The F-Word: Feminism in Jeopardy

by Kristen Rowe-Finkbeiner

A lot of women my age don't identify as feminists. They don't identify as much of anything, other than Independent. The political process suffers, and ignores their interests.

I read about this book on Salon.com. On one hand, it's tough because educated women generally demonstrate a liberal bias, and this book couldn't be described as non-partisan. It talks about alternative views (Republican, Pro-Life, etc.) but only half-heartedly asserts that a woman could be a feminist as well as either of these. One of the more interesting points of the book was that something like 80% of Americans are feminists, based on viewing domestic abuse as wrong and equal pay for equal work as right. But it's right that somehow feminism has gotten a bad rap. Somewhere along the way it got equated with anti-masculinity and unattractiveness. And some people have stopped fighting for it because they think that the battle is already won. The book does hop on the bandwagon sometimes of "if this happened to men, they wouldn't stand for it" - while it may be true, it's not news to anyone, and it feels kinda like someone walking around in Texas in July and saying "Hot enough for ya?". But I felt the book was well-written, persuasive, and helped me articulate some things that I hadn't been able to form into words. I wish it had talked more about where feminism will go instead of just where it has been, and misconceptions about where it is, though.

"The silence of young women in the political arena is not without consequence, since the climate of social freedom to push cultural change may not remain as open for tomorrow's generation. In addition, the relative quiet is often taken as an indicator that social and gender-inequity problems have been solved, leaving little impetus to work toward electoral and political solutions. The old adage about the squeaky wheel is nover more true than in politics."

"If the right man does not come along, there are many fates far worse. One is to have the wrong man come along." - Letitia Baldridge

"The exploration of parental roles within same-sex couples can be relevant to heterosexual couples in very compelling ways. 'One of the interesting reasons taht social scientists should study same-sex couples is to explore roles in the absence of pressure around "traditional" gender roles. As heterosexual couples become more equal, both economically and socially, it's logical to think their behaviors might start to look more like same-sex couples". To the extent that men and women become more equal, the choice for who would raise the children starts to become as much an economic choice as a choice based on cultural norms,' notes Gates."