Lisa Levenstein: Sorry, But Women Have Misunderstood Feminism

Lisa Levenstein is an associate professor of history at UNCG.

...Anne-Marie Slaughter feared that she sacrificed her feminist credentials by admitting that she left her high-ranking job at the State Department so she could spend more time with her family.

The problem with this debate is that it rests on a fundamental misunderstanding of feminist history.

The women’s movement never promised mothers they could “have it all.”...

Rather, feminists in the 1970s demanded a range of social supports to enable women who wanted to hold full-time employment to successfully negotiate the competing demands of their jobs and families. Feminists also argued that women’s labor in the home was “real work” and deserving of respect and financial compensation....