ABSTRACT
Nineteenth-century feminists expected that they would have to choose between motherhood and a career. All they demanded was a ‘fair field and no favour’ if they chose the latter. Thus they deplored the idea of protective legislation for women wage-earners and what they regarded as ‘special privileges’, such as maternity leave. Either women were equal to men or they were not. Many early twentieth-century feminists-mostly Fabian and socialist women-objected to defining equality on male terms and began to demand that greater recognition be given to the work that women did in the home. But this set of feminist arguments still presumed that women would have to choose between motherhood and a career and was grounded on the assumption that women were equal but different.
