The history of men's opposition to women's emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The emancipation of women is practically the greatest egoistic movement of the nineteenth century, and the most intense affirmation of the right of the self that history has yet seen.
If women would today would rise en masse and demand their emancipation, the men would be compelled to grant it.
Emancipation of women has made them lose their mystery.
Merely external emancipation has made of the modern woman an artificial being. Now, woman is confronted with the necessity of emancipating herself from emancipation, if she really desires to be free.
The Bible and the Church have been the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of women's emancipation.
To a person growing up in the power of demography, it was clear that history had to do not with the powerful actions of certain men but with the processes of choice and preference.
Women's stories have been neglected for so long - unless they were queens. Exploring the history of women is a way of redressing that imbalance.
When I started giving talks about women's history, one of the things that bothered me was the tendency to say, 'Well, everybody was totally oppressed and suddenly in 1964 we rose up, got our freedom, and here we are.' It dismisses the women who fought for rights for several hundred years of our history up to that point.
I think the emancipation of women in Afghanistan has to come from inside, through Afghans themselves, gradually, over time.
The history of American women is about the fight for freedom, but it's less a war against oppressive men than a struggle to straighten out the perpetually mixed message about women's role that was accepted by almost everybody of both genders.