192 ''Women's Liberation ' M****** Sunday, JUM 7.1970 Aims to Free Men, Too By Gloria Steinem HIS IS THE YEAR of Women's T Liberation. Or at least, it's the Part of living this revolution is hav­ each other's heels — with women, I year the press has discovered a move­ ing the scales fall from our eyes. Every might add, still lagging considerably ment that has been strong for several day we see small obvious truths that behind. years now, and reported it as a small, we had missed before. Our histories, President Nixon's Commission on privileged, rather lunatic event instead for instance have generally been writ­ Women concluded that the Supreme of the major revolution in conscious­ ten for and about white men. Inhab­ Court sanctions discrimination against ness *- in everyone's consciousness, ited countries were "discovered" when women — discrimination that it long male or female—that I believe it truly the first white male set foot there, and ago ruled unconstitutional Jn thacase is. most of us learned more about any one of blacks — but the commission report European country than we did about mains mysteriously unrelcased by the It is a movement that some call Africa and Asia combined. "feminist" but should more accurately White House. An equal rights amend­ be called humanist; a movement that I confess that, bpfore somp con- ment now up again before the Senate is an integral part of rescuing this scinusnessrhanRinc of my own. 1 has been delayed by a male-chauvinist country from its old, expensive pat­ would have thought that the women's Congress for 47 years. Neither blacks terns of elitism, racism and violence. history courses springing up around nor women have role-models in his­ the country belonged in the same cul­ tory: models of individuals who have The first problem for all of us, men tural ghetto as home economics. The been honored in authority outside the and women, is not to learn, but to un­ tru'h' is that we need Women's LStudies home. learn, We are filled with the popular almost as much as we need Black Stud­ wisdom of several centuries just past, As Margaret Mead has noted, the ies, and for exactly the same reason: only women allowed to be dominant .and we are terrified to give it up. Pa­ too many of its have completed a triotism means obedience, age means and respectable at the same time are wisdom, woman means submission, "good" education believing that every­ widows. You have to do what society black means inferior: these are precon­ thing from political power to scientific wants you to do, have a husband who ceptions imbedded so deeply in our discovery was the province of white dies, and then have power thrust upon thinking that .we honestly may not males. you through no fault of your own. The know that they are there. whole thing seems very hard on the We believed, for instance, that men. Unfortunately, authorities who write the vote had been ".given" to women jn Before we go on to other reasons textbooks are sometjmes subject to the some whimsical, benevolent fashion. same popular wisdom as the rest of us. We never learned about the long des­ why Women's Liberation is Men's Lib­ They gather their proof around dt, and peration of the women's struggle, or eration, too — and why this incarna­ end by becoming the theoreticians of about the strength and wisdom of the tion of the women's movement is insep­ the status quo. Using the most respect­ women who led it. We knew a great arable from the larger revolution — able of scholarly methods, for instance, deal more about the outdated, male su­ perhaps we should clear the air of a English scientists proved definitively premacist theories of Sigmund Freud few more myths — the myth that that the English were descended from than we did about societies where women are biologically inferior, for the angels while the Irish were de­ women had equal responsibility, or Instance. In factj an equally good case scended from the apes. even ruled. could be made for the reverse. Women live longer than men. That's It was beautifully done, complete "Anonymous," Virginia Woolf once when the groups being studied are with comparative skull measure­ said sadly, "was a wofhan." always being cited as proof that we ments, and it was a rationale for the A Black Parallel work them to death, but the truth is English domination of the Irish for that women live longer than men even more than 100 years. I try to remember DON'T MEAN to equate our prob­ when the groups being studied are that when I'm reading Arthur Jensen's lems of identity with those that monks and nuns. We survived Nazi current and very impressive work on flowed from slavery. But, as Gunnar the limitations of black intelligence, or Myrdal pointed out in his classic study concentration camps better, are pro­ when I'm reading Lionel Tiger on the ' "An American Dilemma," "In drawing tected against heart attacks by our inability of women to act in groups. a parallel between the position of, and female hormones, are less subject to feeling toward, women and Negroes, many diseases, withstand surgery bet­ It wasn't easy for the English to give we are uncovering a fundamental basis ter and are so much more durable at up their mythic superiority. Indeed, of our culture." every stage of life that nature con­ there are quite a few Irish who doubt ceives 20 to 50 per cent more males that they have done it yet. Clearing Blacks and women suffer from the just to keep the balance going. our minds and government policies of same myths of childlike natures; The Auto Safety Committee of the outdated myths is proving to be at smaller brains; inability to govern American Medical Association has least as difficult, but it is also inevita­ themselves, much less white men; lim­ come to the conclusion that women are ble. Whether it's woman's secondary ited job skills; Identity as sex objects, better drivers because they're less role in society or the paternalistic role and so on. Ever since slaves arrived on emotional than men. I never thought I of the United States in the world, the these shores and were given the legal would hear myself quoting the AMA, old assumptions just don't work any status of wives — that is, chattel — but that one was too good to resist. more. our legal reforms have followed on I don't want to prove the superiority of one sex to another; that would only be repeating a male mistake. The truth psychologists refer to as internalized The point is that Women's Libera­ is that we're just not sure how many aggression. From this stems the desire tion is not destroying the American of our differences are biological and to be the only woman in an office, an family. It is trying to build a human, how many are societal. What' we do academic department or any other compassionate alternative out of its know is that the differences between part of the man's world. From this also ruins. the two sexes, like the differences be­ stems women who put down their sis­ tween races, are much less great than ters—and my own profession of jour­ Simply Incorruptible the differences to be found within nalism has some of them. NE FINAL myth: that women are each group. Inhumanity to Man O more moral than men. We are not Chains of Mink more moral; we are only uncorrupted DONT WANT to give the impres­ by power. But until the old generation SECOND MYTH is that women sion, though, that we want to join I of male chauvinists is out of office, A are already being treated equally society exactly as it is. I don't think in this society. We ourselves have been most women want to pick up brief­ women in positions of power can in­ guilty of perpetuating this myth, espe­ cases and march off to meaningless, crease our chances of peace a great cially at upper economic levels whore depersonalized jobs. Nor do we want deal. women have grown fond of being lav­ to be drafted — and women certainly I personally would rather have had ishly maintained as ornaments and should be drafted; even the readers of Margaret Mead as President during children. The chains may be made of Seventeen magazine were recently the past six years of Vietnam than mink and wall-to-wall carpeting, but polled as being overwhelmingly in either Lyndon Johnson or Richard they are still chains. favor of women in national service— Nixon. At least, she wouldn't have had The truth Is that a woman with a to serve in a war like the one in Indo­ her masculinity to prove. Much of the college degree working full time china. trouble this country is in has to do makes less than a black man with a We want to liberate men from those with the masculine mystique: The high school degree working full time. inhuman roles as well. We want to idea that manhood somehow depends And black women make least of all. In share the work and responsibility, and on the subjugation of other people. many parts of the country — New to have men share equal responsibility It's a bipartisan problem. York City, for Instance — a woman has for the children. Probably the ultimate The challenge to all of us is to live a no legally guaranteed right to rent an myth is that children must have full- revolution, not to die for one. There apartment, buy a house, get accommo­ time mothers, and that liberated has been too much killing, and the dations in a hotel or be served in a- women make bad ones. The truth is weapons are now far too terrible. This public restaurant. She can be refused that most American children seem to revolution has to change conscious­ simply because of her sex. be suffering from too much mother ness, to upset the injustice of our cur­ In some states, women get longer and too little father. rent hierarchy by reiusing to honor it. jail sentences for the same crime. Women now spend more time with And it must be a life that enforces a Women on welfare must routinely an­ their homes and families than in any new social justice. swer humiliating personal questions; other past or present society we know Because the truth is that none of us male welfare recipients do not. A about. To get back to the sanity of the can be liberated if other groups are woman is the last to be hired, the first agrarian or joint family system, we not. Women's Liberation is a bridge to be fired. Equal pay for equal work need free universal day care. With that between black and white women, but is the exception. Equal chance for ad­ aid. as in Scandinavian countries, and also between the construction workers vancement, especially at upper levels with laws that permit women equal and the suburbanites, between Mr. or at any level with authority over work and equal pay, man will be re­ Nixon's Silent Majority and the young men, is rare enough to be displayed in lieved of his role as sole breadwinner people it fears. Indeed, there's much a museum. and stranger to his own children. more injustice and rage among work­ As for our much-touted economic No more alimony. Fewer boring ing-class women than among the much power, we make up only 5 per cent of wives. Fewer childlike wives. No more publicized white radicals. th* Americans receiving $10,000 a year so-called "Jewish mothers," who are Women are sisters; they have many or more, and that includes all the simply normally ambitious human of the same problems, and they can famous rich widows. We are 51 per cent beings with all their ambitiousness communicate with each other. "You of all stockholders, a dubious honor confined to the house. No more wives only get radicalized," as black activists these days, but we hold only 18 per who fall apart with the first wrinkle always told us, "on your own thing." cent of the stock — and that is gener­ because they've been taught that their Then we make the connection to other ally controlled by men. total identity depends on their out- injustices in society. The women's In fact, the myth of economic ma­ sides. No more responsibility for an­ movement is an important revolution­ triarchy in this country is less" testi­ other adult human being who has ary bridge, and we are building it. mony to our power than to resentment never been told she is responsible for of the little power we do have. her.own life, and who sooner or later You may wonder why we have sub­ says some version of, "If I hadn't mar­ mitted to such humiliations all these ried you, I could have been a star." Gloria Steinem. is a free-lance years; why, indeed, women will some­ Women's Liberation really is Men's writer and a contributing editor of times deny that they are second-class Liberation, too. New York Magazine. The accom­ citizens at all. The answer lies in the The family system that will emerge panying article is excerpted from a psychology of second-classness. Like is a great subject of anxiety. Probably commencement address at Vassar there will be a .variety of choices. Col­ College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Mist all such groups, we come to accept Steinem says that it "vms prepared what society says about us. We believe league marriages, sueh as young peo­ with great misgivings about its re­ that we can make it in the world only ple have now, with both partners going ception, and about the purpose of by "Uncle Tom-ing," by a real or pre­ to law school or the Peace Corps to­ speaking at Vassar." tended subservience to white males. gether, is one alternative. At least they Even when we come to understand share more than the kitchen and the that we, as individuals, are not second- bedroom. Communes; marriages that KNOW, INC. class, we still accept society's assess­ are valid for the child-rearing years only—there are many possibilities. P.O. BOX 86031 ment of our group — a phenomenon PITTSBURGH, PA 15221