Was the Advent of “Feminism” Good for Society?

Ever since the advent of modern-day “feminism“, which dates back to the 1960’s, we’ve seen quite a change in our society - some positive and some negative.

Prior to this time in the 1960’s, women were mostly stay-at-home moms or working women who were hired mainly as nurses, school teachers, and retail store sales clerks. The feminist movement wanted to change all that, and they, on the whole, have succeeded.

The feminist movement was started, at that time, by a female activist named Betty Friedan, who had authored a book entitled, “The Feminine Mystique” in 1963. This book was the catalyst of the women’s liberation movement which has continued on up until this day. Friedan, along with fellow activists, Gloria Steinem and Bella Absug were the major movers and shakers of what we now refer to as the Women’s Lib Movement. Betty Friedan was the driving force behind the founding of N.O.W. (the National Organization of Women) and NARAL (the pro-choice abortion group).

Since that time, American women have “dropped their aprons and mops” (so to speak) and have decided to compete with men in business, academia, the professions, politics, and a host of other careers that women generally were not participating in, to any great extent, up to the 1960’s. This change, in many cases, has been a positive happening as women became more educated and in many cases, more financially self-sustaining. The “nuclear family”, as we knew it back then, post WW11, is today almost non-existent.

Some of the problems that have occurred and that has evolved over the past 50 years, could be traced to the “feminist” movement of the 1960’s.

The major negative or disruption, caused by the “feminist” movement, has had a real effect on the family, as many families are now one-parent families, as the divorce rate has skyrocketed to where one out of two marriages end in divorce. Before the 1960’s, divorces were generally rare and were not looked upon favorably by society. This has caused some major problems with our youth as they try to cope with a broken family and all that it entails. In many cases, children come home from school to a parentless house with no built-in supervision. Two parents working seems to be the norm today, as the former scenario of the husband being the sole breadwinner of the family is basically a thing of the past.

In addition, the stress of the mother working and raising a family has created additional health problems in many women who are trying to cope with the situation. Diseases that once afflicted mostly men are now afflicting many more women today, such as heart disease, diabetes, and yes, even suicide and depression.

Women have made much progress, but it has brought with that success some negative effects on our society. Today, some of our politicians have used women as pawns or as symbols to try to discredit their political opponents. This tactic has been mainly used by Democrats by accusing the Republicans as waging a “war on women”, along with the radical “feminist” groups who are “tied at the hip” with the Democratic Party. It seems that this tactic has worked fairly well, as most women give their votes to the Democrats come election time.

No one party has all the virtue, when it comes to dealing with women’s issues. Because many Republicans have different views than most Democrats regarding raising children, family, religion and sexuality, doesn’t mean that they are wrong in trying make our society more to their liking. Modern day feminists make the lives of both women and men more difficult by being intolerant of other’s views. Women should not be manipulated nor should they manipulate others for partisan political gain, as life is difficult enough as it is.

So what do you think, has “feminism” been good for society?

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann