I know it's hard for some people to imagine today, but a long time ago, women had higher status in the U.S.A. than in Europe (except for the few who were monarchs). It was because of the Jeffersonian founding principles of course, which were opposite the old continental European ones where high taxes, high public spending, regulations, and monetary inflation and limitations on freedom of expression were favored. Women were more economically independent and successful in the U.S.A. compared to Europe up until the 1950s or later. In the U.S.A. women could own slaves, they were more likely to be in the motion pictures, they invented more (they were awarded more patents in the U.S.A. although I hate the patent system), they made more money compared to women in Europe, and sending them to higher education was not widely looked down on like it was in Europe. Hedy Lamarr had observed that they were more economically independent in the U.S.A, but given the power of the anti-feminist Roman Catholic Church in Europe, the lack of respect for private property rights, and the bitterness of men in pre-1960s Europe it all makes sense. There was no feminist movement in Germany before the Nazis came to power, but there was the welfare State proposed and popularized by Otto Von Bismarck in the late 1800s. While there was support for laissez-faire capitalism in the U.S.A. through FDR's presidency while the vast majority of people who supported it were not anti-feminist like most Germans were (****** may or may not have been popular among the German people, but the Nazi Party's views on "the traditional family" were popular among the German people; all the neighboring countries were the same way).

If people think Europe is so progressive today, they should know Europe was totally backwards and the opposite less than 3/4 of a century ago. Basically, there was no intermediate steps in feminism in Europe. They went from completely backwards and the opposite of what they are today. Pre-1960s U.S.A. was intermediate to pre-1960s Europe and post 1960s Europe.

Just interesting (to me, anyway) food for thought.

Discussion wanted.