GRE Reading Comprehension
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Source: 1995
Influenced by the view of some twentieth-century feminists that women's position within the family is one of the central factors determining women's social position, some historians have underestimated the significance of the woman suffrage movement. These historians contend that nineteenth-century suffragism was less radical and, hence, less important than, for example, the moral reform movement or domestic feminism—two nineteenth-century movements in which women struggled for more power and autonomy within the family. True, by emphasizing these struggles, such historians have broadened the conventional view of nineteenth- century feminism, but they do a historical disservice to suffragism. Nineteenth-century feminists and antifeminist alike perceived the suffragists' demand for enfranchisement as the most radical element in women's protest, in part because suffragists were demanding power that was not based on the institution of the family, women's traditional sphere. When evaluating nineteenth-century feminism as a social force, contemporary historians should consider the perceptions of actual participants in the historical events.
The author implies that which of the following is true of the historians discussed in the passage?
- A They argue that nineteenth-century feminism was not as significant a social force as twentieth-century feminism has been.
- B They rely too greatly on the perceptions of the actual participants in the events they study.
- C Their assessment of the relative success of nineteenth-century domestic feminism does not adequately take into account the effects of antifeminist rhetoric.
- D Their assessment of the significance of nineteenth-century suffragism differs considerably from that of nineteenth-century feminists.
- E They devote too much attention to nineteenth-century suffragism at the expense of more radical movements that emerged shortly after the turn of the century.