Spent Crusade

In 1848 an intrepid band of ladies, full of git & gumption, descended on Seneca Falls, N.Y., to declare a rebellion against "the repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman." These injuries, they said, had as their direct object the establishment of an "absolute tyranny" over woman.

Last week, 200 women met in the Labor Department's auditorium in Washington to commemorate that first Women's Rights Convention. Every important U.S. women's organization was represented. But the old git & gumption was no longer there.

The truth was that the ladies had a hard time finding anything to be indignant about. In the last 100 years, they had emancipated themselves from domestic tyranny, political and economic discrimination, laced-up corsets and knee-length bloomers. Man had grudgingly changed his fuddy-duddy notions of what was proper for a lady, had allowed her to do his typing, wait on him in restaurants, manage his budget, represent him in Congress, and stand on her own feet in streetcars.

The Gadget. Since women acquired the vote, they had become a potent, if erratic, political force. Secretary of Labor Lewis B. Schwellenbach spoke them fair, pointed out that women now constitute 28% of the labor force (they are also 50.8% of the voting population). President Truman came, paid respectful tribute to the power of their purses,* had words of high praise for one woman: "Mrs. Roosevelt has made a wonderful contribution to the nation [in her work with U.N.] since the President died." (He added, disarmmgly: "He is the only one I ever think of as President.")

The women's current grievances, such as they were, were technological rather than political. Chief villain was the household chore. Cried Laundry Worker Amy Ballinger: "What about the man who buys you an icebox or a sweeper as a gift? A man marries you and says 'You go down in the cellar and do the washing.' The hell with him." Piped Edith M. Stern, a magazine writer: "The mechanical gadgets are just the old-fashioned spinning wheel in modern dress."

But all in all, the ladies were pretty well satisfied. Gloated Vassar's Dean Mildred Thompson: "Men used to have a safe refuge ... in the corner saloon. . . . But now, when he seeks comfort at his favorite saloon, whom does he find with feet on the brass rail beside him? Woman!"

The Limit? Unquestionably, the ladies lacked the crinoline-&-poke-bonnet zeal of their forerunners. Perhaps they had become jaded with success. There were even some faint, uncertain signs of a retreat. One woman delegate knitted steadily through the three-day session. Another viewed with alarm the idea of community-cooked meals as a chore-saver. "Too many women find creative satisfaction in cooking," she cried. There were other signs of a return to old-fashioned ideas. The corset had already re-encircled the female waist; motherhood was at a 30-year peak of popularity.

Some were beginning to suspect what no man would dare to suggest--that women had carried the drive for equality to just about the physiological limit.

*Women own 70% of U.S. wealth, make 80% of U.S. purchases.

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