"Enough ink has been spilled over the quarrel of feminism; it’s pretty much closed now – let us say no more about it"

(Naomi Segal's and Rachel Segal Hamilton's call for papers for their Women's Workshop, see http://igrs.sas.ac.uk/index.php?id=318): "...In 1949 Simone de Beauvoir began The Second Sex with the words ‘Enough ink has been spilled over the quarrel of feminism; it’s pretty much closed now – let us say no more about it’. Sixty years later, the quarrel continues. A spirit of optimism and activism reigned for women born around 1950 and entering maturity together with the feminist movement in 1969. Where are those women now and where are the generations of women that have followed?

a. Much is heard of post-feminism, the idea that the issues of the 1970s have been superseded - is this so?

b. What do the women now in their 20s and 30s think about the idea of sexual politics: is equality taken for granted or still only partially achieved?

c. In particular, what has happened to the hopes of equality with men in the couple-bond: have men proved willing to share both work and love in a domestic context?

d. If they have not, what might the reasons be, and where do we go from here?

To return to Beauvoir: Is it as true it was sixty years ago that ‘The word love has a completely different meaning for the two sexes, and this is one source of the serious misunderstandings that divide them’?..."