Don't cry for feminism: It's still alive

24-Aug-1997 Sunday

The Independent Women's Forum (IWF), a small circle of beltway conservatives, pronounces the women's movement dead -- or at the very least "irrelevant." According to this group of well-educated, wealthy professionals, there is no longer a need for feminism. Frankly, I was surprised to hear that women who have benefited so much from this movement would be gleeful about its alleged demise.

The 700 members of the IWF are high-profile attorneys, professors and executives -- all opportunities that were virtually nonexistent to them before the women's movement. As Patricia Ireland, president of National Organization for Women (NOW) said, "They are the women who walked through the doors of opportunity that (feminists) kicked open."

IWF talk-circuit stars like Christina Hoff-Sommers say they are more in touch with the needs of today's woman than feminists, but their ranks are dwarfed by the quarter-million members of NOW, not to mention the League of Women Voters, National Women's Political Caucus, YWCA and dozens of other women's-rights organizations.

While feminists are busy working for radical ideas like equal pay, safer homes and reproductive freedom, the IWF lobbies for zero funding of the Violence Against Women Act, sex segregation at publicly funded schools and the dismantling of affirmative action for women and people of color.

If the women of IWF say they no longer want what feminism has to offer, that's fine. The women's-rights movement celebrates choice, so if the women of the IWF choose to assail feminism, they have every right to. They've obviously given this a great deal of thought and decided it is not for
them. No problem. But they can't have it both ways. They cannot benefit from a system then work to dismantle it for others. If the women of the IWF wish to forfeit women's rights, let them begin with their own.

To honor the choices of my sisters of the IWF, I am declaring tomorrow "Women's Inequality Day." It will be a day for women to return the rights they no longer want because these rights are associated with the feminist movement. Let's start by revoking their right to vote. This will be a
sacrifice for IWF members like Wendy Lee Gramm, wife of the senator from Texas, but there are plenty of other things a girl can do. If she's an attorney, physician or professor, tomorrow would be an ideal day to start looking for another job. An anti-feminist woman would surely never want to
take a spot in a firm, hospital or college that could be given to a man.

Retro-style newspaper classified sections should be printed for these gals, offering helpful divisions between jobs for men and women. Oh sure, they won't generate as much income as clerks as they would as professionals, but how much pin money does a girl need? Women who work to dismantle
affirmative action must realize that the fruit of their labor is the severe curtailment of their educational and economic opportunities.

Anti-feminist women should also return any credit cards, checks, property deeds, savings accounts, money market accounts, mutual funds and investments in their name. They can have them all back, mind you -- just as soon as they get their husbands' written permission.

On a more personal note, anti-feminist women should relinquish any birth-control pills or other contraceptives. A feminist plot to undermine the family, birth control -- even for married couples -- was illegal in the United States until the 1965 Supreme Court decision Griswold vs. Connecticut. If an anti-feminist woman is facing an unwanted pregnancy, she still has choices -- parenting, adoption or unsafe, back-alley abortion.

The IWF argued for zero funding for Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), a federal bill which provided $1.6 billion to fight domestic abuse. Anita Blair, attorney and IWF member, says her group opposed this part of the 1994 Crime Bill because providing battered women's shelters was something that should be done at the local level. But in many cases, it wasn't. Additionally, the IWF criticized the VAWA because battered women's shelters are "a temporary place." IWF fails to offer an alternative solution, specializing more in denouncing feminist ideas than presenting any of its
own.

Feminists supported legislation making spousal abuse and marital rape a crime. Prior to the women's movement, there was no terminology to define these issues, much less laws to condemn them. Without feminist activism and consciousness-raising, the picture is frighteningly clear: more women
killed by their partners, more acquaintance rape, more sexual harassment. Most chilling is the fact that there would be no resources for women -- no crisis centers, no counseling, no mandatory prosecution.

Police officers have come a long way from the days when they asked rape victims questions which suggested they were somehow responsible for the attack. This is a direct result of the same feminist movement the IWF says hurts women. Are the anti-feminists really ready to roll back the clock to
the days when women were treated so abominably?

The women of the IWF claim that feminism casts women as victims, but, in fact, it does just the opposite. A battered wife with nowhere to turn is a victim. The woman who receives temporary housing, job skills training and counseling is empowered. A woman who is discriminated against at work or school is a victim. With laws designed to ensure equal opportunities, she is empowered.

Without the hard-won victories of the feminist movement, an IWF apologist like CBS News analyst Laura Ingraham would not be where she is today. Feminism has offered all women greater choices in their lives -- greater access to education, jobs and safety. But if the women of IWF want to give
that up, that's up to them. If, after a day without feminism, they change their minds, they can join the rest of us as we celebrate Women's Equality Day, the annual commemoration of the passage of the Women's Suffrage Act.

Feminism is as relevant today as it was on Aug. 26, 1920, the day women won their 72-year struggle for the right to vote. IWF ringleaders can eulogize the feminist movement all they want, but they can't change the facts.

Don't cry for feminism. Forget sending flowers. Rumors of its demise are greatly exaggerated.

Reprinted with permission of the author.


---