The Women's Civil Rights Revolution and the Downfall of Nazi-Feminists

In today's society, feminism and women's rights seem to be shown as one sided in most of the major media outlets. I, however, have experienced the other side of women's rights; the side that is not talked about very often and is almost too taboo to discuss. Women's rights and feminism are mostly seen as a female complaining about equal rights in the work place, especially compared to their male counterparts. I am going to give you a different outlook on women's rights. I am going to tell you a story about how equal rights for women can make it difficult for some women in modern day America. This is my story, and I hope it sheds some light to the other side of what women's rights and feminism really mean and stand for today.

Most women are portrayed today as head strong feminists that are looking for equal rights in the workplace and in society as well. But there is another group of women that tend to be grossly overlooked by all aspects of the media. We are mostly stay at home mothers, or just mothers in general. I am one of these modern day women. I was a working mother at one point in time. After having my son, I decided to return to my regular office job in order to keep the same amount of income for our family. The problems I began to experience upon my return from pregnancy leave were from my female manager. She is a good example of one of the "I am woman, hear me roar" scenarios. She has three young boys herself, but is very career oriented. She had made the decision that many women make, and decided to work her forty plus hours every week, while placing her sons in daycare. She wanted to move up through the company and was willing to step on any man that got in her way. As I found out, she frowned upon other women that didn't share her feminist views. Unfortunately for me, I was one of the women that didn't share her views on climbing the corporate ladder or raising children.

The reason I decided to return to work after having my son was not because I wanted to be a strong woman in the workforce. I chose to return in order to keep our family income level at the same it had been before my pregnancy. I refused to throw my son into a daycare situation, only because I do not agree with it. The only way I was to return to my office job, was to have my mother-in-law watch my son while I was at work. This way I knew that he would be safe and would be getting the attention that he needed to thrive, especially since I couldn't be there for him. My manager thought my decision making process for returning to work was silly. Then later, when I approached her with a problem with childcare, things began to get worse. I had told her that I needed to take one day off per week because my mother-in-law could not watch my son on that day. I would have still been a full time associate, and I knew that the company left decisions such as these up to the manager.

She began to badger me with questions and then told me that I need to put my son in daycare for that one day just like everyone else. I told her my personal feelings against daycare and she became even more aggravated with me. She began to make my job very difficult and made sure to dodge the problem I had presented her. I believe she thought that she could overpower me and I would end up forgetting the entire ordeal and continue to work for her and put my son in daycare. I continued to speak with her on the matter daily for weeks, but she always had excuses such as meetings and too much work to discuss the issue with me anymore. My deadline to have this situation taken care of at work was drawing to a close very quickly.

Needless to say, after battling with her and human resources, she won in the end. She had told some of the other women how she did not like my outlook on daycare and had made several comments about me needing to stay at home and be a good wife. In the end I couldn't rely on anyone to relay the harsh comments she had made and just decided to cut my losses and quit my job of three years. At that point, I felt that it was much better for me to not work for such a liberal feminist and also much better for my son to have his mother at home with him daily. I knew I had a plethora of work ahead of me. I had been reading and researching information on how to handle cutting your family income in half. There were so many fears about losing that extra amount every week and still be able to make ends meet and live at the same time. In the end I calculated that we would actually save money if I didn't work, instead of paying for daycare and the expenses for work. I won't lie, it was extremely difficult to go from two incomes to one so quickly, but we made it and still are.

That was over two years ago, and from that point on I made a point to try to find articles in the paper about modern day women. I also kept an eye on Fox news and CNN, in hopes of catching a story about modern day feminism, the way I live it, not the way my manager lives it. I was finding that there are a large amount of women out there that would like to stay at home and take care of their family but don't have that choice. However, this is something that you don't read or hear about in the modern day news media. Upon researching this paper, I found it very difficult to find too much information about anything other than the "I am woman, hear me roar" stories. But, after digging deeper and knowing where to look, I have found more than enough information on the subject. I hope to enlighten those of you that will read this, and hopefully I will give new light to the modern day feminist and women's right's movement. I think we all need to know that not all women in the United States are so adamant about breaking through the supposed "glass ceiling". There are different views on equality and feminism out there. Hopefully in the end, more people will see that feminism shouldn't be such a bad word to say anymore.

Upon reading an opposing viewpoint on feminism titled "Women Should Reject Feminism" written by Resa LaRu Kirkland, I became even more enlightened about the fact that not all women in the United States think feminism is a good thing. The word feminism has been tainted over the past 35 years by women that I like to call "Nazi feminists". I refer to them as this based on the fact that they only want to see feminism from one point of view and they wish all women would see it that way as well, even if it means force feeding them. It's actually become a breath of fresh air to see more women voicing their opinions against the typical mainstream thoughts on feminism in the 21st century.

In her article, Ms. Kirkland delves into the fact that since the role of stay at home mothers have declined in the past 35 years, this could be why our children our in such turmoil now. She states, "It is the horrifying trend in our children's feelings, lives, and behavior. You see, when we began giving into the bullying tactics of the feminist movement that used guilt and "Second Class Status" brainwashing to get women to leave the home, it resulted in our children going en masse to day cares or coming home alone. Suicide rates, sexual diseases, poor academics, increased violence and drug use, not to mention less formal criminal behavior such as arguing a great deal, deliberate and even gleeful cruelty, explosive behavior, too much talking, too much fighting have all been the result of the selfishness of the "Woman-Good-Man-Bad" mentality of those who pay lip service only to it being "for the children" when what they really intend to say is "Mine! Mine! Mine! Now! Now! Now"(par. 9). Also, a study from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), reported that "nonmaternal care tend to be associated with qualities such as "gets in lots of fights," "cruelty," "explosive behavior," "talking too much," "argues a lot," and "demands a lot of attention"(par. 3).

I completely agree with the statements Ms. Kirkland has made about our situation as women affecting our children so greatly, and the findings of the NICHD. I do understand that there are situations where a woman is single with children, among other scenarios, that would not fall into this category. However, I feel that the average married woman in America has every opportunity to stay home and raise a more productive child, rather than pawn them off to a sitter or daycare worker. I feel that on average children that have a stay at home mother are more well rounded and seem to have a better head start on learning once they do enter school. For example, my son is only 2 ½ and he already knows how to count to 10, knows all of the letters of the alphabet, his full name, and all of his primary colors. On the other hand, a friend of ours has a little boy that is 2 days older and in daycare everyday while his mother and father work. Their son can acknowledge 3-4 letters, 1-3 numbers, and 1 or 2 colors. His mother has told me that he had learned this not from being in daycare, but from the time that she does get to spend with him before and after work.

It seems that we as parents do not have enough time in our busy day to spend rearing our own children. However, we as adults can make the time that our children need in order to grow to become positive adult figures in society later in life. How can we as women accomplish this? Ms Kirkland states "Get rid of the huge mortgage and move into a trailer. It's not the neighborhood - or village, idiot! - that raises a good child. Have two cars? Get rid of one and deal with the annoyance of having to drive more. It's not the car that makes the family." (par.14). I think that it takes compromise to raise a family. In my case, I chose to stay at home and raise a family while my husband works all week and attends college. We had to make some very hard decisions, but basically did as Ms. Kirkland has suggested. We moved closer to my husband's work and went from two cars to just one, among other things. I know that cutting your income in half and moving or downsizing your vehicles can be quite difficult to handle at first. But we as mothers and women need to make these changes, when needed, on behalf of our children and our families.

This is just one aspect of how modern day feminism is portrayed in our society today. Next I am going to touch on the other side of feminism, the side that does not involve children. Now I will delve into the truth behind the so called "glass ceiling". According to Diana Furchtgott-Roth, "Since 1982 women have earned more than 50 percent of all bachelors degrees and all masters degrees, and in other fields women are closing the gap fast. Whereas 2 or 3 percent of all law degrees awarded went to women in the fifties and sixties and 5 percent in 1970, women now earn about 43 percent of those degrees. Fewer than 1 percent of dentistry degrees were awarded to women in the fifties, sixties and seventies, yet women now receive 38 percent of these degrees. Similar trends hold for doctoral and medical degrees. In 1996 women represented 54 percent of the class admitted to Yale Medical School." (par.9). These statistics show that the Women's Rights Movement has been extremely successful. So why is there still so much talk about a "glass ceiling" if there are so many more women achieving their degrees now? That is a very good question. According to National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, women earn 98 percent of what men earn, among those that are 27 to 33 without children (par. 11). Another study of economics and engineering done by June O'Neill, came to the same conclusions.

So why is there still so much talk about women's rights and the need for affirmative actions? I believe that it is the outcome of highly opinionated women in the media, such as Gloria Alred. In my opinion, if the media would show more facts about the equal and fair treatment of women in the workplace, these women would lose their fifteen minutes of fame. Also, this would mean that employers would not have to abide by affirmative action for women and could indiscriminately hire whoever they choose at will. According to Ms. Furchtgott-Roth, "In 1972 there were only 400,000 women-owned businesses. Today there are approximately 8 million such businesses in the United States, employing 15.5 million people and generating $1.4 trillion in sales. The number of women-owned businesses increased 43 percent from 1987 to 1992. Women are starting businesses at twice the rate of men."(par.13). Basically, the reason behind women not making the same amount as men in the workplace boils down to two reasons: 1) They do not have the proper education or experience. 2) They want the same pay and position, but they want their job altered to accommodate their family needs, such as children.

I am wondering why business owners have to suffer and make special accommodations for women that choose to work full time but still want to have quality time with their child. This ties into the information I supplied earlier about working women versus stay at home mothers. I believe there actually may be some sort of glass ceiling out there, but it is not directed at women alone. I am sure there are many companies that do not want to hire or promote women of child bearing age, based solely on the fact that they may need to change jobs or leave all together in the future. These are the things that the women's rights activists should be attacking, not unfair pay due to the fact of lack of education or commitment. According to the DOL, "women spend significantly more time away from work and are apparently unable to build the seniority that men achieve."(par.8). In 1992, they performed a census based on the connection between education and earnings. Their results found that at each level of education, "men have more months with work activity than do women."(par.9). Based on several research studies and census taken, women need to make the right decisions for themselves instead of listening to the mainstream "Nazi feminist". So I ask the question once again, why is there so much talk about women's rights and the need for affirmative action? The proof seems to be out there, we just need to educate ourselves with the information available and come to our own conclusions.

Based on the information I have found from either websites or the ELibrary, I am still able to stand strong on my thoughts of feminism. I knew that I was not the only woman in the United States that has had a problem with die hard feminists. After researching and reading my findings, I can successfully conclude that not all women are strong business women. There are actually a large group of women across the U.S that support staying at home and raising a family. The question is, how many of them can actually remove the unnecessary objects in their lives in order to stay at home and raise their family? I think that more women would be able to choose to stay at home and raise a family if there was more wide spread support for the cause. Let's face it, when all you see and hear in the media is the negative side of being a woman, it makes it hard on those of us who want to be the so called stereotypical mother figure.

The lack of stay at home mothers is beginning to have a negative toll on our children and our society. Personally, I don't think there is any doubt that the lack of maternal support to our children is having a negative impact on them. Through the information I found in my research, I can stress my personal opinion about how daycares are ruining our children. There are exceptions to every rule, but according to the research that I found, it is definitely obvious that there is a link between our children acting out and the lack of maternal bonding. We should step back and ask ourselves why there are so many children doing so many negative acts now, as opposed to in the past. I strongly feel that if we as parents don't start taking more of a personal interest in our own children, it will continue to have a very negative affect on our children and our society.
As far as the so called "glass ceiling" goes, I believe that it is a myth. Sure, there are going to be exceptions to this rule as well, but the glass ceiling shouldn't be focused only on women. We are not the only ones that can be discriminated against in the workplace and held back from advancement. I believe that the research information that I found was very supportive of this, and shows that women are not getting stepped on as much as the media would like us to believe. In the end I think that it is the women's groups such as NOW that hurt women more than they help them. The women's organizations should have their place in society to help women in need, but they should not be held so highly in the mainstream media. I disagree with many of the things I hear about feminism and discrimination in the media. I also don't like the idea that the feminist organizations are basically speaking for all women across the country and putting words in all of our mouths. They are making it hard for those of us that want to be stay at home mothers.

If things were different, maybe I wouldn't have had the situation with my manager before I decided to stay at home. If we as women would learn to compromise on the feminist issues, then maybe we could have the pay we deserve and the time with our families as well. Also, if women weren't so adamant about equal pay, even though they may not deserve it, then maybe it would be easier for those of us to stay at home and be a mother without worrying about income. Then and only then, our significant others could make the money they deserve, without their company worrying about a woman filing a lawsuit based on the fact that they are only a woman.

Works Cited

-Furchtgott-Roth, Diana. "Working Women Do Not Face Barriers to Advancement."
Ed. Mary E. Williams. Opposing Viewpoints® Series. Greenhaven Press, 1998.
ELibrary. ECPI Library, Virginia Beach, VA. February 23, 2006.
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-Kirkland, Resa LaRu. "Women Should Reject Feminism." Male/Female Roles. Ed. Auriana Ojeda. Opposing Viewpoints® Series. Greenhaven Press, 2005. ELibrary. ECPI Library, Virginia Beach, VA. February 25, 2006.
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-Lowry, Richard. "Working Mothers are Harming the Family." The Family. Ed. Auriana
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-Post, Katherine and Michael Lynch. "Smoke and Mirrors: Women and the Glass
Ceiling." Nov. 1995. The Pacific Research Institute. 26 Feb. 2006.
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