PARTISAN REVIEW
185
of women has been liberalized; the use of physical force against women
has declined; men delegate some of ,their authority, their rule is less
overtly institutionalized. But the same basic relations of inferority and
superiority, of powerlessness and power, of cultural underdevelopment
and cultural privilege, prevail between women and men in all countries.
Any serious program for liberating women mllilt start from the
premise that liberation is not just about
equality
(the "liberal" idea).
It
is about
power.
Women cannot be liberated without reducing the
power of men. Their liberation not only means ohanging consciousness
and social structures in ways that will transfer to women much of the
power monopolized by men. The nature of power itself will thereby
change, since throughout history power has itself been defined in sexist
terms - being identified with a normative, supposedly innate mascuJine
taste for aggressiveness and physical coercion, and with the ceremonies
and prerogatives of all-male groupings in war, government, religion,
sport, and commerce. Anything less than a ohange in who has power
and what power is, is not liberation bUit pacification. Changes that are
not profound buy off the resentment that threatens established au–
thority. Ameliorating an unstable and too oppressive rule - as when
old empires replace colonialist by neocolonialist forms of exploitation–
actually serves to regenerate ,the existing forms of dominance.
To advocate that women make a common front with men to bring
about their mutual liberation pulls a veil over >the harsh realities of the
power relations that determine all dialogue between the sexes.
It
is not
for women
to
assume .the task of liberating men, when they have first
to liberate
~emselves
- which means exploring the grounds of enmity,
unsweetened for the moment by the dream of reconciliation. Women
must mange themselves; they must change eaoh other, without worrying
about how
this
will affect men. The consciousness of women will change
only when they think about themselves, and forget a!bout what is good
for their men. Supposing that these changes can be undertaken in col–
laboration with men minimizes (and trivializes) the range and depths
of women's struggle.
If
women change, men will be forced
ito
ohange. But these changes
in men will not occur without considerable resistance. No ruling class
ever ceded its real privileges without a struggle. The very structure of
society is founded on male privilege, and men will not cede their privi–
leges simply because doing so is more humane or just. Men may make
concessions, reluctantly granting women more "civil rights."
In
most
countries now, women can vote and attend institutions of higher edu–
c<!tion and are permitted to train for the professions. Within the next
twenty years, they will get equal pay for equal work and be granted ef-
