The Newer Feminism
before it. Pro-life women, on the been marginalized by mainstream Ford, and Reagan administrations
other hand, argued it was an irre- society.” In 2005, a CBS News poll — says, “This is the greatest time
sponsible way for women to have found that a majority of women said in history to be a woman, at least in
their cake and eat it, too. Suddenly, their opportunities to succeed are America. For the fi rst time a woman
women weren’t just at war with men better than their mothers’. Nearly 70 can have it all — an education, a job,
anymore — they were at war with the percent said the women’s movement a husband, and children — and not
state, with conservative and religious had made their lives better. have to choose between a career and
women and with biology itself. The successes of feminism are a family.”
The backlash against feminism indeed inarguable. As Carrie Lukas, But that doesn’t mean that those
grew in the ’80s and ’90s, giving vice president for policy and eco- within the movement think femi-
birth, so to speak, to post-feminism nomics at the Independent Women’s nism is irrelevant now. To ask some
and so-called anti-feminism, both Forum, puts it, “Women have certain- women’s advocacy groups, the battle
of which describe ideological shifts ly achieved is very much alive and well.
away from the women’s liberation equality of Marcia Pappas, head of the
movement of the ’60s and ’70s. opportunity. New York State chapter of NOW,
The former suggested that gen- offers the following as proof:
der equality had been won, the lat- “Women still do not have equal
ter that modern feminists actually pay or a full range of reproduc-
were holding women back now. tive rights. Same-sex couples still
Feminists argued about the intrin- do not have the same rights as
sic nature of dif- heterosexual people.
ferences between “Women are still not repre-
E
S
G
A
the sexes, and sented in the U.S. Constitution.

I
M
Y
whether or not Men are still not willing to give
E
T
T
S
/
G
they should be cel- up their power. They think that
N
F
E
R
ebrated as biologi- giving up power makes them less
E
D
/
R
N
cal or combated as powerful. But in fact leveling the
O
R
A
societal. So where pplaying fi eld is good for everyone,

E
.

A
D
does all of that leave e
DIVERSITY
even men.”
R
A
us today, and have e
By the 1980s,
But there also is some ambiva-
I
C
H
/
R
A
the goals of feminismm
women’s issues
lence about women’s rights that is
N
N
were in the
O
D
been achieved? harder to qualify, and it’s most visible
A
hands of a
E
S

/

M
G
when looking through the lens of the
V
A
bold mix of
O M
D
I
8LI8LSVSYKLP]LP 
N
infl uences.
younger generation of women who,
L
A
E
T
T
Y
S
/
1SHIVR;SQER perhaps, view feminism as a closed
E
/
G
T
E
R
I
V
-
n 1970, Steinem wrote that the Women are going to college and chapter in American history.
E
U
C
H
/
R
R

A
purpose of women’s liberation graduate schools more frequently The argument here is that femi-
E
E
D
N
O

R
N
L
T
U
was for men and women to than men. Women are succeeding in nism’s ultimate success is that we
S
O
A
/
H
/
J N
“unlearn” the popular wisdom that all sorts of professions.” don’t need it anymore, now that mil-
R
O
O
D
N
G
taught us “patriotism means obedi- A Gallup Poll in 2007 found that lions of young women have been
N
N
’
C
O

L
A
Y
ence, age means wisdom, woman women, if “free to do either,” pre- born into a society in which their

O R
R
A
E
S

/
means submission, black means ferred to work outside the home gender isn’t a limitation.
G
/
H
A
A
D

I
M N
inferior.” In that sense, tremendous rather than stay at home to take care These are women who see any
F
O
E
T
T
Y
strides have been made over the of their families, by 58 percent. initiative that separates the sexes as
E
S

/

G
E
S
/
G
A
R
years in all of those categories. The number was slightly down sexist, not feminist, and that men are

I
M
I
C
T
U
T
Y
Joan Callahan, a professor of phi- from 62 percent in 2001. And in just as qualifi ed to fi ght for women’s

P E
T
E
/
G
losophy and gender and women’s 2008, another Gallup Poll found rights as women. It is a vantage point

L
I
F
E
I
V
&
E

C
H
R
studies at the University of Kentucky, that fully 72 percent of Americans that modern feminism has had a

A
/
T
I
M
N
M
says the successes aren’t just about polled reported being satisfi ed with hard time reconciling.
U L
T
O
A
B
U
/
H
the rights women won. “Feminism the position of women, up 5 points “My generation doesn’t see gen-
E
N
N
N
N
is also helping to transform society since 2001. der bias,” says Andrea Tantaros, a
C
T
I
O

T
A
N
L
L
E
in ways that make social spaces more K.T. McFarland, one of the fi rst 31-year-old conservative columnist
L
L
A

C
O
/
A N
congenial to families and to others women in the national security fi eld and Fox News commentator. “And
O
R
E
A
A
R
/
K
N
(men and women alike) who have — she held senior posts in the Nixon, Continued on page 68 F
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S
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66
NEWSMAX / NOVEMBER 2009
CoverStory_NewFeminism.indd 66 10/1/09 2:44 PM
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