Back in 1928, the author George Bernard Shaw published a handbook for a citizen who had, just recently, gained the right to vote in America—the little housewife. The book’s title was The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism, and it tilted heavily toward the socialist side. Shaw’s political framework now seems antiquated—his aim was to “make Socialism the established constitutional order.” But what strikes the modern reader most is not Shaw’s politics but his condescending tone.

In his foreword, Shaw stated that “I have been asked whether there are any intelligent women in America. There must be; for politically the men are such futile gossips that the U.S. could not possibly carry on unless there were some sort of practical intelligence in back of them.” Today such language seems so patronizing as to be quaint.

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