The Deal That White Feminists Made With White Supremacists In The Sixties
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, in his 1965 report for the U.S. Department of Labor, wrote that the largest problem facing the socio-economic improvement of African Americans was the weakness of the black family. More specific, it was the inability of the black man to make enough money to support a wife and children.
Regardless of the “sexist” notions of gender roles which Moynihan supported, many lawmakers agreed that the unemployment of black fathers proved the largest obstacle to African American progress. In 1964, Congress debated the Civil Rights Act, which would bring monumental changes to American social life.
In order to solve the issue of unemployed black fathers, the Civil Rights Act included a provision allowing the government to involve itself in private employment. Since the traditional family home was the basis of American civilization, lawmakers argued, the best way to fix the problems in the black community was to enable black fathers to keep a steady job.
During the debate, Howard Smith, a Virginia Congressman, introduced an amendment to the bill. A well-known “Dixie-crat,” Smith supported segregation, and many expected him to denounce the Civil Rights Act. Instead, he argued that the provision against prejudice on the basis of “race, color, religion or national origin” be extended to include “sex.”
By adding “sex” into the bill, Smith sought to show the absurdity of the equality principle. From around 1945 until 1964, the breadwinner/homemaker model of a working father providing for his stay-at-home wife and children had prevailed in the United States. Smith wished to demonstrate that the idea of equal rights for groups was a bad idea, by defending a woman’s right to work, which would have seemed ludicrous at the time. Many women in this time period viewed home life as liberating, and the Feminist movement of the early 1900s had almost petered out.
But Howard Smith also aimed to subvert the major purpose of the legislation, the securing of jobs for black men. As an avid segregationist, he threw in the provision against sex discrimination as a red herring, to distract attention from the real issue.
With Smith offering them an olive branch, the marginalized equity feminists took this opportunity. Katherine St. George and Catharine May, two feminist Congresswomen, supported Smith’s proposal. “Why should women be denied equal pay for equal work?”
With the support of the Feminists, the Dixiecrats passed the amendment, and the Civil Rights Act passed into law. This law, reinforced by President Johnson’s executive orders and a Supreme Court Decision in 1975, opened more jobs for women outside the home.
Many Feminists today praise these legal actions, and I agree that women should have the option to work. Unfortunately, the option of women not to work, but to rely on their husbands and to focus their efforts on their children, became more difficult.
The deeper tragedy, however, unfolded in the black family. While the black rate of illegitimate births rose from 5% to 20% in the early 1960s, it has skyrocketed to around 70% today. Many African Americans have achieved remarkable upward mobility, but as a class, they remain marginalized. The Feminists got what they wanted, but the blacks still suffer with this lost opportunity.
“The fundamental problem…is that of family structure…[T]he Negro family in the urban ghetto is crumbling.”
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, in his 1965 report for the U.S. Department of Labor, wrote that the largest problem facing the socio-economic improvement of African Americans was the weakness of the black family. More specific, it was the inability of the black man to make enough money to support a wife and children.
Regardless of the “sexist” notions of gender roles which Moynihan supported, many lawmakers agreed that the unemployment of black fathers proved the largest obstacle to African American progress. In 1964, Congress debated the Civil Rights Act, which would bring monumental changes to American social life.
In order to solve the issue of unemployed black fathers, the Civil Rights Act included a provision allowing the government to involve itself in private employment. Since the traditional family home was the basis of American civilization, lawmakers argued, the best way to fix the problems in the black community was to enable black fathers to keep a steady job.
During the debate, Howard Smith, a Virginia Congressman, introduced an amendment to the bill. A well-known “Dixie-crat,” Smith supported segregation, and many expected him to denounce the Civil Rights Act. Instead, he argued that the provision against prejudice on the basis of “race, color, religion or national origin” be extended to include “sex.”
By adding “sex” into the bill, Smith sought to show the absurdity of the equality principle. From around 1945 until 1964, the breadwinner/homemaker model of a working father providing for his stay-at-home wife and children had prevailed in the United States. Smith wished to demonstrate that the idea of equal rights for groups was a bad idea, by defending a woman’s right to work, which would have seemed ludicrous at the time. Many women in this time period viewed home life as liberating, and the Feminist movement of the early 1900s had almost petered out.
But Howard Smith also aimed to subvert the major purpose of the legislation, the securing of jobs for black men. As an avid segregationist, he threw in the provision against sex discrimination as a red herring, to distract attention from the real issue.
With Smith offering them an olive branch, the marginalized equity feminists took this opportunity. Katherine St. George and Catharine May, two feminist Congresswomen, supported Smith’s proposal. “Why should women be denied equal pay for equal work?”
With the support of the Feminists, the Dixiecrats passed the amendment, and the Civil Rights Act passed into law. This law, reinforced by President Johnson’s executive orders and a Supreme Court Decision in 1975, opened more jobs for women outside the home.
Many Feminists today praise these legal actions, and I agree that women should have the option to work. Unfortunately, the option of women not to work, but to rely on their husbands and to focus their efforts on their children, became more difficult.
The deeper tragedy, however, unfolded in the black family. While the black rate of illegitimate births rose from 5% to 20% in the early 1960s, it has skyrocketed to around 70% today. Many African Americans have achieved remarkable upward mobility, but as a class, they remain marginalized. The Feminists got what they wanted, but the blacks still suffer with this lost opportunity.
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