Evening star., 1934-10-21
Women in a Changing World
o. women Is
NY DOROTHY THOMPSON,

- r WE look around the world today
we are forced to observe that the
feminist movement, which reached
i its apex during the war and i'm
mediately afterward, is as dead as
last weeks newspaper. One may ex-
plain this fact by saying that the FEM
mist movement has accomplished its
purpose; that there is nothing left for
which to fight; that the great elan of
the movement grew out of the strug-
gle; that we now take for granted
what our grandmothers and our moth
ers and our younger selves wrote,
spoke, campaigned and worked for.
The explanation, however, is not
adequate, and not even true, If the
world as a whole Is considered. In
much of the Western world the con-
dition of women, legally. politically
and economically, judged by the
standards of fifteen years ago, does not
| show progress, but retrogression. This
Is particularly true In the Fascist
! countries, In Germany and Italy. In
| the latter country there had been lit
tie feminist progress in the sense of
such. progress in the Scandinavian
countries, in England and in the
| United States, but in so far as ten
dency existed toward what we used to
call emancipation" it has been
checked by the new form of govern
ment.
In Germany the change is startling
and notable, the more SO because it
| so thoroughly reverses the tendency
Of the German republic, which during
the fourteen years of its existence not
/ only extended the vote to women but
| opened to them all spheres of eco
nomic, social and political activity,
and led to really imposing partici-
patton Of women in all phases Of COM
munal life. The Nazi state, reversing
i this process, has curtailed the activi-
ties of women on all sides. and seeks,
in so far as it is humanity possible in
a modern industrial community, to
put women back exclusively at their
traditional tasks of bearing children
and caring for home and husband.
France as q Contrast.
It is even inaccurate to speak here
of traditional activities" because at
the same time that women are being
driven back into an exclusively family
existence the "totalitarian state" Is
established which vastly limits the
power and importance of the family.
In France, to make contrast, the
sphere of women is genuinely tradi-
tional and allied with the family, but
in France the family continues to be
the most important social unit. 1t is
not SO in modern Germany. Women
are ordered exclusively to bear and
care for their children at the same
moment when the state takes out of
the hands of the mothers the decision
as to how these children shall be
reared, for what purpose they shall be
trained, what they shall be taught to
believe and what their ultimate des-
tiny is to be. Women are sent back
to the family in the moment when
the family itself is degraded as a So
cial force and motherhood is increas-
ingly limited to being a eugenic and
biological rather than a spiritual and
social function.
Somewhat similar tendencies are
observable everywhere in the bour-
geois world-that is to say, everywhere
In the Western world outside Of Rus
sia. Even in the United States, where
women control more wealth, exercise
more freedom and play a greater role
in the whole Of society than they do
elsewhere, there Is evidence Of a re-
treat from the feminist standpoint,
both in the attitude of men toward
women and in the attitude of women
toward themselves. I think that it
was at Yale University that some stu
dents paraded a few years ago with
banners bearing the inscription:
Marry them early. tell them nothing.
treat them rough" Although this
attitude isn't yet typical, it is some
what Symtomatic, / am afraid.
And if it were confined to men one
could take it less seriously. But it is
by no means confined to men. Quite
the contrary. The retreat from the
feminist standpoint finds its greatest
support precisely among women them
selves One of the most notable facts
for the psychologist to observe about
the Hitler movement, for instance, is
that its most enthusiastic, its blindest
supporters are women themselves.
Women Change With World.
have asked myself many times,
and I ask myself publicly now: Why
Is it that the cry for emancipation
of women, the demand for equal op-
portunities for women, the inSistence
on full legal and social rights, has so
little resonance in the world at this
moment? Why is the status Of women
changing?
I think the answer is to be found
not in the condition of women but
in the condition of society as whole.
The status of women is changing be-
cause the world is changing. We who
we're born at the end of one epoch
have lived over into another. We live
in a revolutionary world which Is up
setting and modifying the whole OF
society.
In this changing. revolutionary
epoch the feminist movement OF yes
terday has no resonance because its
mottos, its ideals, belong to yesterday
and not to today. And If women are
not to run the-risk of being pushed
back into a position of subsection, If
their status is further to unfold and
develop, they must concern themselves
not with yesterdays rights but with
tomorrow's responsibilities. Above all,
they must ask themselves what it Is
they want, what kind of new society
they deeply desire.
For the possibilities for women, the
possibilities for every one, were never
greater than now. The feminist move
ment of yesterday concerned itself
with forcing open a place for women
in a society which already existed
in a ripe and aging form. The fem
mist movement of today must concern
itself with the rebuilding of society
in a form in which both men and
women can live more creatively and
therefore more happily than they did
Yesterday. Yesterday we fought
bravely and heroically for participa-
ton in an already organized world.
Today we have the more difficult and
more challenging task of helping to
make a new world.
Rugged Individualism's Gains.
I do not believe that the epoch