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 suffragist 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 anti-feminist 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.

1. The author asserts that the historians discussed in the passage have

(A) influenced feminist theorists who concentrate on the family
(B) honored the perceptions of the women who participated in the women suffrage movement
(C) treated feminism as a social force rather than as an intellectual tradition
(D) paid little attention to feminist movements
(E) expanded the conventional view of nineteenth-century feminism



2. The author of the passage asserts that some twentieth-century feminists have influenced some historians view of the

(A) significance of the woman suffrage movement
(B) importance to society of the family as an institution
(C) degree to which feminism changed nineteenth-century society
(D) philosophical traditions on which contemporary feminism is based
(E) public response to domestic feminism in the nineteenth century



3. The author of the passage suggests that which of the following was true of nineteenth-century feminists?

(A) Those who participated in the moral reform movement were motivated primarily by a desire to reconcile their private lives with their public positions.
(B) Those who advocated domestic feminism, although less visible than the suffragists, were in some ways the more radical of the two groups.
(C) Those who participated in the woman suffrage movement sought social roles for women that were not defined by women’s familial roles.
(D) Those who advocated domestic feminism regarded the gaining of more autonomy within the family as a step toward more participation in public life.
(E) Those who participated in the nineteenth-century moral reform movement stood midway between the positions of domestic feminism and suffragism.



4. 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.