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Take Back Feminism

Take Back Feminism

policyexpressNo. 10-1 • 2010 How the once noble cause of has been derailed and why mainstream women have to put it back on track. Take Back Feminism

By 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 . 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 Policy Institute , 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 , 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 and Susan B. Anthony, and arguments and new ways of thinking that were more the traditional social feminists by . 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 and movement was in serious trouble: many women 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 “!” 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. But you will also Studies departments and who lead the contemporary find, and so will they, that what is not in organized women’s movement took a different path. their nature, even if they are given every For the most part, they regarded women’s traditional opportunity, they will not do, and you domestic roles as obstacles to the realization of won’t be able to make them do it. their true natures rather than as expressions of their natures. Most are radical egalitarians, determined Camille Paglia, the brilliant literary critic and to create a new society in which men and women dissident feminist, once told me she found Luce’s are liberated from the stereotypes of gender. words awe-inspiring. So do I. Luce takes the best of A classic expression of this worldview is both egalitarian and social feminism. She is careful Hunter College psychologist Virginia Valian’s to say that women’s nature can only be made known Why So Slow? The Advancement of Women (1999). in conditions of freedom and opportunity. But, she “Egalitarian parents can bring up their children so does not expect that, with equal opportunity, women that both boys and girls play with dolls and trucks.” will turn out to be interchangeable with men. Valian concludes, “From the standpoint of equality, By the end of the 20th Century, this moderate, nothing is more important.” eclectic style of feminism had become the lived Others, far fewer in number but even more other- philosophy of most American women—and men, worldly, have gone beyond mere egalitarianism to an too. Very few want to see women forced Amazonian “gynocentric” feminism that proclaims into rigid gender roles—but neither do they wish women the superior sex who will have to save the to see gender differences abolished. For this style world from the predations of a toxic . of Clare Boothe Luce feminism (call it “”) the ideal is equality of opportunity, not Housed in Women’s Studies departments, law equality of results. schools, research institutes, and advocacy centers, these two groups have built a powerful fortress of their own. They tolerate one another but view 4 Take Back Feminism

most outside criticism as “backlash” or “intellectual ingrained gendering” of American life. Obstacles harassment.” Their convictions are unfalsifiable, holding women back were removed several decades no amount of evidence can change their minds. For ago—and discrimination in the workplace or in them, the fact that vast numbers of women continue education is against the law. So these groups now to give children and family priority over careers, specialize in removing “invisible barriers.” and even profess themselves to be happy with that Why, ask the NCRW feminists, should there be circumstance, is proof that women are still captive so many more men in math and engineering than to a repressive and tenacious “gender system.” women? What explains the over-representation of Daphne Patai and Noretta Koertge are two men on corporate boards and prestigious Sunday Women’s Studies professors who openly defected. morning news programs? Why should men be In their revealing book, Professing Feminism: getting most of the patents and garnering the major Education and Indoctrination in Women’s Studies literary awards? And, most urgently, why do so (2001), they show how many women cooperate feminist classrooms use Millions of college students by giving priority to home propaganda to transform and family over career? idealistic female students have been burdened by To such questions into “relentless grievance feminist professors’ divisive and the NCRW researchers collectors.” sometimes poisonous teachings have boilerplate answers. Pick up a Women’s Women are being held back Studies textbook, visit by “unconscious bias,” a college women’s center, look at the websites of “hostile climates,” and “internalized oppression.” leading feminist organizations, and you will find Other more innocent explanations—such as the elaborate theories about the “male hegemony.” possibility that the sexes, taken as groups, are Students learn that we inhabit an oppressive different—are ruled out of bounds. “patriarchal” society where women are robbed The members of the NCRW have volumes of of their self-esteem, “conditioned” to accept their own research to “prove” ubiquitous—albeit subordinate roles, “channeled” into low-paying invisible—discrimination and they have hundreds of fields, and cheated out of almost a quarter of their initiatives to address it. It can be career diminishing income. for a skeptical scholar to openly criticize their These teachings bear no relation to reality; they agenda. So, they flourish and grow. do nothing to help women solve the real problems they confront, and they are disrespectful and Here is a sample of some dubious achievements patronizing to women. But the false claims have of the NCRW groups and their sister organizations: been repeated so many times they have taken on the ►► The celebrated Title IX equity law began as aura of truth. an admirable equal-opportunity requirement. Why it Matters Because of pressure from the NCRW groups such as the National Women’s Law Some will say, who cares? So what if a lot of Center and the American Association of feminist professors believe and say silly things? University Women, Title IX has evolved First of all, millions of college students have been into a gender quota regime that is blind to burdened by their divisive and sometimes poisonous empirical differences in overall men’s and teachings. And many journalists and politicians women’s interests in sports. Since football take their ideas seriously. is a money generating male-only sport with Consider the influence of the National Council large rosters, Title IX quotas have decimated for Research on Women (NCRW). This is a network men’s wrestling, swimming, diving, and of 112 women’s research and policy centers. gymnastic teams. We did not need to do Members include the Wellesley Center for Research that in order to achieve the great success of on Women, Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute, and the women’s collegiate sports. Stanford Institute for Gender Research. ►► Lobbying by the NCRW and feminist The NCRW promotes legions of radical scholars, scholars persuaded the National Science lawyers, and activists working against the “deeply Foundation to invest millions of dollars Policy Express No.10-1 5

in a program called ADVANCE. For the The women’s groups were electrified by their past decade it has sponsored “cultural victory. But a feminist establishment that celebrates transformation” programs that challenge these sorts of triumphs over men does not represent the “manliness of the scientific enterprise” the interests of many women. Those men are fathers, with its obsessive single-mindedness, sons, brothers, husbands, and friends; if they are in competitiveness, and disregard of family serious trouble, so are the women who care about life. The nation’s leading math, physics, them and in many cases depend on them. engineering, and computer technology But the NCRW and its sister organizations see departments are now under NSF pressure the world differently. For them, life is a zero-sum to adopt gender quotas, and to rein in their struggle between men and women—and their job is competitive, hard-driven, meritocratic to side with the women. culture—a predominantly “male culture” that has made American science the Feminism for the New Century mightiest in the world. ►► Last year, NCRW groups joined other It doesn’t have to be this way. Over the years, major women’s organizations to demand a I have lectured on more than 100 college campuses “gender-balanced” stimulus bill. President where I meet both conservative and radical students. Obama, alarmed by the massive losses The former invite me; the latter come to jeer and in the manufacturing and construction wrangle—but as a rule, we all part friends. The sectors, initially spoke of a “shovel ready” feminist professors almost never attend. Why stimulus bill to strengthen these devastated should they lend credibility to a critic who is by industries. Women’s groups were appalled definition a crank? It’s the students and me. and sent word that “we don’t want this To my surprise, I find that many of the younger stimulus package to just create jobs for burly feminist activist students welcome the chance to men.” A flood of petitions, faxes, e-mails, debate. Most can be reasoned with and seem fully and phone calls followed. More than one capable of allying themselves with moderate and thousand feminist conservative women to work historians signed a The 21st Century cause — for a common purpose. letter of protest to the helping those women My advice to today’s President: “We need who have yet to college women: take back to rebuild not only feminism now. Make it steel bridges but also find the liberty inclusive, fair, and reality- human bridges.” that Western women based. Make the movement The President did what have won for themselves attractive again to the most deans and college majority of American women presidents do when confronted by a chorus who want their rights but do not wish to be liberated of female complaint: he ran for cover. He from the traditions of femininity. directed his chief economists Christina We can then take on the great cause that awaits Romer and Jared Bernstein to develop a us in the 21st Century: helping the women who have gender-fair budget. yet to find the liberty that Western women have A few weeks later they came out with the won for themselves—and that women everywhere “Job Impact of the American Recovery and deserve. Reinvestment Plan,” which explicitly noted that “the total number of created jobs likely to go to women is roughly 42 percent.” Lest anyone miss the point, they added that since men lost 80 percent of the jobs in the recession, the stimulus package now “skews job creation somewhat towards women.”

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