Rush Limbaugh: "Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society." [The Rush Limbaugh Show, 8/12/05]

It's a shame the way some words in today's world have been twisted and maligned by certain factions of our society. One example is the word feminist. If you asked my female friends if they were feminists most would fall over themselves to say no. But I would disagree. Most of my friends work outside the home, believe in equal pay for equal work and are outspoken in their belief that women are just as good if not better than men at most challenges in life but yet they shrink from that word because of people like Rush Limbaugh who have linked feminism with the word Nazi, calling women who believed in equal rights, "Femi-Nazi's."

I found myself engaged in a rather unpleasant disagreement at a Christmas gathering the other night with a group of friends, when some of my women friends began disparaging feminists. One of my friends actually blamed feminists for the stress women in the work place faced having to juggle home and family and work. She said feminists had forced women to leave their homes because women were coerced into believing that being a home-maker wasn't enough and that they "had" to take a paying job to prove their worth. In other words, the constant drum beat of Rush Limbaugh and other conservative, predominately white-male propaganda had succeeded in convincing my friend that feminism was bad and to blame for all the stress and problems that women faced. Things went from bad to worse when another woman at the table said she had given up on the idea of equal pay for equal work because it was, "a man's world," and women just needed to accept that. At that point I had to just get up and walk around the house to cool off before I tipped the table over. I felt like screaming at both of them, what if all the women that pressed for our right to vote just gave up because the battle was too hard and they just conceded that it was a man's world? Then women still wouldn't be allowed to vote or be allowed to own property, or drive cars or have jobs or purchase birth control or have abortions or have any control over their own bodies what so ever. Because men would have all the control and make all the decisions because after all, "it's a man's world."

I deeply resent women who enjoy all the rights that feminism won for us then have the audacity to bad mouth the women that fought so hard to win those rights. Ever since I saw the HBO movie "Iron Jawed Angels" I've had the deepest respect for the suffrage movement. The battle for a woman's right to vote in the United States was long and difficult and the women that had the tenacity and the courage to fight it have my deepest admiration. I also am deeply grateful for women like Margret Sanger for helping provide birth control to women, especially poor women.

Let's get straight on the facts. Life today is stressful because most working women are underpaid. Minimum wage isn't a working wage and that's what most women today are expected to be able to live on and it can't be done. Most single working women don't have insurance and struggle to make ends meet with no child support and in-adequate child care. There aren't enough employers that offer flex time, we still have to fight for family leave and few families can afford to take un-paid medical leave. These are all problems that require governmental leadership to resolve. These were NOT caused by feminism and they can't be resolved by feminists. To my knowledge most women that can afford to stay home do stay home and those that work do so because they want to not because they feel forced to by some feminist conspiracy. Most women work because they simply can't pay the bills with one pay check or because they are single mothers and they have no choice.

So let's cut the crap and be real about the problems women are facing and who caused them and who can solve them. I do agree that's it's a man's world and unfortunately I don't see those men doing jack shit to help women.

For more on the state of feminism today check out Linda Hirshman's article about "Choice Feminism" entitled "Homeward Bound" on American Prospect online...the link is on the front page of my site.