Feminism has, and must continue to succeed. As we approach the mid-'90s, the women's movement at first glance appears to be losing ground. To some, it means hatred of men. Many young women take feminism's accomplishments for granted, knowing only that they can do pretty much what they want both with their studies and with their lives. Minority women have felt and been excluded, though unconsciously, from a process whose goals coincide with their own.
Rumors abound of in-fighting within the women's movement and across generational lines.
As Susan Faludi so aptly illustrated in her 1991 book, Backlash , the male power structure and a segment of the female population revolted in the '80s against much of what the women's movement had instilled in the psyche of America. And lastly, there are the jaded older women who treat feminism as an unenlightened forerunner of non-genderal human rights. If this litany of the woes of feminism depresses and frightens us, so much the better. Now that the bad stuff is out in the open where it belongs, the good stuff can pour on a salve to heal our wounds. Then we can begin the real work of the next decade.