2009/04/01 by Sara M. Evans · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Labor Movements and Unions #Political and Social Dynamics in Chile and Latin America #Latin American and Latino Studies #Feminism #Patriarchy #Gender studies #Feminist movement #Latin Americans #Sociology #Movement (music) #Political science #Law #Art #Aesthetics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/ahr.114.2.331
openalex publication_date 2009/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/25
Few studies have made gender central to their analysis of the international 1968, although most acknowledge the rebirth of feminism as one of its most profound and lasting legacies.1 In Western Europe, Japan, and parts of Latin America, histories of contemporary feminism invariably place its origins in 1968, even if the movements themselves usually emerged a year or two later. In the United States, a new feminist movement was already under way, debuting in the mass media in September 1968 with a demonstration at the Miss America Pageant. Even studies that give short shrift to women acknowledge in passing that feminism and dramatic challenges to gender relations were among the primary legacies of the activism of the “1968 generation.”2 It is an interesting lacuna, then, that leaves these claims under-analyzed.3 Not only will an investigation into the broader gender dynamics of the international 1968 help to explain these outcomes, but it will also reveal that gender insurgency was a central component of the rebellions of men as well as women across the globe. In 1968, feminism was not self-evidently on the agenda. Indeed, visible female leaders were rare. The narratives of most student revolts (some of which were also allied with large labor uprisings) revolve around a set of key male actors, including Rudi Dutschke, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, and Mark Rudd, who quickly became household names. Women participated in large numbers, but they remained in the background, unlike male leaders who embodied the movement in the public eye. On the other hand, even at the time, many would have recognized that this youthful revolt both embraced and advocated an ongoing revolution in sexual norms. The availability of dependable contraception (most notably the pill) coincided with the emergence of a global middle class with unprecedented access to education and affluence. The demographic realities of delayed family formation, prolonged economic dependence on parents, and age segregation accelerated rising expectations of pleasure, consumption, and individualism, and hence of sexual freedom for men and women. Herbert Marcuse theorized the new possibilities for human liberation in Eros and Civilization (1955), in which he sought to marry Marx and Freud by arguing that “the very achievements of repressive civilization seem to create the preconditions for the gradual abolition of repression.” Young people challenging the rigidity of patriarchal institutions embraced Marcuse's claim that it was possible to imagine “a non-repressive civilization, based on a fundamentally different experience of being, a fundamentally different relation between man and nature, and fundamentally different existential relations.”4 Their anti-authoritarianism made sexual freedom central to the project of liberation. “It would have been hard to miss the centrality of sexuality to the world revolution of 1968,” world systems theorist Immanuel Wallerstein has observed. “The impact of 1968 was to bring to the forefront what had been a slow transformation of sexual mores in the preceding half-century and allow it to explode onto the world social scene, with enormous consequences for the law, for customary practice, for religions, and for intellectual discourse.”5 In 1968, young men and women alike challenged cultural definitions of gender, but in sharply different ways. The revolt of sons against the authority of their fathers and the patriarchal rigidity of traditional institutions, while it challenged traditional constructions of manhood (militarism, financial success, the tradeoff of sexuality for the responsibilities of marriage and family), did not defy the hierarchies of gender. As a result, the subsequent women's revolts began as conflicts within student movements. The utopianism that infused the ideas of the movement and the lived experience of freedom and community in the intense experiences of community organizing and campus occupations offered women new possibilities for self-definition and schooled them to engage in political action in their own behalf even as such experiences made clear the pervasive sexism of the time.6 From its roots in the southern civil rights movement in the early sixties, the American movement's ideas, tactics, and cultural expressions (from rock music to poster art) resonated with middle-class youth around the globe. And yet it is not the case that other movements were simply imitative. Rather, an international perspective makes it clear that the generational and gender dynamics of youthful movements in 1968 were global despite enormous variations in local cultures. A transnational analysis cannot do justice to the particularities of place, culture, and political context, nor can it provide the rich rewards of the carefully constructed and detailed comparative analyses for which it calls. The remarkable similarities noted here, however, suggest that the gendered dynamics of local and global forces deserve far more scrutiny than they have yet received.7 Given the direct link between 1968 and subsequent feminist activism, at first glance it is surprising to discover the absence of gender as a category of analysis in the vast majority of secondary as well as primary analyses of these events. Most national historiographies of 1968, however, have pursued women's history in isolation, thereby leaving the transformative implications of gender analysis outside the mainstream narratives. Closer investigation reveals the power of a gendered paradigm embedded in the ethos of the movements themselves that framed the ways they told their own stories, the ways the popular media perceived them, and most subsequent historical accounts as well. The drama of fathers and sons, filled with military metaphor and sometimes-violent conflict, “made sense” to participants and observers alike. Around the globe, governmental and police power had a male face. Sons of elites were the most visible combatants and martyrs. In subsequent years, male leaders' memoirs offered key narratives of the movements. Evoking a circle of brothers/fellow martyrs, few granted the tensions between women and men in the movement a central place in their stories, in sharp contrast to the later and less numerous memoirs by women. Rather, in their narratives, women were present primarily as witnesses and occasionally as leaders in their own right, honorary men. Thus a series of coherent narratives emerged, obscuring as they illumined.8 In an interesting intersection of history and historiography, women's history as a field was a product of late-twentieth-century feminism, especially in the United States and Europe. Historians began to study the roles of women in 1968 primarily as a search for the “origin story” of feminism, a literature that has remained segregated, rather than becoming central to understanding the international 1968 per se. Reframing the youthful revolts of 1968 through the lens of gender, however, clarifies the very different rebellions of young men and women against patriarchal power, explaining not only the emergence of feminism but also the resistance to women's claims within those movements (a resistance continued in the suppression of this part of the story in subsequent narratives) and the centrality of sexuality and the body to feminist critiques in the late twentieth century. Within the widely different uprisings that constituted the international 1968, there was one element that was clearly transnational: the generational revolt centered in universities.9 Young people around the world were linked by “an emergent, globally shared repertoire of imagery, slogans, fashion statements, and music.”10 Sons and daughters of elites and the growing middle classes challenged the authority of their parents' generation on every level, from imperialism to the rules and regulations governing curricula and examinations. The scale of this revolt is difficult to capture. Hundreds of campuses, and even whole cities and towns, were shut down for days and months in France, the United States, Germany, Italy, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Japan, Mexico, Spain, and Argentina. Thousands of students were jailed, hundreds killed. In most places, women participated in numbers similar to those for men, but in none of them did women appear more than marginally in the lexicon of leaders. Student rebellions shared an emphasis on spontaneity, authenticity, and anti-hierarchy, and a utopian expectation that revolutionary change could be achieved. That utopianism was fed by the concrete, collective experiences of prolonged strikes and campus occupations. Radith Geismar, then wife of Alain Geismar, one of the leaders of the May 1968 uprising in France, recalled, “The real sense of '68 was a tremendous sense of liberation, of freedom, of people talking, talking on the street, in the universities, in theaters. It was much more than throwing stones. That was just a moment. A whole system of order and authority and tradition was swept aside.”11 The emphasis on spontaneity (“On spontane” was a slogan in France) and on the power of words to challenge the status quo (“on a pris la parole comme on a pris la Bastille”: seizing words is like seizing the Bastille) and create a new reality generated an intense sense of making history by living the future in a prefigurative politics—that is, the assumption that activists will live out the vision and the values for which they are fighting.12 The ecstasy of high-adrenaline activities such as occupying buildings and fighting in the between and public and and and political Student both female and they could create and experience the of of liberation. and recalled, “The of 1968 generation to were in the as unlike had to were that could a revolution even already and the of that an on authority and however, had different political implications for men and women. Young men were the visible the public who both the power of their generation and the of the rigidity of and the of consumption, arguing for authenticity, spontaneity, and freedom from in a study of rock culture, 1968 in as “a of patriarchal narratives by participants and however, told the as if men were the only Daniel on May 1968 in France, to has a “The of or Young the of youth as clearly that of key leaders new A of the revolt of young male students was that it the constructions of of their Their of of and the they the of “The men do possible to like their their and even their of The in their and do like In both and Germany, were by police and the of one of the they on has that within the American against the of from its traditional early with and middle-class could recognized that the of and power were a In The of America, he a generation that not only those but also the of in sexual law, people the is generation of young men to be the responsibilities as well as the that power and even as they institutions to them for those roles and has a of on and student leaders had of the power and authority of men however, even as they such traditional of manhood as financial success, and and within traditional power Rather, the of the student movement offered them ways to their The slogan Not around the from to in the United States that to from with the assumption that women would if the men would not sexual at the of the new Within there was an of sexual and with in the of in the by both student and the and the of other with and at mass men for the most part in the that the of the by the May and only one a of a female it is the In student even of Latin American revolutionary a of the was link with student movements the and police clearly the male leaders as them as the men who had to the other in the The to their uprisings just they of and occupations by to a series of as into in while police at the and the students in they what the student movement of 1968 was could them that it was the history of a against he could not while a who against own against hundreds of The revolt of sons of the against and governmental authority challenged patriarchal power but not as the central drama of 1968, it the ways in which young men and women of and and the of their those it is to the very different revolts of in uprisings a change in middle-class women's access to shared both the ecstasy and many of the of these movements. In Western their in with a ethos unprecedented possibilities for roles in the movements were and for and many status primarily through with male leaders. the time, as in the case of Mexico, in a mass student middle-class women political and social to the public had a profound on and to a growing political and social that in liberation for young women that the movement and the challenge to the rules not just of female and generational but also of gender not only for their but also for their In the United States as well as in more traditional such as and Japan, women far against than their male young women into a world of public action in which the of traditional between public and prefigurative made and freedom seem to be within their As they the of traditional public roles as they with the expectations of their male who were their the of late-twentieth-century feminism in The however, is that student movements had women with intellectual and political that they could to their own In this these movements as within which young women could challenge on and these young women's revolt was far more in the sense of than that of men. of that however, only as women at first and then more began to against the resistance they within the The of this revolt place in the of the southern civil rights the Student As early as women were to have their to within the and two and challenged the movement to live to its own in its of women with a that at the they not is it to be made that many women in the movement are not and with their It to be made that much and experience are by this movement women are not with their In a more widely in and on the between the of the movement and the of relations between the from the movement to the and of people in had a of women in the movement have to those to their own relations with the early slogan “The is they in the movement to a which would human are as as public they that there was of “a movement based on as to American as a they could for was and within the and seem by the that was the most male to the of women's late however, a few American women activists had that they from men, and through 1968 and their the of students in the As in and other a year or two women began to it was clear that those were by male at the as at with movement of the women's movement in the United States was in 1968, the of its and its from the new through global It is to the narratives of late-twentieth-century feminism in in subsequent years, but these were more than The of women's in widely that the gendered experience of 1968, although was global in its The year 1968 the of feminist outside the world that there were student and in every case utopian and new of political women to within their movements into a analysis of gender centered on the female women activists that they new and a new political despite resistance from their who that were for women. “The to to the but to to to and to do what they were recalled, people men and told that and then the are the that out into the and the women. of that have to out into the and to and in the that to in the to out and with in public both by political and by who on like women to discover own and do and can do these A young challenges police in France, the in May In France, the emerged in the of the May Women their with the between an and that women's through the power the the that men in a political with which women did not the that the sexual of political was and the that women in in that “the first place in 1968 in the of the May of and a political and to the an sexual there been to do with were in at the this and in is, women including the of organizing they were the first that a of what were In Germany, an in September 1968 to on women's A very by the that did not a the had for at the male leaders. that to and two months the a and later a of the in or in a popular these the that would into a women's movement was in Italy, Japan, and Mexico, feminist movements in the of 1968 even as the movements that had to them were And in the United States, of an Young American and an by women who it to in order to the between gender and the of In every women a on for seizing (“on a pris la to their own stories, their analyses and their on the female and on women in the their based on and “the In contrast to the that the more the more to the that the is the by the and on their a new political practice, with and in own In the United States, on September women the of the mass media with a at the Miss America in a live an and and and into a they a large poster of a body like a and the sexual revolution were central to women's sense of and a new for this global of Around the world in 1968, had been a key of freedom from of spontaneity, of an of the first at of the by Daniel that men be to the women's In Germany, activists from 1968 are in popular as the of a of an a revolution in an international a of And youth Women shared the In in 1968, young women their liberation with Miss America September was the first widely demonstration by the women's liberation movement in the United movements around the world that emerged in the of 1968 shared this challenge to the cultural of women's Student movements were with as young people and lived and their living on the The very of liberation that most in the themselves to a of that the rules of the gendered rebellions of women and men in many them at against their generation sought sexual freedom, the of traditional of and their male sexual access to women of their own class in many framed as a challenge to the but in the absence of feminist its consequences for women were was one of the ways that men status with other men, while with men in was a primary for women to themselves in the of movement leaders. The in early feminist to this and Women were a new freedom but that it could in new ways. “The which social for and is more than the more of sexual In the United States, that freedom has more for men, not a new of experience for and experience on the of in a into is only the of what for in many A man can bring a into an by with and by to do As a result, “the emerged as a central for feminism in widely the to sexual the experience of sexual challenging the cultural of against women and the to or with the realities of and the female body at the of their “The of the widely in 1968 in a even its later that by and a for female sexual by challenging the of women's to a of female sexuality in that there were two of female the and the a early in 1968, while the and of the women's liberation on generated a of revolutionary as participants and began to imagine sexual and a feminist In Japan, a analysis by in that men women into or for the of a The for had been for and on to that sexuality was central to women's and that the liberation of was at the of women's liberation. to the most of between men and which the of as human to provide a from which to through the liberation of to the liberation of women as the liberation of human the from the in with an analysis of sexual and the of the sexual to have a and The emphasis on the body and sexuality in feminist from the emphasis on a of the international from the that “the is a slogan also around the It to to and to and to create for women's and And it set what became and the of a based on are in a that is also of every other human or The centrality of liberation for student movements outside the world also in explaining the very different between student activism and feminism in Europe. Women in and for had experiences that in many ways those of their in the into new public roles and political but visible public The of as into and a sharp of the public that had and as a result, women had few to to of new Indeed, in such as Poland, the for the was the which out traditional gender roles within the family as a against and who were at first to with the shared an to the utopianism of Western student movements. In their the of for and the repressive of the generated that made claims on public for women more would the to be political the family had a primary against the authority of the power embodied in the was not that had women much as it had been to place on family women into the labor and with In subsequent that had to the of from different of the themselves sharply different this a detailed of the gender dynamics of these student movements in to their broader political in order to more the gendered of public and and freedom in the of the In 1968, the of the women's liberation movement in the United States was a component of the utopian and of the transnational generational the ecstasy and the of Women and from in and 1968,” what “the on the of a the and and outside be was a in the that made and that first year of feminist activism as of in this one that would on for a In were of the were to the world in the two or or would be of for The emergence of feminist movements in with student revolts was the first of a series of social and its roots in the of the Indeed, as many student movements in to and the women's liberation the of '68 well into the the emergence of feminist movements a of 1968 outside the understanding their roots will also much that are only to those movements themselves and the that The gender and roles of women and men in and comparative In of the sharply experiences of student movements in Europe, the of the the or absence of public and the of the in deserve scrutiny in the study of the international 1968 across the globe. is much to be for the of the from the of household to on the of social they were and and and they The gender dynamics of movements that linked labor with students and middle-class will also the ways that gender class as well as have that 1968 had only impact as a political but that it in cultural That can be challenged in part by in on the most in which the cultural in movements political to that had been to the also a and their revolutionary expectations The gender challenges of young men and young women in the international 1968 were not which is feminist rebellions began as within those movements. many of the they on the political the roles of women and men in the the and public and the and of these a profound