Abortion and radical feminism

Those labelling themselves pro-choice have consistently argued that the right of a woman to obtain an abortion is a basic human right. But Elizabeth Fox-Genovese disagrees. An adult convert to Roman Catholicism, she abandoned the radical feminism of her earlier years, judging that, far from empowering women, it actually deprecated female corporeality and made the male body normative for women as well.

With good reason, the radical women’s movement has insisted that responsibility for children has undermined women’s ability to compete equally with men for material goods and status. In insisting that no woman may be compelled to bear a child, the movement has sought to liberate women from the handicap of their bodies — indeed, so far as possible, to liberate them entirely from those bodies. This strategy rests on the disquieting premise that for women to achieve full dignity and freedom they must become as much like men as possible. Radical feminists inadvertently appropriate the very assumption they publicly denounce, namely that the true measure and embodiment of humanity is man. Consider the logic: For a woman to become the best she can be, she must become as little like a woman as possible.

Or, in the words Alan Jay Lerner put into Prof. Henry Higgins’ mouth, "Why can’t a woman be more like a man?" It is hardly surprising that increasing numbers of women are finding this strategy far from liberating.