Egalitarian feminism

When Supreme Court nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg learned that a former classmate sniped in a speech about Ginsburg's "law school nickname, `Bitch,' " Ginsburg's response was neither rage nor tears. She exclaimed, "Better bitch than mouse!" according to Jeffrey Rosen in The New Republic (Aug. 2).


That phrase sheds light on Ginsburg's vision of feminism, says Rosen. It means she's an "egalitarian" feminist, not a "difference" feminist. An egalitarian feminist opposes laws that treat men and women differently, while a difference feminist believes laws should reflect women's differences from men, such as their status as child-bearers and victims of male violence.


The distinction is not esoteric. Many observers who followed Ginsburg's confirmation hearings believe it will affect her rulings on issues such as sex discrimination, abortion and child custody.


Ginsburg's past positions have irked some women's groups, notes Rosen, and led to an ambivalent reception to the generally conservative nominee. For example, Ginsburg has posited that pregnancy should be treated as an occupational disability, arguing that granting special maternity leaves and child-care provisions for working mothers would only goad employers not to hire women. Her opponents argued that because only women bear children and typically care for them, these special measures are necessary for women to remain equal in the workplace.


Ginsburg recently affirmed her status as an egalitarian feminist through a fan letter she sent writer Katha Pollit lauding her controversial article in The Nation (Dec. 28, 1992) blasting difference feminism. Pollit argued that the growing acceptance of the idea that women are "naturally" more nurturing and pacifist than men is unfair to men and dangerous for women. This notion feeds sentiments that women are better suited to the nursery than the workplace, she wrote, and denies the reality that men can be magnificent at mothering, too.


If Ginsburg's and Pollit's attitudes against difference feminism are appealing, another current article should be required reading. In Mirabella (August), Annie Gottlieb charts the resurgence of what could be called "difference masculism." Gottlieb analyzes several new books by men about men that praise "typical male" virtues: courage, rationality, productivity and "upstandingness."


The trend reveals men's desire to reclaim the higher ground following the increase of women's critiques of men as war-mongering emotional cripples, she suggests. "Both sexes have always paid a cruel price for gender distinctions," Gottlieb concludes, calling for new ways to "find the upstandingness in ovaries and the tenderness in testosterone."


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