The Grounding of Modern Feminism

by Nancy F. Cott

"The time has come to define feminism; it is no longer possible to ignore it." The Century Magazine, 1914
In this landmark addition to scholarship, Nancy F. Cott, author of The Bonds of Womanhood, offers a new interpretation of American feminism during the early decades of this century―a period traditionally viewed as on in which women won the right to vote and then lost interest in feminist issues. Cott argues instead that his period was a time of crisis and transition from the nineteenth-century "woman movement’ to the beginning of modern feminism. Many of the issues that are central to women today, says Cott, were firmly articulated in the early decades of this century. For example, the problem of defining sexual equality so as to recognize sexual difference between men and women, the ambiguous potential of a movement seeking individual freedoms for women by mobilizing sex solidarity, and the tensions involved in attaining full expression in work and love are all enduring elements of feminism seized upon by women of the 1910s and 1920s.
First discussing how feminism was indebted to its predecessors, Cott shows that increasing heterogeneity and diverse loyalties among women in the early twentieth century contradicted the premise of the nineteenth-century "cause of woman" (the singular noun symbolizing the unity of the female sex). From this crisis emerged feminism, championing individual variability and refuting the premise that a singular "woman" existed.
Cott focuses on the suffrage-campaign milieu in which feminism arose, giving particular attention to the character and role of the National Woman’s Party from its militant suffrage days to its advocacy of the equal right amendment in the 1920s. Against prevailing interpretations of the decline of women’s political activities after 1920, Cott counterposes the swelling numbers in women’s voluntary associations and their political efforts. She also analyzes the pitfalls that awaited women who tried for effectiveness in the male-dominated political parties. She sets the controversy over the equal rights amendment in new context, discussing the full dimensions of the conflict as not merely over personalities, tactics, or class loyalties, but as a signal example of the modern problem of capturing sexual equality and sexual difference in law.
The book explores the irony-strewn path of women who as aspiring professionals and political actors attempted to put into practice the feminist intent to replace the abstraction "woman" with, instead, "the human sex." This history―the story of women who first claimed the name feminists―builds an essential bridge between the presuffrage period and today.

Genres: History, Feminism, Nonfiction, 20th Century, American History, Social Justice, Feminist Theory

378 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Nancy F. Cott is Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History at Harvard University, and the director of the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Reviews

[Brent]

A well written and well documented look at the changing nature of the early 20th century women's movement. An interesting discussion on the evolution of progressive groups, beginning with a more unified front and ultimately fracturing apart, in part due to some of the success they met. A far more complicated topic than most text-books imply, but when isn't that true?

[Dan Gorman]

Classic women's history about the emergence of feminism(s) in the 1910s–20s. Despite the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, giving women the right to vote, American feminists ran into entrenched opposition to female equality within the professions, in the broader workforce, and under the law. Women continued to form advocacy groups, but struggled to sustain a unifying form of feminism, instead of smaller interest groups or individualistic rhetoric. Individualism, in particular, couched in the language of equal opportunity, advanced as well as hampered feminism: Personal advancement got beyond the thorny question of female sex differences, but at the expense of advancing all women. Cott wants her readers to appreciate the contested nature of feminism, the endemic nature of sexism in U.S. society, and the tension between individual and collective feminism that still shapes women's politics in the late twentieth century. This book is an example of how to write history with an active purpose.

[Alysyn Reinhardt]

Favorite quote: "Feminists constantly had to shadowbox with two opposing yet coexistent caricatures: the one, that feminism tried to make women over into men, the other, that feminism set women against men in deadly sex antagonism."

[Greta Slabach]

Long, complicated sentences with grammatical oddities that I sometimes had to read twice just to figure out what she was talking about. Author often used so many large words in one sentence that it was frustrating. Felt like she was trying to talk over my head rather than use a few large words to educate me or increase my vocabulary.

Very informative in the first half. After that, lost in the statistics.

Glad I read it, though there were so many other books in my stack on feminism that were easier to follow and that made a more enjoyable read.

[Leanne Ellis]

Comprehensive, but drags in parts.

[Tracy Ann]

What expert history looks like. I’ve returned to this book again and again for the research, insights, and macro level understanding. One of the best books of all time in this field.

[Alessandra]

Given the title, The Grounding of Modern Feminism chronicles the introduction of feminism in the United States. Nancy Cott’s work is centered on the “study of feminist intentions and the ways they do or do not materialize.” Framing this history is the paradox of feminism in that it “asks for sexual equality that includes sexual difference.” This problematic “ism” posits that women should fight for sex equality on the basis of sex difference, whilst equality asks for the disintegration of sex in favor of a broader “humanness.” Harping on the national interpretations of early feminism and women’s changing roles in society, this monograph advances a critical evaluation feminism, and the difficulty of attaining its unified realization.
Beginning with the birth of feminism in 1913, Cott traces a broad range of feminist opinions and agendas, which underscore the inherent diversity in feminist thought. During this time the woman’s movement of the earlier decades slowly disintegrates in favor of feminist discourse and activism. As women became more engaged in public life, the bloc of female activists once united for suffrage slowly gave way to acrimonious relationships and polarized methodologies. Citing this “constellation” of feminism, Cott identifies the loosely connected diversity of women in the post-nineteenth amendment world. This heterogeneity is typified in the re-orientation of the National Women’s Party to a single issue of women’s equality, whilst marginalizing the enfranchisement of black women, birth control issues, and disarmament. The NWP’s contestations with other feminist organizations also reinforce the diverging definitions of the early movement. The post-nineteenth amendment environment was complex and varied, as women’s roles and agendas funneled into numerous associational and voluntary organizations, thus complicating any broader unionization among feminists.
Outside of politics, women’s role as economic providers came into question in relation to their archetypal association with the home and child rearing. The twenties and thirties were charged with debate concerning the role of women as mothers, wives, and wage earners. Social scientists, reactionaries, and ordinary women alike had opinions ranging from championing the career and companionate marriage, to debasing feminists as lesbians and Bolsheviks. Outside of the home, Cott delves into the increasing professionalization of women in the early twentieth century. Despite their success in undermining the stereotypes of women as irrational, these women faced the task of integrating into male-dominated fields, thus marginalizing their sex in order to associate and identify with male institutions and values. Once again the inherent paradox continues: as women fought for recognition of their sex in society they simultaneously devalued their gender in associating themselves with the larger “human” world. The inherent difficulty of associating sex-driven reform whilst championing equality and direct association with men highlights the innate contradiction in feminist aims, which resulted in a fragmented and polarized movement. Anti- and pro- Prohibitionists and Pacifists, from right to left, fell victim to their diversity and neglected the unity of womanhood. As a key feminist leader, Carrie Chapman Catt states that the gap between progressives and more radical feminists in the early twentieth century was “too great to be bridged.”
This painstakingly researched monograph emphasizes the pluralistic and contradictory understanding of feminism, which led to the diverse and splintered movement of the early twentieth century. The only significant pitfall concerns the scope of this narrative. Focusing on women who “showed up in national media and organizations” Cott limits her interpretation of feminism just as many early feminists had. By concentrating on larger organizational and theoretical battles, feminism’s impact on the average American woman is often relegated to the sidelines, lost in larger movements and organizations. Nevertheless, Cott provides fruitful analysis of early feminism. The more mono-dimensional woman’s movement that characterized the nineteenth century was reshaped into the more diverse women’s movement of the twentieth, which, despite its successes, was hindered by the often-acrimonious and paradoxical relationships among its members.

[Beth]

Densely written (almost too much so) history of women's activism during the 1920s. Cott argues that this was a period of transition between older forms of (suffrage) female activism and the "modern" feminism that came after.

[Count Jared]

This is the book you should read first, if you want to study women's history in the US. No other general book I have encountered is as well written.

Plus, Dr Cott is simply a joy to read. I do not say that lightly about academic prose.

[Aroog]

idk 20s feminism is more suffragist, and it is muy blanco so it's not my favorite topic to get all academic over :/