by Buddy Netter

Created on: April 19, 2009

How Feminism Negatively Affects Women Balancing Family Needs

As an old feminist, this title caught me by surprise. For one thing, I was unaware that there was still a feminist movement in this country. Secondly, I will be the first to admit that a lot of things the feminist agenda predicted just didn't happen. My third observation is that I can see where a lot of issues we dealt with and changed have caused as many problems as we thought they would solve. This writer takes full credit and blame for some of the damage feminism has brought about for young women of today, but also sees that some things my feminist sisters and I changed were good as well.

Let me begin by describing the world I inhabited when I became a feminist. There were still states at this time where it was not illegal to beat your wife. In some states, a woman was still unable to own property. The idea of spousal rape brought about laughs, "How is it possible to rape your own wife?" men would ask. It was a given that sons were more wanted than daughters, and not at all unusual for a man to comfort his wife for her failure to produce coveted son by telling her, "Don't worry, dear, we'll keep on trying." Men legally earned more money than woman doing the same job, and it wasnt unlawful or considered discriminatory, it was just a fact of life.

When I came to embrace feminism, I was a young married woman who was raised as a Christian but influenced by the youth culture of the love and peace generation. I supported civil rights, was against the Viet Nam war, and always on the side of the underdog in any given situation. I was a young woman who was drawn like a moth to the light when it came to women's issues. Feminism just came naturally to me and to my sister feminists when we realized that in any group of oppressed and downtrodden people, women were always at the bottom. It angered me that a man could be a good for nothing bum, yet still give himself a great big hardy pat on the back for being superior to half the human population. Everywhere, people were demonstrating for this cause and that, so it was only natural that women would also begin to demand some equality in a male dominated world. Take note, young women, this is just how it was, and the time was right for making our injustices known, to organize, to lobby for and demand change.

Besides the obvious mantra of equal work for equal pay, for me the issues of women's status went far deeper. It was misogyny that bothered me far worse than any

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