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Take Back Feminism policyexpressNo. 10-1 • 2010 How the once noble cause of feminism has been derailed and why mainstream women have to put it back on track. Take Back Feminism By Christina Hoff Sommers Two Paths to Freedom About the Author hen asked, “Are you a feminist?,” To understand what went wrong most American women say no. and how it might be set right, we need Christina Hoff Sommers Feminist activists blame the briefly to visit feminism in its glory days. is a resident scholar at the W Historically, there have been two major media for feminism’s poor image, but American Enterprise Institute. I believe the activists themselves have schools of thought within the women’s She has written and edited turned the women’s movement into a movement: egalitarian feminism and several books including caricature. Within living memory, the social feminism. The Science on Women and American feminist movement was a Egalitarian feminists were Science, Who Stole Feminism?, vibrant, broad-based vehicle for social progressives—some would say radicals. and The War Against Boys. equality that had achieved momentous They held that men and women, although She has lectured and victories and enjoyed richly deserved socialized to different roles, are identical debated on more than 100 prestige for its valor and success. in their essential natures. By appealing to college campuses. But today the movement has been principles of social justice and universal taken over by aggrieved eccentrics. rights, egalitarians sought to liberate Marching under the banner of feminism, women from the private sphere of the the current activists are fighting a gender home—into the public spheres of politics, war that few women support or understand. business, and work. The potential for harm is enormous. The social feminists, by contrast, were Mainstream women are going to have to traditionalist and family-centered. They rescue feminism from the feminists. embraced rather than scorned women’s We badly need a responsible, reality- roles as mothers or caregivers—and based women’s movement. Women promoted women’s rights by redefining in many parts of the developing world and strengthening those roles. are still struggling for their basic rights. Social feminists argued that an The classical style of feminism that empowered femininity could be a force made American women among the most for good in the world and they made liberated in the world offers a tried-and- common cause with the egalitarians in true road map to emancipation. Even in promoting women’s education, women’s the West, there are still unresolved equity Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute suffrage, and women’s participation in 112 Elden Street, Suite P issues. the culture and politics. Historically, both Herndon, Virginia 20170 Who needs feminism? We do. The schools played critical roles in women’s P (888) 891-4288 • F (703) 318-8867 emancipation. www.cblpi.org world does. But not the feminism that prevails in the typical college “womyn’s In 18th Century England, the two sides center.” were represented by the great egalitarian 2 Take Back Feminism feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and the formidable attack on their unique and valued place in the family. conservative “Blue Stocking” Hannah More. In If the American women’s movement was going to 19th Century America, the egalitarians were led by move forward, the suffrage movement needed new Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, and arguments and new ways of thinking that were more the traditional social feminists by Frances Willard. respectful and protective of women’s role. Frances Now it is much more likely that you have heard Willard showed the way. of Stanton and Anthony than Willard, who has Willard served as president of the Woman’s been effectively air-brushed out of the history of Christian Temperance Union from 1879 until feminism. It is worth taking a moment to consider her death in 1898. With the vote, said Willard, her accomplishments and the way she is now women could greatly increase their civilizing and regarded. For she may hold the key to a feminist humane influence on society. With the vote, they renaissance. could protect the homes they dearly loved. Indeed, Moviemaker Ken Burns followed his award- Willard referred to the vote as “the home protection winning The Civil War with a 1999 film about ballot.” Women were moved by her arguments; Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony and men were disarmed. Cady Stanton was leery of the their struggle to win the vote for American women. association with Willard: the less radical Anthony In one sequence the narrator mentions that, in the relished it. Willard and her followers began to bring last quarter of the 19th Century, Anthony forged the suffrage movement something the egalitarians coalitions with some conservative mainstream were unable to accomplish on their own: electoral groups. victories. The mood darkens and Women’s Studies Both the egalitarian and social feminist paths Professor Sally Roesch Wagner appears on the have been indispensable to women’s progress— screen. Wagner informs viewers that Anthony was although social feminism has always enjoyed wider so determined to win the vote that she established appeal. But as women’s historian Janet Zollinger alliances with pro-suffrage women who were Giele notes, “History records defeat where one “enemies of freedom in every other way—Frances branch failed to recognize the valid arguments of Willard is a case in point.” The camera then shows the other.” a photo of a menacing-looking Willard. Mother Nature is not a Feminist One would never imagine from Burns’s film that Frances Willard (1839-1898) was one of the So where are we now? Following the Second most beloved and respected World War, the United States women of 19th Century “Womanliness first — badly needed an egalitarian America. Because of her correction. It arrived in what prodigious good works afterwards what you will” has come to be known as the and kindly nature, Willard Second Wave of feminism. was often called “Saint Frances of American (The Suffrage Movement, culminating in passage Womanhood.” It was Willard who brought of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 1920, mainstream women into the suffrage movement. was the First Wave.) Many historians credit her with doing far In the 1950s and 1960s, American women were more to win the vote for women than any other still locked out of many fields and allotted second- suffragist. But her fondness for saying things like class status in education, in the workplace, and “Womanliness first—afterwards what you will” before the law. Those who preferred paths other was her ticket to oblivion among those in today’s than wife and mother, or who found the stereotypes Women’s Studies programs. of femininity stultifying, were trapped. Throughout the 1870s and 1880s the suffrage Egalitarian feminists like Betty Friedan and movement was in serious trouble: many women Gloria Steinem led the way and urged American actively organized against it. Stanford historian women to live “not at the mercy of the world, but Carl Degler and others believe that, because the as builder and designer of that world.” Women vote was associated with individualism and personal listened. By the 1980s, American women were well assertiveness, women saw it as both selfish and an Policy Express No.10-1 3 on their way to enjoying freedoms and opportunities When the 2007 Pew Research Center asked far beyond those of any women in history. working mothers and fathers “What would be the But mainstream American women never fully ideal situation for you—working full time, part- embraced the egalitarian program of Friedan and time, or not at all outside the home?,” a majority Steinem and other leaders of the Second Wave. of mothers preferred part-time (50%) and nearly a Rather, they adopted a compromise between the third (29%) preferred not to work at all. Among egalitarian and social traditions. fathers, 72% preferred to work full-time. For equity feminists, these are expected and fully acceptable This compromise was once eloquently (and consequences of freedom. presciently) described by Clare Boothe Luce who in her heyday in the 1940s was a popular playwright But let’s be very clear about what these group and a member of the United States Congress. She comparisons mean—because people often get wrote these words about women at a time when confused and cry “Sexism!” When we say, men feminism’s Second Wave was still more than twenty tend to do this, and women that—we are dealing in years away. Her views averages, not absolutes. are not celebrated Clare Boothe Luce captured the style of There is a sizable during women’s history percentage of women month, but they capture feminism that resonates with women who will make the same the style of feminism decisions as a man. that seems to resonate with women everywhere: To say that most mothers prefer not to work full- time—is not to say that no mothers want full-time It is time to leave the question of the role of jobs. Many mothers do. As many as one in five. I women in society up to Mother Nature—a am one such mother. But we need to recognize and difficult lady to fool. You have only to respect the desires of those who take different paths give women the same opportunities as in their pursuit of happiness. men, and you will soon find out what is or is not in their nature. What is in women’s The Sisterhood nature to do they will do, and you won’t The women who built the college Women’s be able to stop them.
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