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concept of equality followed by an attempt to relate it to the history of
feminism , and then some suggestions on how we must , while never
undervaluing it, go beyond equality . In attempting to establish such a
general history , I am going to use the example I know best-that of
England. Fortunately England does provide something of a model–
an exemplary case-of the historical connections I want to make . But ,
with obviously important variations , all capitalist and later industrial
capitalist countries have crucial similarities and it should be possible to
slot another particular example into the general framework provided
by English history .
The economic development of capitalism is always uneven and
the ideological world view that goes with that economic development
will likewise be uneven and not necessarily in a parallel manner. This
consideration has two unrelated consequences for what I want
to
say
here . Firstly it means that you may find that what I say about the
concept of equality or arguments about the position of women in
England in the seventeenth century, in the country you know best
(a)
fit better a different epoch and
(b)
are not precisely matched to the
same economic events. As I don ' t intend to consider, except cursorily,
the material economic and social base either of the development of
capitalism or of the position of women , but only some particular
ideologies and politics that go with it , this sort ofcomparison is one you
will have to make independently. The society you are familiar with
may be' ' before" or' ' behind . " It will certainly be different , though I
trust you will recognize the similarities . The second consequence of the
uneven development of any ideological world view has an effect that is
intrinsic to this talk : as I am tracing a continuity in ideas, the
discontinuities will get short shrift. The material position of women
has zigzagged like a fairground cakewalk or the proverbial snail up the
side of a wall-two slithers up and one slither down , sometimes one up
and two down as the authors I quoted earlier record:
Progress towards equal rights for women has been very slow
indeed. There have even been times when the tide seemed
to
turn
against them. The first law against abortion was passed in 1803.
It
imposed a sentence of life imprisonment for termination within
the first fourteen weeks of pregnancy . In 1832 the first law was
passed which forbade women to vote in elections. In 1877 the first
Trades Union Congress upheld the tradition that women' s place
