Book Review of 'The Origins of the Equal Rights Amendment: American Feminism between the Wars' by Susan Becker
56 Harv. Women’s L. J. 258 (1983)
5 Pages Posted: 30 Jul 2014
Date Written: 1983
Abstract
Becker traces the development of American feminism through the National Women’s Party as a “transitional generation between the Victorian era and the twentieth century”. Becker focuses on the issue of whether this group was the only true feminist organization in America during the 1920s and 1930s and uses that issue as a starting point to consider the nature of American feminism between the wars. This, in brief, is a book about feminists in an era when feminism was seen as largely irrelevant. She dares to consider the troublemakers as “true feminists” and to consider the politics of the appropriation of that term. Becker observes that the civil equality sought by the NWP could not mean genuine economic or social equality unless put in its place as part of a larger political program. Yet Becker conveys the sense that feminism was intensely personal as well as political for these women and her portrayal of those involved in the movement is a fascinating introduction to some remarkable people.
Keywords: feminism, feminists, women’s rights, suffrage, National Women’s Party, Equal Rights Amendment, ERA
JEL Classification: J12, J13, J16, J71
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation