Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!njin!psuvax1!psuvm!URVAX!RYLE From: RYLE@URVAX (Martin Ryle) Newsgroups: bit.listserv.history Subject: Re: Suffragettes and mainstream political history Message-ID: Date: 28 Feb 90 13:20:00 GMT Sender: History Reply-To: History Lines: 13 Approved: NETNEWS@PSUVM.BITNET Gateway X-Envelope-to: HISTORY@FINHUTC.BITNET X-VMS-To: IN%"HISTORY@FINHUTC.BITNET" X-VMS-Cc: RYLE Shucks! I thought the discussion was current. Ah, well. At least the response came through promptly. When measured by a standard of absolute liberty or justice, the achievements of suffragism have be illusory, but not when measured relative to the restrictions placed on women a century ago. One might argue that gaining greater opportunity in bourgeois society has merely subjected women to the oppression of bourgeois exploitation. The problem is that the society we have is and has been bourgeois, and it shows few signs of changing radically. Perhaps the illusion comes from measuring a historical era in terms other than its own. Martin Ryle University of Richmond, VA ryle@urvax.urich.edu