In the 1970s the socialist-feminist women's unions attempted to deal with the dilemma of separatism versus assimilationism by distinguishing a third option: autonomy. An important question concerns our self-definitions as leftist and feminist activists. Socialist countries have fallen far short of their ideals, to the point that socialism has become a dirty word, not merely among the traditionally anticommunist US population but also among the rebelling populations of Eastern Europe. The fact that women and children will constitute half of all poor families by the year 2000 shows the overlap of capitalism and patriarchy and the need of feminists to take democratic socialism seriously as a solution to the poverty of many women. Feminists and leftists with a class and race consciousness must realize that challenging the present social order involves both effective coalition strategies for uniting women and men across race and class boundaries and an explicitly socialist-feminist agenda for reconstructing the welfare state.