Feminists Psychoanalyze Themselves Again

The feminists are going through one of their periodic soul-searching psychological examinations of what the women's liberation movement did or did not do for them, and why they are not happy with the result. We've had several weeks of tiresome articles and reports: Maria Shriver's report called "A Woman's Nation Changes Everything," a Time Magazine cover story headlined "The State of the American Woman," and articles from all the feminist columnists. They all seem scared of their own research because it contradicts much of their gender-neutral ideology. No doubt it was a shock to the feminists to read in Time Magazine that "a majority of both men and women still say it is best for children to have a father working and a mother at home."

These feminist writers long ago identified the major goal of the women's liberation movement as getting more wives out of the home and into the labor force. The chief purpose of the feminists was to make the role of fulltime homemaker economically untenable and socially disdained, and to put down fulltime homemakers as "parasites." The feminists have been strikingly successful with this goal; women are now half the labor force. In the current recession, the majority of workers laid off have been men (especially from construction and manufacturing). Jobs where women predominate have not been much affected.

Feminists are now demanding that workforce rules to be changed to be more female-friendly. They are demanding that the taxpayers provide high-quality daycare and paid family leave. They are demanding that new laws be passed to prohibit employers from ordering women to work overtime (as men are often required to do).

Remember, these are the same feminists who have been saying for years that men and women should be treated exactly the same!

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