10 Harmful Agendas

Warping the Concept of Feminism

Women deserve the same rights as men. That goes without saying. However, the fight for women’s rights these days, led by special interest groups such as the National Organization for Women (NOW), has transcended well beyond that. Today women are fighting for the right to pass off all responsibility in the name of being a woman. While still expecting all the benefits, of course.

One problem with the current feminist concept of working mothers is: for years, non-working women were offended when they were criticized for not having a job, arguing that raising children is the most important job of all. This was admirable and was a viewpoint worthy of respect. But now the women's movement has done a full 180, and says raising children in NOT a worthy substitute for a paying job. Anyone who disagrees is now called a chauvinist. Funny how times change.

The worst part is the fact that children become victims in this. Responsibility towards children should always outrank responsibility towards a career. It’s fine to believe that a woman should have a choice between the two, but not both. OR, if we truly believe in equality of the sexes, let the mother have the career, and let the father stay home.

As the feminist agenda continues to devolve, there is a growing trend for women to choose to become a single mother, with no desire for there to be a father for the child. Most evidence shows this is not the ideal emotional environment for a child, particularly if the mother is working. It's very selfish to deprive children of a father, and force them to spend much of their nurturing years in a day-care center. All this for what? Status? Proof of power for women?

And to top it off, most of these women expect tax relief for being a single parent! In other words, they’re asking (rather demanding) that people who work hard to support their own family to also support a mother who decided she didn't want help to begin with. These mothers play on the need for sympathy for their children, when really they’re simply shifting their responsibility onto others who don’t deserve it.

Not only are today’s feminists commanding a greater place in the workforce, they are also constantly pushing for “equal pay for equal work.” Fair enough, but the problem is, there’s no evidence it doesn’t already exist. Feminists point to a recent study shows that women make 75 cents to the man’s dollar. Cause for concern… until you look a little closer. The study fails to point out that the comparison was not based on “equal work.” It did not take into account the types of jobs being held, the amount of education required, the number of hours worked, or the amount of expertise and specialization in those jobs. Other more comprehensive studies show that in fields that have higher pay, college graduates in that field are mostly men.

Further, more representative studies comparing equal jobs showed almost no difference in pay - they showed women make 98 cents to the man’s dollar. I’d be curious to know the margin of error in that study, because if it’s more than two cents, there exists the possibility that women are making more than men! Hey, what happened to equal pay for equal work?!

The fact is, we don’t need studies to prove or disprove differences in pay. We only need the free market. If it were true that woman only made 75 cents to the man’s dollar, what employer in his/her right mind would ever hire a man? If this were true, anyone (including a woman) could start a business, hire only women, and destroy the competition by operating at a 75% more cost-efficient operation!

Today’s feminists seem to want it both ways. They complain that male bosses only care about the bottom line at the expense of the lowly employees, but yet they insist these same male bosses prefer a payroll made up of people demanding 25% more money than other equally-qualified workers. So, which is it?

In an effort to fight the supposed “glass ceiling,” NOW tried to claim a portion of the 9/11 charity proceeds several months after the tragedy. They wanted to use the money to research why women are underrepresented in the fields of law enforcement and fire fighting. Even putting aside the extreme inappropriateness of this request (actually demand, because they threatened the city of New York with a lawsuit), one has to wonder, is NOW also interested in researching other fields where women are statistically underrepresented, such as garbage collection, coal mining, and ditch digging?

Despite the fact that woman have earned the equal rights they deserve, the feminist brigade continues and almost seems motivated by revenge, as if it’s time for men to now become second class citizens. This is just as wrong as the previous oppression of women.

Why is it that, in the age of equal rights, 18-year-old men are required to register for the draft, but women are not?

The feminist movement is fighting for total independence from men. But to what degree is this a good thing? It’s just natural that men and women bring different things to the table, and each sex has some reliance on the other. But the feminist fight declares that men are useless, and even when contradicting that in looking for a mate, the complete laundry list of qualities they look for in a man includes: sensitive but not wimpy, intelligent but not nerdy, ambitious but not aggressive, protective but not intrusive, wealthy but not materialistic, handsome but not superficial, and self-confident but not egotistical. Get real. How many women can live up to such standards? We’re all human.

It’s fashionable these days to bash deadbeat dads, which is fine because they deserve it. But what about the dads who want to be present in their child’s lives, but are denied visitation by the mother? Too often visitation and custody are used as bargaining chips in divorce. Statistics show that the majority of divorces are instigated by the wife, yet the laws are completely slanted towards women when it comes to the rights to the child in divorce. The woman is almost always granted custody, even in cases where the father obviously provides a better environment.

Three years ago, CBS News did a story about falsely accused deadbeat dads in Los Angeles. These people were wrongly accused through mistaken identity, and they proved with DNA tests that they were not the fathers. Some were accused, not by the mothers, but by the city of Los Angeles simply because their name happened to match the name of a legitimate deadbeat dad. Yet they were forced to pay child support, because they didn’t have the resources to prove their innocence within 30 days of the accusation. That’s the law. Did any civil rights groups step up for these wrongly accused men? Imagine the reaction from NOW and the ACLU if a story broke about women forced to pay child care for children that weren’t theirs.

Why doesn’t the ACLU step up to the plate to defend men wrongly accused of rape? Divorced men who are denied child visitation rights without just cause? Men whose female partners abort their unborn children without their consent? Don’t these men deserve representation? Remember, this is the same ACLU which actively defends NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy Love Association), which distributes literature encouraging sex with children and advises how to do so without getting caught.

(Next)

Agenda: