Susan Faludi, in Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, offers a critique of the condition of women in the country at a time when it seems to be generally accepted that feminism has triumphed. Faludi argues that, to the contrary, the society remains resistent to women's liberation and equality. The title of the book refers to forces in the American culture, some blatant and some subtle, which continue to resist and place obstacles in the way of feminist goals. Faludi writes that the "rhetoric" of the
backlash against women's rights . . . charges feminists with all the crimes it perpetrates. The backlash line blames the women's movement for the "feminization of poverty"---while the backlash's own instigators in Washington pushed through the budget cuts that helped impoverish millions of women, fought pay equity proposals, and undermined equal opportunity laws (xxii).
In other words, simply because women have indeed made great strides in securing their rights and equality, this does not in any way mean that anti-woman fears and biases have disappeared from the society. With respect to these anti-feminist sentiments, Faludi writes that "the fact that these are still such incendiary notions should tell us that American women have a way to go before they enter the promised land of equality" (xxiii).
The book examines the varieties of this backlash phenomenon for the purpose of exposing it in all its guises, making the reader aware of it, and trying to eliminate some of the complacency which has taken hold of the women's movement. Also, she explores the specific causes, forms, and effects of the backlash in order to encourage and inspire women and their male supporters to take advantage of this situation while they still can, for just as the backlash exists, there also exists simultaneously an opportunity for great strides forward for feminism. Faludi argues that the '90s can be a turning point for feminism, eithe...