# Feminism: The Essential Historical Writings Miriam Schneir, Editor **URL:** **By** Diane Hunter **Published:** July 1, 1974 --- “In an age notably lacking in the rhetoric of heroism, Feminism: The Essential Historical Writings stands out as a welcome contrast.” In an age notably lacking in the rhetoric of heroism, _Feminism: The Essential Historical Writings_ stands out as a welcome contrast. In essay after essay we are rallied to the call of self-sovereignty, self-responsibility, and human dignity. Feminism brings us back to the basics of the feminist movement, to its ideological base. It is concerned not with day care centers, job quotas, or many of the other statist politics of the current women’s liberation movement, but with fundamentals: with the right to choose one’s own values and pursue one’s own goals as a prerequisite for sustaining one’s life. In her essay “_Solitude of Self_,” Elizabeth Candy Stanton formulates an important principle for the feminist movement: > The isolation of every human soul and the necessity of self-dependence must give each individual the right to choose his own surroundings. The strongest reason for giving woman all the opportunities for higher education, for full development of her faculties, her forces of mind and body; for giving her the most enlarged freedom of thought and action; a complete emancipation from all forms of bondage, of custom, dependence, superstition; from all the crippling influences of fear; is the solitude and personal responsibility of her life. Many of the women represented here suffered terrible disadvantages; universities were closed to them; the law prohibited them from holding property or inheriting wealth; and pervasive social attitudes dictated the alleged conditions for their welfare, however little these conditions fulfilled their actual needs. On the market, their labor brought one-third of a man’s, dooming them to near starvation if they chose to be independent of a male guardian. To think, write, and lecture as they did, they risked their very identity as women in the eyes of the culture. Yet, in spite of this, they formulated their own goals and envisioned a free woman, an entity that had never existed in the world they knew. Today much of the freedom they worked for is here. Legally, women are almost equal to men; they can get a university education; in many fields women can earn as much as men; birth control and abortion have freed them from the burden of unwanted motherhood; customs have relaxed so a sexually free woman is no longer a total social outcast. However, despite these opportunities, many women still function as if they were living under the disadvantages that so many women fought during their lives. Numerous women do not take themselves seriously as careeroriented persons. They define themselves in terms of relationships—I am a mother, a wife, a girl friend, a sister, and so forth. These unexamined ideas make woman her own worst enemy. In protesting the attitudes of its day, _Feminism_ calls for a woman to formulate her own goals and to regard herself, not as part of a relationship, but as a discrete individual responsible for her own life. This fundamental message can be useful to women still struggling for psychological independence, and herein lies the primary value of _Feminism_. A wide spectrum of political theories is represented in this volume— from socialism (Friedrich Engels) to classical liberalism (J. S. Mill) to anarchism (Emma Goldman)—and the quality of each essay often depends on the political leanings of its author. Nevertheless, considered as a whole, _Feminism_ is an immensely worthwhile anthology, both as a historical document and as an inspirational spark to the women—and men—of today who value the dignity and freedom of the individual. _Reviewed by Diane Hunter / Psychology (360 Pages) / BFL Price $2.45_