"Feminist" from here on, refers to feminists of 19th century America.
Women were not oppressed by men
Neither men nor women of the 19th century generally
agreed with the feminist view of women as slaves of oppressive men.
On the contrary the view taken was that women were especially cared for.
A modern view would be that women and men were both restricted by their
gender roles, and both sexes helped to enforce those roles. Some few early
feminists were able to see this but most could not see the male role
was also 'oppresive'. As for the female role, they mostly blamed men, but
their frustration at women who did not want to lose their chains often
bubbled to the surface.
Women were not oppressed by male laws
A frequent false claim is that women of the 19th century were treated as
property. Feminists of the time often exagerated the restrictions on
women, and rarely mentioned the benefits women received or the special
duties that men had under law. They incorrectly tended to assume that
the small number of powerful men in charge of making laws would favour
their own sex. If anything the reverse was true.
Women were restricted by female laws.
Feminists would have had a far better case if they had claimed to be
oppressed by what I will term 'female law' -- the strict Victorian laws
of social etiquette that especially paralysed women into a passive
'ladylike' lifestyle. Victorian morality was much more severe than previous
puritanical restrictions in history -- only the sucess of the Industrial
Revolution allowed so many people (women) to be so under-employed.
Both men and women fought for women's rights
Another aspect of feminists' revision of history is the idea that women
acting alone and against male opposition managed to win their rights.
I will be highlighting some of the forgotten or censored male
contributions to the movement. In the same way both men and women fought
against change. I shall be highlighting some of the women who
wanted things to stay the way they were.
The importance of the vote
Today "winning" the vote for women from men is seen as the most important
achievement of the women's movement. Certainly from a modern perspective
the vote is a symbol of acceptance and citizenship -- even if it is
not used! But in the 19th century the vote was not valued for itself,
so much as a means to an end. The lack of the right to vote was not
seen as self-evident inequality.
Feminists were not generally egalitarian
Although they used the language of equality to demand the same rights
(but not the same obligations) as men, most feminists were pro-woman not
egalitarian. They did not champion any male causes, or usually even admit
there could be any. Often the attitude of the female feminists, including
the most notable leaders of the movement, was sexist and actually
anti-male. As today some women were genuinely egalitarian, some were
female supremacists, and most were just comfortably biased. It was
after all a women's movement, not a man's, and not neutral or
egalitarian.
Index of specific women feminists (sources, and quotations in a larger context)
Abigail Adams
Lucretia Mott
Sarah Grimke
Sojourner Truth
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Susan B Anthony
Lucy Stone
Victoria Woodhull
Frances Wright
Mary Kelley