Call for ‘New Deal’ Feminism

Think feminism started in the 1960s? Think again.

Pointing out that we are in the “midst of a sexual revolution at work,” due to the upheaveals of the economic crisis, Dorothy Sue Cobble remembers the achievements of women reformers of the 30s, 40s, and 50s and boldly calls for a “New Deal’ feminism to address the economic inequalities that still plague women. She writes:

Feminism today should concentrate on the economy and the workplace — and on the huge transformations that are needed there to get greater equality and security. These are issues that can unite women across class and culture and allow feminism to speak to the fears and concerns of everyone. A few women’s organizations and groups have been moving in this direction for a long time. But what often gets lost is how much we can draw not only from the great feminist upsurge of the late 1960s and 1970s but also from the movement that preceded it. The next women’s movement should look a lot more like the one in the 1930s than the one in the late 1960s.

Cobble notes that even before Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique, our foremothers were confronting the problems of working women and addressing the special economic burdens women face.  Calling them the “New Deal feminists” whose influence stretched from the ’30s to the ’60s, she reminds us of just how tough these women were:

They survived the Great Depression, kept factories humming during the war years and pioneered the now-commonplace status of working wife and mother. They knew first-hand about job loss, careers on hold and the competing demands of family and workplace, all problems we still face. Their solutions were partial, but the policies they put forward concerning fair wages and family-friendly laws and workplaces — all crucial elements in addressing our current economic insecurity and inequality — are a foundation upon which we can build.

We are in complete agreement with Cobble when she writes that it’s time to give these forgotten feminists their due and draw inspiration from their progressive ideas. Yesterday’s post from David Woolner shines a light on the achievements of New Deal women like Frances Perkins, FDR’s labor secretary from 1933 to 1945. Join us each day until 2010 for an exploration of women’s economic challenges and triumphs in our ongoing Feminomics series.