The Daily: Shifting Feminism in America

May 6, 2022

Welcome to the weekend. This week, our episode planning shifted after someone leaked a draft majority opinion by the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule Roe v. Wade. The news has rocked both the court and the country, and we'll continue to cover the fallout next week as we continue to gather reactions.

Today's episode was the first part of that coverage. We heard from Americans who welcomed this week's news — including those you might not expect, like Jess Meeth, 26, who identified as a feminist, a Democrat and an anti-abortion activist. Are these identities contradictory? We explore that question below.

Before you read on: Do you have a question about this news you'd like answered? Or thoughts on this week's episodes? Let us know. We always love to hear from you.

The big idea: The shifting state of feminism in America today

The Daily strives to reveal a new idea in every episode. Below, we go deeper on one of those from our show this week.

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A rally outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday. The original decision in Roe v. Wade, the case that established the right to abortion in the United States, was announced in 1973.Sarahbeth Maney/The New York Times

If history repeats itself, we're in a particularly uncanny moment of déjà vu.

In 1973, the United States withdrew, defeated, from a protracted, brutal war; debated the right to an abortion in the Supreme Court; and weathered a tense geopolitical standoff with Russia, with no end in sight. Sound familiar?

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Fifty years later, America is contending with many of the same forces. This week, after a draft majority opinion to overrule Roe v. Wade was leaked, some Americans asked how much had really changed in the intervening years, specifically regarding women's rights.

So below, we take a closer look at that question, asking: If the right to abortion was a central pillar of the second-wave feminist movement, what does the public reaction to the leak reveal about the state of feminism today?

The question of progress

A majority of American women say "feminist" describes them well, according to a Pew study from 2020. This is, in many ways, a testament to the work of women over the last century to normalize support for gender justice and women's rights — specifically those who campaigned in the 1960s and '70s.

When "The Feminine Mystique" was published in 1963, catalyzing feminism's "second wave," it created a reaction so intense that Betty Friedan could later write another book about the things women said to her about the first one ("It Changed My Life"). The claims that Ms. Friedan made were revolutionary — and the movement inspired by her work was regularly dismissed as radical.

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Now, the concept of feminism is so mainstream, it has become a lucrative market for retailers, and the very currency of corporate credibility. But the widespread acceptance of the concept hasn't necessarily translated into political, social or economic equity.

For example, there are more women in public office today than there were 50 years ago. But at the current rate, gender equality in the highest positions of power will not be reached for roughly another 130 years. Similarly, women around the world have more legal rights than they have ever had before — but they have, on average, three-quarters of the legal rights of men. Still, this type of relative progress was presented as one basis for repealing abortion rights in the Supreme Court's draft opinion.

An argument based on women's progress

The argument goes like this: More women now work and have access to health care, some legal workplace protections and information about adoptive services. Therefore, pregnancy and parenthood are not the hardships they once were.

Lawyers representing the State of Mississippi, the appellant in the lawsuit that could bring about the end of Roe v. Wade, claim that "sweeping policy advances now promote women's full pursuit of both career and family."

Not everyone agrees with that claim. "In Justice Samuel Alito's draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade, perhaps what's hardest to bear for abortion rights advocates is the implicit suggestion that the progress women have made is a reason to throw out Roe," Emily Bazelon, a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine, wrote.

"In a sense, he turns feminism against itself."

'A place of multiple feminisms'

Second-wave feminists have been quick to rally against the draft opinion, dismissing this line of argumentation as well as the claim that abortion rights aren't constitutionally protected.

Abortion "was not mentioned in the constitution because women weren't mentioned in the constitution. But the principle of democracy is a very precious one, and it upholds the right for men and women to make decisions over our own physical beings," Gloria Steinem said this week.

But unlike in the 1970s, when Ms. Steinem and her contemporaries were charting new intellectual territory, feminism today has grown large enough to lack centralized leadership or firm ideological coherence. While most of America agrees gender justice is a worthy goal, many disagree on how to achieve it. Specifically, some younger feminists argue previous waves of feminism did not include transgender people or prioritize racial equity. And as you heard today, some young women identify as both feminist and anti-abortion.

"I don't think we are in a wave right now," April Sizemore-Barber, a gender studies scholar, said a few years ago during the #MeToo movement. "I think that now feminism is inherently intersectional feminism — we are in a place of multiple feminisms."

So while the feminist movement in the 1970s helped create the social conditions that brought about Roe v. Wade in the first place, the question remains: whether modern feminism will have the coherence to determine what comes after — that is, if the draft opinion becomes the actual opinion.

For your weekend playlist

Wesley Morris, co-host of "Still Processing," was 11 when "Fatal Attraction" came out. The movie, an erotic thriller starring Glenn Close and Michael Douglas, made a permanent impression on the way Wesley thinks about certain aspects of lust and suspense. "There's a lot wrong with this movie, and yet — and yet! — it's such a good movie," he said on this week's episode of the show.

Wesley invited Parul Sehgal, a staff writer at The New Yorker, to discuss the movie. Both Wesley and Parul watched "Fatal Attraction" over and over as preteens, and they've rewatched it multiple times since. "Every time I see this movie, I identify with a different character," Parul said. "I have a different sense of what this movie is about."

As Wesley and Parul break down the most powerful scenes, they are reminded of the lack of high-stakes sex onscreen today. They discuss why the erotic thriller genre has disappeared — and what could be gained from seeing more genuine, grown-up sex in movies.

Listen to the episode, and check out "Fatal Attraction" if you need to escape this weekend.

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