Until then the concept was dismissed as irreligious and and against the 'natural order'. Many of the morals, rules and rights that society assumes as constant are actually quite fluid. It is only in the last few decades that the idea of equality has been extended to include women. Although women still hold a secondary status, the idea of women as second class citizens is beginning to lose ground. However, the freeing of women from the chains of sexism empowers us to fight for womens' liberation.
Anarchists believe that the core problem facing women is class society.
However overlying that core is a layer of sexist ideas. This ideology serves to reinforce and justify womens' inferior status. It's easy today to underestimate the effects of the conditioning that takes place. Conditioning that tells us, that in the very first place we doesn't have any right to compete on an equal basis. There is ample proof that this occurs, for example the findings of a recent survey on secondary school children indicated that girls had a much lower self-image than boys of a comparable age.