11 - Feminist Movements in the United States and Germany: A Comparative Perspective, 1848-1933

Summary

The French utopian socialist Charles Fourier stated that the progress of any civilization could be measured by the emancipation of its women. In both the United States and Germany, the status of women was and is a measure of democratization, not only of its progress but also of its deficits. In both countries, women's struggle for equality developed on a parallel course with other democratic movements and faced the same kinds of opposition. In both countries feminists drew on and adapted various international cultures of rights, both liberal and socialist, to justify their claims to citizenship. Both the ideology and the practice of feminism in the two countries were therefore similar in many ways. However, German and American feminists also shaped and were shaped by the national cultures that they inhabited. Some aspects of both their ideologies and their political strategies were also culture-specific, designed to take advantage of opportunities, or to overcome obstacles, that were distinctive to each political system. Thus, a comparison of the feminist movements in these two countries offers an example through which to compare the two nations and their cultures of rights. This chapter will examine some salient aspects of German and American feminist movements between 1848 and 1933, and will explore how these movements were shaped both by an international feminist culture and by the national cultures in which they operated.