Feminism: The Essential Historical Writing

by Miriam Schneir (Editor)

Mass market paperback

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, History, Gender, Essays, Philosophy, Gender Studies

360 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 12, 1971

Reviews

[Jaq · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was typical of white, straight, cis, middle-class feminism. The essays were interesting from a historical perspective, though of course I didn't agree with a lot of the themes. What bothered me was quotes in the introduction such as this, "No feminist works emerged from behind the Hindu purdah or out of the Moslem harems; centuries of slavery do not provide a fertile soil for intellectual development or expression." Really? I feel like this is the kind of feminist who goes on about how oppressed Muslim women are for wearing veils and so on.

As far as I can tell so far [though I haven't quite finished the book yet], there was only one woman of color featured in the whole book and that is Sojourner Truth [who was, of course, amazing]. However, the editor printed Truth's famous, "Ain't I woman" speech without the "heavy dialect". You know, I've read the actual speech and it is not at all hard to grasp. I'm a little surprised the editor didn't replace "Ain't I a woman" with "Am I not a woman".

There are three socialist/communist essays in the book. Two of them are by men and one of them is an interview with Lenin recorded by a woman. Engels and Lenin had a lot of amazing ideas, but I think they got a lot wrong too. [Engels had the whole 'liberating women from their shackles will lead to deepening of monogamy' and so on.] There were tons of communist/socialist women-identified folks [women of color at that] who left paper trails prior to the 1950's who the editor could have at least mentioned.

Finally, can I just say that I don't get why everyone loves Emma Goldman so much? She was a kick-ass person for sure, but her writing just completely grates on me and I'm not exactly sure why. Perhaps she just reminds of exes who idolized her. :P

[SaЯRah Muhammad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recommend reading the documents in full, this is an excellent introductory volume. You can read through it or skip around, but either way you come away with a knowledge and appreciation for the brave souls who came before. Check out Schneir's second volume, which deals the Second Wave, from de Beauvoir to Anita Hill.

[Lani · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a MUCH older edition of this book, but it doesn't seem to be on goodreads...

At any rate, I absolutely loved this book. It only gets 4 stars because some of the writing was a little dry and 19th-century-ish. However, most selections were short enough to power through, and some I was able to just skim through.

Some notable things I read - the interview with Lenin about women in Communism was particularly funny because he was still totally condescending and dismissive of the woman he was talking to. I did not realize that John Stuart Mill was not only an out-spoken feminist, but was arrested at 17 for distributing information about birth control! How awesome is that!?!

I was really intrigued by how pertinent some of these essays are even today. There was much discussion about women being underpaid and unequal, and the detrimental and inevitable effects on society and the labor force. I was shocked by the fact that there were women advocating - and apparently practicing - free love back in the early 1900s. There were even actively "militant" feminists breaking windows in England. Mostly I was just totally blown away by how much things have changed, and how much they really haven't.

I've never really taken any classes that focused on any of this kind of history. I had always sort of associated the womens movement with suffrage and not much else. It's a real shame that things like this aren't covered more in high school history. Like anything else, these attitudes tie into lots of other aspects of history - abolitionism, the labor movements, socialism, etc. It was really interesting to read about these women and their persistence.

Absolutely, 100% worth a read if you have any interest in history at all. Some of the pieces might be a little tougher to get through, but they're all worth it. A great job selecting relatively unknown works by representative members of the womens movement. The editor clearly made a real effort to choose sources that showed the breadth of the movement beyond just suffrage and job opportunities.

[Tani · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got a copy of this book years and years ago, when I was all ambitious about reading nonfiction. Also unrealistic, but whatever. I've finally read it!

I'm not sure what I was expecting from this book, but this was not exactly it. The book is composed of a ton of short essays, speeches, and letters. Each piece is prefaced by an introduction that gives some historical background on the issue. This was really helpful for me, because I don't know a ton about this period of history, which focuses primarily on the latter half of the 1800s. I feel like I have a much better idea of how the struggle for basic rights went now, and I definitely appreciate that.

On the other hand, some of these pieces were very dry. One piece is an excerpt of the property law that gave women the right to own property. There's part of a Senate report on women and work. There are a variety of speeches that I found really hard to read, and some of the pieces are so short that they barely feel like they're worth reading. Also, there's very limited diversity here. I thought pretty seriously about giving this 2 stars, but ending on Virginia Woolf made me happy enough to bump it up.

Of course, keep in mind that I'm not much of a nonfiction reader, so your mileage may truly vary. I do think this was worthwhile for the historical perspective. I would just embark with caution, aware of its downfalls.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great collection to have, well, in your collection. It is not the only compilation book I own and there is just some overlap but most of this material is not found in the other reader I have. Sub-sections include- 18th Century Rebels, Women alone, An American Women's Movement, Men as Feminists, Twentieth Century Themes. These selections are all about the thoughts, inspirations, people and actions that lead to the "first wave".

I am currently reading The Feminine Mystique and having this reader on hand is a great help. When dates, issues, names of the earliest feminist arise as mentioned by Friedan, I turn to this book for edification.

The only thing I don't like is the typeset used, I find it hard to follow and tends towards giving a headache.
ps There is also a part 2 of most recent authors from WWII on, also edited by Miriam Schneir... the typesetting is different for this one !

[Rianne Heartfilia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't finish this because it is about the first wave and my essay will about the second. I am halfway done though but the books are from the library so there are issues considering time.

This is a very interesting book though as the little bits of every important book makes it easier to figure out where to look and what to read and perhaps quote for essays.

[Hannah Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found Feminism: The Essential Historical Writings to be very dry, very white, and very important. But I was glad I read them and I think other feminists should read them as well because they give a good insight into where the feminist movement started and a bit of how we got to where we are, as well as serving as a reminder that we came a long way from where we started. We still have a ways to go, but at least we’re not still at the very start of our journey towards equality. I hope in future volumes of books like this it includes more voices of women of color, and of women from non-western cultures, but overall I found the book to be very good.

[Sarah Penner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why isn’t everybody talking about this book? With a bit of publicity & a redesigned cover, I think this would be a NYT Bestseller.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

AN ‘ESSENTIAL’ ANTHOLOGY OF WRITINGS, WITH VERY HELPFUL INTRODUCTIONS

Editor Miriam Schneir wrote in the Introduction to this 1972 anthology, “The vast majority of women are unaware of the great feminist writings of the past; not acquainted with the struggles and achievements of the widespread women’s movements in the 19th and 20th centuries… In short, women have been deprived of their history---thus, their group identity… The works in this anthology range from 1776, the earliest, to 1929. These dates pretty well define the boundaries of one phase of feminism, which is sometimes referred to as the ‘old feminism’ to distinguish it from the present movement… The old feminism had its origins in the 18th century democratic revolutions of the propertied middle class, and it ended soon after World War I… The decline of feminism after the First World War is attributable at least in part to the eventual concentration of the women’s movements on the single narrow issue of suffrage---which was won.” (Pg. xiii-xiv)

“The majority of the selections included here are by Americans… the United States was the world center of the old feminism, except for a brief period prior to the First World War when the focus shifted to the militant English suffragists. It was in the United States in 1848 that the first organized movement for freedom for women was founded… European feminists observed the American movement closely, copied it, and some made pilgrimages to the United States to attend conventions and meet the American leaders. Among the American women who led the early movement, there were few who had much formal education or experience in public life.

“At the very first woman’s rights convention at Seneca Falls… no woman present dared to take the chair and preside; a man had to lead the meeting. Two years later there was a convention in … Salem, Ohio, where women were the officers and men were not even allowed to speak. But this exclusion of male speakers was unusual. Most other feminist gatherings of that period were addressed by men, and a number of men were quite active in the woman’s movement… No historical survey of feminist writings would be complete without the works of the men included in this anthology.” (Pg. xiv- xv)

She adds, “Inasmuch as true feminism involves a sense of sisterhood between all women, it is inextricably related to the needs of black people, of working-class people, of colonial people… Furthermore, since the female sex is an oppressed group, the status of women is closely interconnected with that of all other oppressed people in the society. It seems incredible today that the platform of the leading American woman’s organization in the years around the turn of the century rang with speeches that were anti-Negro and jingoistic.” (Pg. xx)

The first selection is of the famous March 31, 1776 letter from Abigail Adams to her husband, John Adams: “in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation… Why, then, not put it out of the power of the vicious and the lawless to use us with cruelty and indignity with impunity. Men of sense in all ages abhor those customs which treat us only as the vassals of your sex.” (Pg. 3-4)

Before her excerpt of Mary Wollstonecraft’s ‘Vindication of the Rights of Women,’ she reports, “It has been said of Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) that her personal history proved the need for a new interpretation of woman’s rights as much as anything she wrote… she saw her mother abused by a tyrannical husband who drank too much and squandered what little money the family had… She herself attempted suicide when a man with whom she had a love affair left her immediately following the birth of their child. Some time afterward she became the mistress of the anarchist-philosopher William Godwin. When she became pregnant, [they] married… but the two continued to maintain separate domiciles.” (Pg. 5)

She says of Frances (‘Fanny’) Wright (1795-1852), “[she] addressed mixed male and female audiences from lecture platforms… when such activity by a woman was considered shocking and blatantly immodest… She was anti-slavery, pro-labor unions, pro-free public education, and firmly in favor of full equality for women. However, it was primarily for her advocacy of sexual freedom and atheism that she was popularly known---and vilified. To be labeled a ‘Fanny Wrightist’ was to be placed beyond the pale of respectability.” (Pg. 18)

She recounts, “George Sand (1894-1876) was born Aurore Dupin… She was wed at 18 years of age… after about eight years of marriage she suddenly left her husband. Divorce was illegal at that time in France, but she managed to obtain a decree of legal separation and custody of her two children… Sand’s flaunting of convention scandalized her contemporaries. Not only did she leave her husband and assume a masculine name, but she wore masculine attire at times and even smoked cigars. Furthermore, she had many lovers (including … Frederic Chopin); the course of her relationships was determined by … herself and the man involved without regard to the laws of church and state. One might call her a lifestyle revolutionary in the cause of freedom for women.” (Pg. 25)

Sarah M. Grimke (1792-1873) wrote in an 1837 letter to her younger sister Angelina, “man has exercised the most unlimited and brutal power over woman, in the peculiar character of husband---a word in most countries synonymous with tyrant…” (Pg. 47)

She explains, “The Seneca Falls Declaration is the single most important document of the 19th century American woman’s movement. It was adopted at a meeting called to consider 'the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman’.. at Seneca Falls, New York, on July 19, 1848. The only advertised speaker was Lucretia Mott… The impelling force behind the meeting, however, was Elizabeth Cady Stanton… Only a few days before the convention was scheduled to begin, Stanton, with Lucretia Mott and others, drew up the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, using the Declaration of Independence as a model… About three hundred persons appeared … in Seneca Falls on the appointed day. James Mott, husband of Lucretia, chaired the convention. The Declaration of Sentiments was read… and adopted. Eleven resolutions were adopted unanimously; a twelfth---that pertaining to granting women elective franchise---passed by a narrow margin only after Frederick Douglass stoutly defended it from the floor.” (Pg. 76-77)

She recounts, “In 1872 Susan B. Anthony led fifty women to a polling place in Rochester, New York, her home town, where they registered to vote… On election day she and more than a dozen other Rochester women cast their ballots… Anthony and the other women were arrested and charged with voting illegally… which carried a possible three-year jail term. The trial of the United States of America vs. Susan B. Anthony opened on June 17, 1873… Anthony’s defense was that the Fourteenth Amendment defined ‘citizen’ as all PERSONS born or naturalized in the United States, which made women eligible to vote. The judge would not allow Anthony to testify on her own behalf… He ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment was inapplicable and directed the all-male jury to bring in a guilty verdict…. (Anthony never did pay the fine imposed.)" (Pg. 132-133)

She includes Emma Goldman’s essay ‘The Traffic in Women,’ and notes that “Goldman herself once tried to earn money for a revolutionary venture by working as a prostitute---but was unsuccessful.” (Pg. 308-309)

There is SO much more in this anthology; Schneir also edited another ‘essential’ anthology: ‘Feminism In Our Time: The Essential Writings, World War II to the Present.’ Anyone even remotely interested in the historical development of the Women’s Movement needs to have both books.

[Billie Pritchett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feminism gets a bad rap. Surveys indicate that when you ask people if they support equal rights for women, they overwhelmingly say yes. Ask them if they identify as feminists or if they believe in feminism, and the vote swings the other way. Something about labels does an injustice to noble causes, allowing self-identifiers to grandstand and out-groups to demonize. Feminism just is the belief in equal rights for women, no more, no less. The struggle to arrive at gender equity has taken different forms, and being supportive or critical of one strategy to arrive at that equity is not the same as not supporting the general cause.

Feminism: The Essential Historical Writings is a compendium of different expressions, approaches, and strategies of that struggle to achieve equal rights for women. It is a work printed in English, and the focus of the work are those historical figures in the Anglo-American tradition. The book begins with Abigail Adams' plea to her husband John Adams as an American Founding Father to include a provision in the United States Constitution guaranteeing a basic set of rights for women, and John Adams' response denying the possibility of the provision. The book features some of the voices of the American woman's movement like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, as well as black voices like Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass, and, alongside Douglass, other male voices like John Stuart Mill.

The writings featured in the book are of different genre. Some are political speeches. Some are works of fiction or poetry. Some are personal essays and others are formal essays or book excerpts. And not all the authors featured in the book agree on everything. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, for instance, was critical of the American Woman's Right Movement for being too narrowly focused on the right to vote, and as a result she and Susan B. Anthony did not get along too well. Anna Garlin Spencer disagreed with Charlotte Gilman on the proper role of child-rearing in a world in which more equal rights were pursued: Spencer thought women had a place in the home that ought to be respected while Gilman believed that women in general ought to be relieved of the burdens of childcare, handing these tasks over to specialists, so that women could pursue their other creative and intellectual pursuits.

No political goal will bring with it uniformity in agreement as to how that goal should be achieved. The multiple perspectives and the changing tactics based on different place and time are all to be expected with a complicated issue like gender equality. In fact, I highly doubt, some devils notwithstanding, that most argument in the United States or England, for instance, is really a matter of actively trying to suppress women's equality. There might be some non-conscious biases at work, sure, but probably the bigger problem is just trying to agree how one can accommodate everyone in a modern capitalist society. Simone de Beauvoir (not featured in this book, unfortunately) once said that the only way to achieve full equality for women would require a complete reform of the economic system. She might be right.

[Shaun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I wouldn't recommend it as an introduction to feminist concepts, it would definitely be helpful soon after being introduced to them. It offers insight into the early motivations and goals of the movement as well as providing first-hand accounts of the oppression women during the time period faced.

Schneir does an excellent job of introducing each piece included in the collection. She provides the necessary background and context to understand the purpose of each one and organized them in such a way that each one built upon those before it.

She also introduced many historical figures I hadn't been familiar with previously. George Sand and Sojourner Truth were incredibly interesting indivduals and everything I read by Virginia Woolf only increases my respect for her. She also introduced me to Thorstein Veblen who had the unique talent of being one of the dullest writers I've ever read. Seriously, just read her introduction and skip his section, it's painful.

[Carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

If anyone wants to enlighten a wayward soul, this is a fantastic collection to give them--or to add to your collection. There are definite voices that should have been included (i.e. Alice Paul) but it's the most well-rounded collection of its kind, offering selections from the 18th through 20th centuries.

[Gre · Rating 4 out of 5]

I certainly took my time reading this book, reading maybe a page a day and then not at all for weeks. It's not the easiest to read in one go, but it definitely was very informative and quite interesting.

[WndyJW · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every Feminist must have this book in their library.

[Alyssa Vanskyock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the diversity of the various readings.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

So the writings in this book are important and valuable. The compilation is nicely done, and valuable. However, to title it “THE” Essential Feminist writings, is not accurate and ignores global feminism. It’s very US and (somewhat) Euro- centrist. It fails to consider important contributions beyond this. Additionally, in the editorial introductions, there is no critical engagement with racism, xenophobia, ableism, and sometimes sexist in some of the essays. When dealing with historical writing, we can’t ignore these aspects entirely.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is probably a nice book, so do take your time to read it, at least in part. But I could not help myself from smiling of the shallow understanding of the curator. Some time, not so far in the future, this too is going to become a Historical volume.

[Kalya · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good collection of early feminists writings.

[Mika · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an experience and learning this book was.

[Jacqui · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent survey of feminist thought. Sometimes a bit dry, hence 4 stars vs 5.

[Noah Christiansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read:
- Various excerpts

[Christopher Butson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of first-wave feminist writings; an essential volume.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of the often overlooked women who made a difference in history.

[Chloe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great articles that show key players in feminism issues. Very helpful for identifying those key players and their stance/arguments for feminism.

[quveha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is absolutelly great.