Introduction
The Women's Liberation Movement, as an organized force, is still young, but it has already accomplished a great deal. While there are many goals that are still a long way from being reached, much opposition has been overcome and many formerly antagonistic or neutral people have been convinced that women really do have rights-primarily the right to be treated as equals. It is perhaps ironic that the equality being sought is equality with men; in other words, the standards of judgment are still and will undoubtedly remain exclusively male. However, the important thing is that the movement has made friends, and one of those friends is the federal government of the United States.
The existence of this interesting alliance has been pointed out by Amitai Etzioni, writing on "Tokens Vs. Objectives" in Saturday Review. Says Professor Etzioni: "The Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare has been actively aiding the fight against sex discrimination and is pushing hard to make colleges and universities open all departments and faculty ranks to women. Emotions have run high, debates have been ardent, but the new hiring and promotion of women have been quite limited in both number and scope.
"In dealing with the law, women have been treated as less competent than men for centuries. In March 1972, Congress approved a constitutional amendment that declares that 'equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.' The amendment has yet to be ratified by the necessary three-fourths of the states. If ratified, however, the amendment would greatly ease the legal battles women must wage when discriminated against. So far their legal base for action has been shaky, especially when compared with that of litigations involving discrimination based on race or creed.
"For this reason, HEW previously found it necessary to rely on administrative directives and sanction rather than on court actions. Presumably, once the Twenty-seventh Amendment is ratified, there will be greater reliance on the courts as well as a more vigorous application of the full range of federal sanctions.
"The need for litigation, new administrative rulings, and new state laws is still great. For every state in which progress has been made, there are four in which little has been done. Even in such relatively progressive states as New Jersey and Arizona there are still many 'sexist' laws. For example, California recently empowered teen-agers to buy and sell stocks in their own right, but husbands still control the disposition of their wives' holdings. Although the California Supreme Court invalidated statutes prohibiting the employment of women as bartenders and excluding women from jury duty, Missouri still prohibits women from working with moving machinery. New York State sets the maximum weight a woman can lift in a foundry at twenty-five pounds.
"The age of consent (at which a person can marry without parental approval) is lower for women than men in most states. Often women cannot keep their maiden names on official documents such as driver's licenses. In four states married women must prove their 'fitness' to a court if they seek to set up their own business."
Professor Etzioni goes on at length to cite many other examples of both official and unofficial subjugation of women throughout the country. One important area he does not touch on, unfortunately, is prostitution, which is one obvious result of that subjugation. If women do achieve the full equality they seek, and men lose both the desire and the opportunity to dominate, it should be equally obvious that prostitution will disappear.
Some subjects can be more frankly treated in fiction than in fact, and up to now it would seem that prostitution is one of them. In the past, however, it has most often been treated unrealistically; the beautiful prostitute with the "heart of gold" has become a stock figure in American literature. Greater honesty is called for, and we are happy to say that we have found it in Daddy and Me by Debbie Jones.
"Debbie Jones" is a pseudonym; the author conceals her true identity because she has actually lived through many of the incidents portrayed here as fiction. The story can be taken as essentially true. It is not a pretty one, beginning as it does with incest and going on from there to other activities usually thought to be taboo. Debbie's activities are not to be admired or even necessarily condoned, but there is a great deal to be learned from them.
Debbie tells her story without apology and with complete candor. It is the story of a girl who first acquired too much freedom too fast, and then found herself in the most terrible of traps. While she is not specifically a Women's Liberationist, she is certainly liberated-and her experiences teach her that liberation can have its horrors as well as its joys.
Again, Debbie does not have all the answers, but she presents answers to some questions that must be plaguing the minds of many readers. If she raises new questions as well, that is all to the good in the cause of constructive discussion in our open society.