When it first dawned on Betty Friedan that something was wrong with the role of women in society, she was quite correct. Of course, she was not the first in history to notice, or the first to hit on an inadequate definition of or solution to the problem. The issue was the discontent of the average suburban housewife with a role perceived as smothering and unfulfilling, inferior and therefore unfair. Friedan’s book, The Feminine Mystique, was printed in the early 1960s and is considered the precursor to the so-called second wave of feminism, the first having been the suffrage movement begun the previous century.

While controversy surrounds Friedan’s claim that she spent 20 years as a bored housewife, and that this caused her to become a feminist, it is fair to acknowledge that there were a number of bored housewives in her generation and in the generations before hers. Whether they pursued feminism in any of its many forms as a result, or if not, why not, are questions worthy of pursuit.

Bored or not, however, housewives over the centuries have been the subject of many attempted solutions to the problem of establishing women’s role once and for all. To some the answer is a matriarchal society and the elimination of male violence, under the assumption that violence is a particularly male attribute. To others it is the complete subjugation and humiliation of women in order to "keep them in their place." The treatment of women under Afghanistan’s Taliban regime is a reminder that even in modern times the pendulum can swing widely.

Generally, though, most in the West agree that men and women should be treated as equals and have equal value in the social order. But even that is open to many interpretations. Some modern feminists are pursuing what they refer to as "complementarity"—that is, equivalence that acknowledges sexual differences. Others suggest that such a concept actually threatens the equality that feminists have worked so hard for.

EQUAL YET DIFFERENT?

So what is equality?

"Women are the equals of men and should be treated as such" is feminist author Wendy McElroy’s opinion, even as she asks, "But what is equal? How is equality defined? . . . Does it mean equality under existing laws and equal representation in existing institutions? Or does it involve a socio-economic equality—a redistribution of wealth and power—that, in turn, requires new laws and an overturning of existing institutions?"

When equality is defined as equitable treatment under the law, even the staunchest conservative would probably agree with McElroy. "No one questions the concept of equal access to the Law; to a just and fair treatment for all in the Courts, before the bar of Justice," says Jacob van Flossen, ultraconservative author of a 1998 political novel entitled Return of the Gods.

This basic concept of equality has been the broad legal intent in certain earlier cultures as well. Notable among them is first-century Jewish society. Under its laws, men were given definite instructions on their obligations to their wife’s needs, and women were endowed with inheritance and property rights not enjoyed by Western women until modern times.

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