Overview
Throughout his career Bernard Shaw served as a "vigorous exponent of women's freedom to be themselves, to liberate themselves from their traditional roles and traditional subservience. This book reflects upon Shaw as an early champion of goals still fresh on the banners of today's feminist movement: equal opportunity to secure employment; equal pay for equal work; contracts for marriage; marriage free from degrading economic and possessive-sexual factors; dignified divorce; financial independence within or without marriage; ownership of property exclusive of one's husband; bearing of children outside of marriage and refusal to bear children; equal opportunity to participate in athletics; and legal equality of every variety.
Following a general introduction by the editor, the book offers sections on Literary and Mythic Influences and Political and Economic Influences. Part III reveals Shaw grappling with the question of Sex Roles or True Vocation, and Part IV describes Shaw's Liberated Women. Next comes a consideration of the Influence of Shaw's Feminism: Three Generations—including interviews with the playwrights Clare Boothe Luce and Megan Terry. A concluding section presents five broadsides, not previously reprinted, under the rubric of Shaw on Feminist Issues. There is an extensive bibliography of works by and about Shaw, The Fabian Feminist.