by Ms. K

Created on: May 17, 2008   Last Updated: June 14, 2008

I remember when I first became aware of feminism. My friend's mother reveled in it. My mother identified it as immoral. My friend's mother thanks the feminists for freeing women. My mother blames the feminists for the loss of family values. Both sides are right to some degree.

Early feminists facilitated our right to have a voice in government. The concept that women were not capable of making good decisions about political leadership was fallacious and infuriating. It was women who ran the household and raised the children. They should have a say! What became even more of an issue were the labor conditions in the factories. Entire families were forced to work or starve and the factories were unsafe for children. Women knew that something had to be done. Without the vote, they had nothing to assist them in gaining protection for their children.

Before the world wars, women in the U.S. had few choices. If you weren't married, you had limited options for employment. If you WERE married and your husband's wages were not enough, woe to you if you had children.

Millions of women were denied the right to an education. Women can now attend college and be recognized for their contributions to society as educated women. It seems ridiculous to me that people used to think that women COULDN'T think.

Feminism opened doors for women.

Then it went downhill.

Instead of females being proud of their role as nurturers and caregivers for their children, women began to feel that this could not be enough. Even those who were otherwise satisfied began to be pressured into being "more". The concept that you were somehow inferior because you did not have an outside job slowly took over.

The female's role as mother began to change. What was once considered to be an important part of our culture became shameful.

Now, women are looked down on if they stay at home to care for their kids. In part, it is due to the feminist movement that many women can't afford to stay home. Because of all the women on the job market, everybody gets paid less. Of course there are other factors as well, but feminism contributed to it in a big way.

It turned into a throwing away of family values. It would be naive to say that women were never promiscuous pre-feminism. But it isn't naive to say that there was less of it. Women wanted the same "rights" as men and for some reason there seems to be an unspoken law that men have the "right" to be promiscuous. Women started joining in rather than putting their feet down

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