What is the relationship between the historical political empowerment of women and feminism? Long, long ago many social issues or campaigns were framed within left-wing movements with the word “question “. There was a peasant question, there was a race question, the question of education, of housing, etc.

There were different takes on the women question, some feminist some not. What they seem to have all agreed upon was that before the 20th century, women of every class were more excluded than men from formal political and diplomatic roles and public participation. In some places and eras, women were mostly homemakers, though we should note this was not the case during the initial rise of the 19th century left, nor was it in the 17th century democratic movements. Nor does it mean women had no real power or that most men did.

Just as many male farmers and workers couldn’t read, many women couldn’t read. We can all agree that it’s glorious and crucial that women were brought into things like voting, literacy, education, just as it was great that the mass of working men were brought into these things - often around the same time.

There was clearly some space of overlap between feminism and women’s freedom, the question is how much? And where did the left go wrong and end up stuck with outright feminism? What morsels of women’s freedom struggle was present both within the broader popular movements and within feminism? What of many women’s issues were always just issues... that didn’t need gendering ?

How can we communicate the stark opposition between women organizing to improve their lives and overcome obstacles, versus identity politics, division, separatism, and misandrist cults?

In order to overcome feminism, we are going to have to theorize if there ever really was a women’s question and if so - where did it end and feminism begin.