feminists, married women were unable to participate fully in the movement sincemost of their interest, loyalty, and devotion were said to lie with their family (Epstein, 144). Themore radical elements of the movement (a portion of the broader movement appeared to be takingover and trying to force its agenda on the rest) were against marriage and were in favor of autonomy “limiting to one third of their membership women who lived with men” (Shulman,288). Several expectations about the relationship between men and women were proposed:Men were expected to be kept at a distance, celibacy embraced (Densmore, 78), male babiesdeclared the enemy, sons, husbands and lovers eliminated from women’s lives (Wolfson, 278). These stringent expectations were too much for many women; for many, the movement becameimpossible to join, and for others it became impossible to continue to participate. Activist AliceWolfson (1996) , mother of two sons, dropped out because she failed to understand the feministideology that resulted in “ identification of male children as the enemy, a ban on male babies fromthe women’s liberation offices and coffee houses, and actually debate when a male baby becamethe enemy” (281). She found it impossible to “support an analysis that excluded half the humanrace, two of whom were her own sons” (Wolfson, 281). Other women in the movement withsons “protested that they cared only for women” and activist Barbara Epstein (1996) suggestedthat feminism had managed to create an arena of conformity and oppression in which one couldnot count on being able to speak honestly (145). Once Epstein published her views, others in themovement refused to associate with her politically (145). One of the reasons why women’s liberation failed was the inability to create an identity of“sisterhood.” The inability to create this identity was due to the failure of the id...
