Stephanie Coontz Quotes
There is no denying that we have made great progress toward gender equality.
Coontz, Stephanie. The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap. Revised ed., Basic Books, 2016.
Mrs. Roosevelt thought that with the rate of improvement in society’s perception and treatment of women was improving so steadily that women in America were not far from equality. Because of the shortage of men on the home front in WWII women had performed well in virtually all occupations including welding, heavy construction and management and it was just a matter of time to reach equality of pay and parity. However, she and most feminists did not take into account the 2 million men returning from military service who wanted their jobs back. Sexists, who had been suppressed during the war when they objected to women in non traditional occupations, were no longer silenced by national necessity. An occupational backlash developed. Then a sexual one regarding contraception and family planning, (Condoms for example were illegal up to 1963 as birth control device). Each major step forward was accompanied by its own backlash and even in the Presidential Campaign of 2012 contained debate on women’s control over their own bodies relative to abortion and contraception.
Her plane and she were never found.
She was the First Lady, who in many ways was also one of the nation’s leading feminists. Betty Ford, Barbara Bush, and Hillary Clinton were also First Ladies who supported key feminist position but ER was 30 years ahead of them—a time when conservatives and sexists viewed her as a dangerous radical. For example, see {585211}.
Stephanie Coontz is an author, historian, and faculty member at Evergreen State College. She teaches history and family studies and is Director of Research and Public Education for the Council on Contemporary Families, which she chaired from 2001 to 2004. Coontz has authored and co-edited several books about the history of the family and marriage.
