Feminism = Folly...?
I found this interesting quote from the book The Feminist Mistake by Mary Kassian on the website for the Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (www.cbmw.org):
"Feminism has failed miserably, and ironically it has exacerbated the very problem it set out to resolve," she writes. "Instead of promoting healthy self-identity for women or contributing to a greater harmony between the sexes, it has resulted in increased gender confusion, increased conflict, and a profound destruction of morality and family.
"It has left in its wake a mass of dysfunctional relationships and shattered lives. People of this culture no longer know what it means to be a man or a woman or how to make life work. What has been lost will not easily be regained. Though feminist theory has progressed just about as far as it can, the practical outworking of that theory has not. Feminism will dramatically affect our society and churches for years to come."
posted by Lorie @ 10:28 AM
19 Comments:
Forgive me ahead of time if my comment sounds harsh....like all equal rights movements (femonism, gay rights, etc) I block them all out. Especially femonism.
Only becasue they all seemed to have crossed the point to wanting special rights. ANd yes it does get confusing and all sides are wanting power.
I will not give anyone specail rights becasue they are a woman....I will treat them as a person, a living, breathing, human being.
And that is hard enough becasue with all these rights movements and acts as this, it is hard to know how to act around who and who you may or may not offend.
ANother reason I wnat to ignore all these "rights" movements is that it is all aobut empowering themselves, I do not see this as Godly or holy as it is taking the power into our own hands.
Now yes women should not be treated harshly becasue they are a woman. But if we truley follow the bible there are gender roles but there is still alot of equality within those roles.
Sorry for the rambling, it's that femonism and more seems to be missing the point and expecting too much...I like people to just be people.
It's such a big issue that it is hard to respond. And this is what makes it hard to have a debate, let alone dialogue, with people of opposing sides.
It helps to break things down and work out the practical implications step by step. For instance, I could talk about the larger philosophical underpinnings of feminism all day long, only to be countered by someone who takes me to task for opposing "equal pay for equal work." Of course I believe in equal pay for equal work.
I'd be interested to read more of the article.
On the Council site they have online versions of some of their books. Read away.
I think this is a case, though, in which it is precisely the philosophical and idealogical implications that are the most important. People get distracted (or are just ignorant) and focus on the pragmatic issues (ie. equal pay for equal work) while failing to acknowledge the deeper, more serious harm that the shift in ideology does to our families and society.
I read their "50 questions" section. Good stuff.
I was interested to discover recently that the "equal pay for equal work" statistic we always hear (namely, that women make around 75 cents for every dollar men make) is misleading. Women in America generally make identical (or nearly identical) salaries when their pay is compared within a particular field, taking into account issues like work experience, etc. So, pediatricians in a mid-size city, for instance, usually make virtually equivalent salaries regardless of their gender. Duh! No woman would tolerate being paid 75 grand a year when Dr. Joe down the hall makes 100 grand!
That 75 cents per $1 statistic applies to women as a workforce and men as a workforce, without differentiating between careers. The fact is, men are the majority in higher-paying careers. Now, that's an issue I'm willing to address and deal with (especially from the standpoint of education), but people should know better by now that a female engineer is not coming home with 25% less than her male coworkers.
The work experience issue is also an important one. When Dr. Sue and her husband Dr. Joe decide to have kids, who chooses to stay home? Then, in ten years when Dr. Sue goes back to work, she's back at 2005 pay scale. Of course, she definitely knew this when she made the decision, and the 3 gorgeous kids undoubtedly make the pay discrepancy less of an issue, but all this is to say that the statistic doesn't take this kind of issue into account, either.
Sorry for the long ramble. I just really wish folks would stop trying to guilt-trip conservatives with this bogus statistic. Try googling "women earn + men earn + dollar" and just wait for the boo-hooing and violins to start.
Laura, word. Well said.
Yes Laura, I see that issue at work in my law firm. It is less likely that female lawyers make partner, even though we hire as many, if not more, females. The reason is that many of them have kids and take time off. Some become full-time mothers, some choose to leave the firm and work part-time somewhere, and some come back to work here after a period of time.
But even when they do come back, they usually work a more limited schedule. To make partner here, you have to work extremely long hours.
To a casual observer, it may seem like the firm is biased toward male partners, but it' just a question of who puts in the time necessary. This is not to condemn the females who take time for their children -- certainly not! They've done a great thing, but it is a great thing that means they're less likely to move from associate to partner, and make the bigger bucks.
I'd like to hear Cheryl's thoughts on this but she seems to be MIA...
I'd like to hear queen latiffa's comments on this one
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it's not a distraction to appreciate the pragmatic issues that feminism deals with, but i agree that "it hasn't promoted a healthy self identity for women or harmonized the sexes"
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Those stinkin' spam blog things irritate the life out of me!
tell me about it..same here, ms. king
how bout a discussion on what to do about the situation in Iraq? As evangelical believers, is it ok to disagree with the man on our being there at this point? Some good questions, with no easy answers.
Okay, Anon. I'd appreciate real names, but...
Those are good questions, and something I'm interested to hear from others about. So I'm gonna post your comment as a new blog entry and let people comment on it.
Feminism seemed to get caught up in the idea that to have equal rights, women should behave more like men. I like to think that's no longer the case...
I agree that positive discrimination is dangerous - I would like to think that we live in a society that is ready to give a job to the best person for it, not one based on filling a quota. I would like to have the 100 best people doing a job regardless of gender, rather than the 50 best men and the 50 best women...
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