Recent feminist scholarship con-cerning the United States in the 1920’s challenges earlier interpretations that assessed the twenties in terms of the unkept “promises” of the women’s suffrage movement. 近期关于美国20年代的妇女研究对早先的解释进行置疑。这些解释以妇女选举权运动未能履行承诺来评价20年代。
Asked whether women’s suffrage was a failure, these scholars cite the words of turn-of-the-century social reformer Jane Addams,“Why don’t you ask if suffrage in general is failing?” 在疑问该运动是否失败时,这些学者引用了世纪初的社会改革者J.A.的话“为什么不问一下整个选举权运动是否失败了呢?”
In some ways, however, these scholars still present the 1920’s as a period of decline. 这里是作者和新学者的差异之处。
After suffrage, they argue, the feminist movement lost its cohesiveness, and gender conscious-ness waned. After the mid-1920’s, few successes could be claimed by feminist reformers: little could be seen in the way of legislative victories. 这是新学者的观点。
During this decade, however, there was intense activism aimed at achieving increased autonomy for women, broadening the spheres within which they lived their daily lives. 第三段是作者提出的异议。