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The Women's Movement: Political, Socioeconomic and Psychological Issues

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Barbara Sinclair Deckard is a professor of political science at the University of California, Riverside.

She wrote in the Preface to this 1979 book, "In the past few years, the increased activity in the new feminist movement has resulted in a mass of literature about women. The social, economic, and political status of women in past and present societies and their long struggle for liberation has been explored, yet no attempt has been made to synthesize the old knowledge with the new. This book attempts such a synthesis."

Here are some quotations from the book:

"Boys are not only encouraged to begin career planning early; they are also provided with a wealth of role models." (Pg. 48)
"There is no evidence that women have a biological need for children." (Pg. 78)
"One way many companies pay women less---without appearing to discriminate---is to create a new job title for women to do a job previously done by men under another name (the men getting higher pay)." (Pg. 93)
"Now it is true that women are forced, often involuntarily, to drop out to have families, and it is also true that they bear the burden of a second job at home... Astoundingly, however, in spite of these extra burdens, women in general are NOT absent more often, and women do NOT quit jobs more often." (Pg. 95)
"Thus the notion that women Ph.D.s drop out is pure myth... Giving birth is not what causes the problem... What causes the interruption is the socially determined fact that women alone are responsible for child care." (Pg. 146)
"What has China achieved? On the one hand, turning millions of women from foot-bound slaves into revolutionary activists in industry and government is a major miracle. In terms of sheer numbers, this is the greatest single emancipation of women in history." (Pg. 253)
"Only in the period from 1908-1920 did some socialist women and militant union women join the fight for the vote... The suffrage movement itself remained white, Anglo-Saxon, and middle class, and never had many working class members." (Pg. 287)
"With two slight qualifications, there was NO organized women's liberation movement from 1940 to 1960." (Pg. 337)