Abstract

Using an empirical assessment of American women's socioeconomic situation, this work comments on the political and economic adequacy of postwar American feminism's two most influential branches, liberalism and radicalism. Women's condition is characterized by widespread poverty, psychological and economic stress due to the competing demands of work and family, and a lack of organized political and economic power for alleviating women's predicament. ;By examining the thought of major liberal and radical feminists, including Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Christina Hoff Sommers, Mary Daly, Robin Morgan, and Andrea Dworkin, it is determined that both branches fail to make feasible proposals for improving women's living conditions. Both are out of touch with the needs of women who balance jobs and families. Liberalism appeals mainly to affluent career women who are free of the pressures that afflict women of the middle and lower classes. Radicalism is uninterested in and disdainful of family life, preferring to concentrate on female separatist proposals which, though thought-provoking, have little relevance for improving the situation of American families. ;Economically, liberals and radicals fare poorly. The former believe that government programs can solve women's problems despite the fact that the current political situation makes it unrealistic to expect their implementation, not to mention the inherent shortcomings of bureaucratic programs which make their unqualified success unlikely. Radicals offer little of substance on economic questions, preferring instead to concentrate on cultural subversion against patriarchal civilization. ;The two branches also fail to deal with what this work calls the problem of power. They do not explain how women can become a significant, organized political force for changing the aforementioned conditions. Liberals naively believe that circumstances can be improved through increased female participation in conventional politics. Radicals eschew politics as a manifestation of patriarchal culture. Both approaches leave women socially isolated and politically powerless. ;In conclusion, women should move beyond liberalism and radicalism by forming, independently of the government and established women's associations, a development organization with the goals of creating economic and political power for women and alleviating negative socioeconomic pressures on women and their families