Chapter 24 Post

Strayer has done an admirable job of keeping the reader informed about the status of women throughout the text. The emergence of patriarchy began with the First Civilizations, and although the extent of male dominance varied among different cultures, the vast majority of women from that time forward suffered at least some degree of oppression.

Strayer often inserted a section concerning gender issues as the text covered the various time periods and cultures of world history. However, at some point it became largely repetitive and depressingly predictable. The update would usually point out some minor progress in gender equality, or what seemed like major progress, only to reveal that progress was subsequently wiped out. A recurring theme in this area was the acceptance of women as more equal when they were needed, only to be “relegated to marginal positions” when their services were no longer needed. A good example of this is when women were needed for labor.

Not until the chapter about the Atlantic revolutions and the beginning of an organized feminist movement was their truly significant progress to report, such as more access to educational opportunities and the right to vote. Even then, Strayer states, “Nowhere did nineteenth-century feminism have really revolutionary consequences. But as an outgrowth of the French and Industrial revolutions, it raised issues that echoed repeatedly and more loudly in the century that followed.”

That brings us to the feminism discussed in Chapter 24. Strayer says, “No expression of the global culture of liberation held a more profound potential for change than feminism.” Western feminism which was largely dormant from the 1920s through the 1950s reemerged with more than the right to vote on their agenda. They were now seeking a higher level of equality with a focus on employment and education.