Working Class Feminism: a Consideration of the Consequences of Employment*

The perception of working class women as especially traditional and domestic has tended to obscure the real currents of change within the working class. Their support for feminism has been underestimated because it has been assumed that they lack the personal discontent with traditional roles on which the movement is based. Working class women were surveyed to identify the factors conducive to the adoption of feminist attitudes. Employed women appear to be more feminist than full-time house wivea, even when they are working for reasons of financial exigency rather than personal interest. Some of this effect of employment may be due directly to the different social networks in which the employed women and the housewives participate; some of the effect of employment may also be indirect in that it provides a context in which dissatisfactions may be interpreted politically.