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Amid bitter debate, a committee of feminist historians passed a grim resolution saying that "as feminist scholars we have a responsibility not to allow our scholarship to be used against the interests of women struggling for equity in our society." That wording would seem to say that truth must take a backseat to feminist interests, but supporters deny this interpretation. They point to an accompanying resolution that reads, "We believe that as scholars we may have many differing interpretations of the sources in women's history, and we reject the claims of anyone to be representing a 'true interpretation' of women's history." The president of the American Historical Association, Carl Degler of Stanford, defends Rosenberg: "She had an argument to make, and she ought not to be called into question."
Though the Sears and California cases are obviously very different, both turn on the same question: Should feminists admit significant differences between the sexes? Traditionally, mainstream feminism has downplayed the importance of biological differences and has insisted that men and women be treated exactly alike by the law. Friedan and her allies deride this view, with its strained argument that hernias and pregnancies are somehow similar. Asks Friedan: "Why should the law treat us like male clones?" Similarly, Rosenberg argues that her feminist opponents minimize all the significant male-female differences and cultural influences that might explain the preponderance of men in high- pressure sales jobs, including women's greater distaste for cutthroat competition and their greater attention to the pull of home and family.
Like many women, Rosenberg admits to great ambivalence on the issue. "If women as a group are allowed special benefits, you open up the group to charges that it is inferior. But if we deny all differences, as the women's movement has so often done, you deflect attention from the disadvantages women labor under." Either way, she says, women can lose: "I'm a historian, and I know the disadvantages of both sides."