Amy is a 20 something. Mary is her 50 ish mother.¹ Neither believes that anatomy is destiny. Indeed, both women are college educated, ambitious, and critical of attempts to define them by virtue of their gender. Both are strong supporters of the women’s movement and the egalitarian change that it spurred. They also believe that women today are living in ways that bring them more fulfillment relative to women of past generations.

Knowing nothing more about this mother and daughter, one might assume that they also endorse the practical application of feminist principles to women’s lives. Yet when asked their...

Politics and gender roles both involve learned behavior. Nothing is predetermined at birth that unconditionally identifies one as a public official or housewife, Democrat or Republican. Such characteristics are shaped throughout one’s life and are largely dependent on socializing experiences.¹ Individuals learn the importance of voting as much as they come to understand appropriate roles for men and women. The commonalities between politics and gender roles extend beyond a shared reliance on socialization, however. They also have historically relied upon patriarchy and gender discrimination to justify their structure.

Politics has long been equated with matters deemed unnatural and Illsuited to...

Among the many questions asked of respondents, some concerned attitudes toward the women’s movement. One asked quite simply, “What is your overall opinion of the women’s movement?” As was expected, the vast majority of both mothers and daughters offered positive assessments. Among this group of college-educated women, the modal response among both generations fell at the favorable end. Two-thirds of the mothers responded positively, and more than nine in ten daughters said the same (see Table 2.1).¹ When asked about the extent to which change had occurred for women since the time of their mothers’ and grandmothers’ lives and whether...

The historic economic meltdown that began in 2008 has spared few the pain of belt tightening and job loss. Millions of workers saw their jobs disappear, with little prospect of finding others with similar pay and benefits. Yet one bright spot amid the depressing economic news of the day is the labor pattern relative to men and women: Women, it seems, have been hit less by the downturn. Whether they like it or not, women today comprise half the labor force and, most strikingly, are the sole breadwinners or co-breadwinners in nearly two-thirds of American families (Boushey 2009). These numbers...

Upon news of an impending Supreme Court vacancy in 2009, theNew York Timesnoted how times had changed from when Sandra Day O’Connor was confirmed as the first female Supreme Court justice:

When President Ronald Reagan decided to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court in 1981, he had to turn to Sandra Day O’Connor, an obscure state judge.

When President Bill Clinton decided to add a second woman to the court, he confronted a world in which women were just beginning to climb the ranks of big law firms and ranking female judges, like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, were...

Although perhaps dated today, the phrase “the personal is political” has been a rallying cry for the women’s movement. A variety of interpretations abound, but at its heart is a recognition that matters regarded as personal have political meanings. Discrimination and gendered (and perhaps unwanted) expectations about how women manage their personal lives should help them recognize the politicized nature of their experiences. That is, rather than assume that women are simply prone to experiencing discriminatory treatment, a woman’s personal experiences should lead her to recognize the important role that traditional gender roles and attempts to maintain them have played...

Research for this book began with the assumption that despite the passage of time, support for the women’s movement and its goal of gender equality lives on. Although considerable debate in modern culture remains regarding what equality looks like and how it can best be achieved, it is difficult to find people on either end of the political spectrum who would openly advocate for inequality on the basis of sex. However, some fifty years have passed since the ascendancy of a political movement with a revolutionary message concerning gender, so one should not assume that its direct influence as an...