at more than twice the rate of the rest of the country.
The average rate of women-owned businesses was 28.8%, compared to 14% for all other states in the
United States.
As many as 10 years ago, women-owned businesses employed more people domestically
than the Fortune 500 companies did worldwide.
Why are women entrepreneurs so successful?
The founder and president of the American Women's Economic Development Corporation in New York,
Beatrice Fitzpatrick, says
a woman would no more let her business fail than she would let someone kill her child.
But for some women, success in business has not come without the costs of overwork, burnout,
and potential damage to health, friendships, or family relationships.
According to the authors of the book Megatrans for Women,
the great challenge for millions of successful women entrepreneurs and other professionals
is to maintain their success while being sure that they have a balance between work and their family and
social lives.
Women have advanced to leadership positions not only in business, but also in politics.
Women have become important political leaders all over the world, though politics is still largely a male-
dominated world.
For instance, in 1969 in the United States, only 4% of the state lawmakers were women.
By 2003, this number had grown by more than 500%, and 22.3% of state legislators were women.
Although this may seem like a great increase, it must be remembered that women make up more than
50% of the population in the United States.
So, they are not yet receiving equal representation in the world of politics in the United States.
The United States has not yet had a woman president, although women have served as presidents of
Ireland, Nicaragua, and the Philippines.
Many other countries have had female political leaders. Women have served as prime ministers in the
United Kingdom, France,
Turkey, Pakistan, Canada, and Bangladesh.
The family has changed a lot since women have become so active outside the home.
Today, less than 10% of American families have the traditional working father and the mother who stays
home to take care of the children.
To make up for the time that women are spending out of the home, many men are having to play more
of an active role in raising their children.
Government and businesses are also becoming more concerned about helping working families with
child care, but much more needs to be done to help women and men take care of their children while
they're at work.
In spite of the fact that the rate of women's participation in the workforce rose from 27% in 1940 to
57.6% in 2003, including more than half of all women with the child under the age of one year,
there is still no government-sponsored child care or parental leave policy in the United States.
According to Barbara Ryan, a major obstacle to women's emancipation lies in the lack of government-
sponsored social service support for working women who have children to support.
Because problems are still preventing some women from taking equal place in society, many people still
believe that a woman's movement is still necessary.
However, many diverse opinions have emerged about how to achieve equality for women and men in
work, education, politics, and the home.
Some activists in the women's movement call themselves feminists, whereas others who resist political
activism choose not to label themselves feminists,
because they feel that the U.S. media often portray feminists as people who are anti-men.
Most feminists do not take such an attitude at all.
In any case, the word feminism and the principles of feminism are not easy to define because they mean
different things to different people.
In her book Feminism and the Women's Movement, Barbara Ryan provides a number of definitions of
the term feminism.
She quotes one woman who says that, in her opinion, feminism represents the best of what it means to
be human.
Anybody can be a feminist, except you have to work at it.
Basically, to me, it is the belief that everybody should have the opportunity to be the best that they can
be, and we ought to have a world that encourages that.
The names and terms associated with the movement, however, are not nearly as important as the
changes that feminism and the women's movement have caused in American society.
Because of this century and a half-old movement, women are contributing more to American society,
and society is benefiting from their contributions.
As a result of the women's movement, women's liberation, and feminism, women are enjoying new
freedom, new opportunities, new responsibilities, and new headaches.

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Chapter 5, The Women's Movement, From Liberation to Feminism.

according to Barbara Ryan, author of Feminism and the Women's Movement.

when both by law and by custom, women were considered non-persons.

if they were divorced by their husbands.

in Europe and the United States as a result of World War I.

and in 1920, American women gained the right to vote.

A great many of these women became factory workers,

and they proved themselves to be capable and dependable workers.

Today, women have gained more employment and job opportunities,

and they hold different jobs and occupations.

though their progress into these male-dominated professions is slow.

and they make up only 4% of airline pilots and navigators.

In addition to entering male-dominated professions,

9.1 million women-owned businesses employed 27.5 million people,

and contributed $3.6 trillion to the American economy.

According to a 2004 study by the Center for Women's Business Research,

As many as 10 years ago, women-owned businesses employed more people domestically

than the Fortune 500 companies did worldwide.

Why are women entrepreneurs so successful?

and potential damage to health, friendships, or family relationships.

According to the authors of the book Megatrans for Women,

Turkey, Pakistan, Canada, and Bangladesh.

Most feminists do not take such an attitude at all.

Anybody can be a feminist, except you have to work at it.

and society is benefiting from their contributions.

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