Major political upheavals, not gradual progress, reshaped women’s condition.

Evidence

The convergence of these two factors—participation in production and freedom from reproductive slavery—explains the evolution of woman’s condition. As Engels predicted, her social and political status necessarily had to change. The feminist movement begun in France by Condorcet and in England by Mary Wollstonecraft in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, and followed up at the beginning of the century by the Saint-Simonians, never succeeded for lack of a concrete base. But now women’s claims would have ample weight. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 276 (#expands, via linked claim)

While feminist supporters like to think that feminism has been the motivating force behind changes in woman’s role, in actuality changes in the American capitalist economy have had the greatest impact on the status of women. More women than ever before are in America’s work force not because of feminism but because families can no longer rely on the income of the father. Feminism has been used as a psychological tool to make women think that work they might otherwise see as boring, tedious, and time consuming is liberating. For whether feminism exists or not, women must work. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 303 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Entry into production and reproductive freedom drive women’s political emancipation — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 276; Capitalist economic change, not feminism, drove women into the workforce — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 303; Afghan women’s conditions did not improve and even worsened after invasion — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 288

Broader Connections

• Entry into production and reproductive freedom drive women’s political emancipation #expands (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 276
• Capitalist economic change, not feminism, drove women into the workforce #corroborates (0.80) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 303