The woman movement and the negro movement : -- parallel struggles for rights

It is the contention of this thesis that there are many important similarities between the Negro problem and the women's problem. These similarities are not merely accidental. The ideological ;and economic forces behind the two movements--the emancipation of women and the emancipation of Negroes--have much in common and are closely interrelated. Negroes and women had both been under the yoke of the paternalistic system, a pre-industrial scheme which gradually became broken in the nineteenth century. Both groups were then strongly influenced by the Industrial Revolution, and for both groups the readjustment process is not yet consummated. The problems remain, even though paternalism is gradually declining as an ideal and is losing its economic basis.

It is the purpose of this paper to point out some of these similarities and interrelations in the status and history of both "groups. Rather than treating both problems as unique, it is hoped that in concentrating on the similarities of the two that it will thereby give perspective to both problems.