Even the most freewheeling women’s studies programs will not acknowledge the innate differences between men and women. “Larry Summers once asked why there are fewer women in the upper echelons of science than men,” Carrie Lukas, author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Feminism, pointed out. “He is no longer the president of Harvard.”
Introduced by family values heroine Phyllis Schlafly, Lukas spoke at the Eagle Forum annual Washington, D.C. meeting about her literary creation to an audience of conservative collegians. “Why is it that we are glad to hear that women are better at something than men, but if statistics show that men are better at something, it is considered discrimination?” Lukas asked. “Are there any differences between men and women?”
Lukas posed the question to the audience. Increasingly, those who answer that question in the affirmative are seen as sexist. “Marriage is the most effective anti-poverty program,” the author stated. She also noted that women who are preoccupied with the appearance of financial independence and power “would rather rely on Uncle Sam than any other man.”
“Married women on average are happier and wealthier than those who are not,” argued Lucas. Statistics simply don’t show that the “majority of divorcees wish they had worked harder on their marriage.”
The speaker covered the consensus on child rearing among married women. “Only 6% of parents think that daycare is their best option. If Hillary, with her “It Takes a Village” program, wanted the best for mothers, she would find a way for moms to stay home more, not work more. The obvious truth is that “there are infinite problems in child development in daycare, especially through the government.”
Lukas commented on what has been a hot-button issue among working women for years: salary imbalances between the sexes. “As shown by the ‘Equal Pay Equal Work’ studies, women generally make of a man’s wage. While this is true, the polls ignore all of the relevant factors, such as the role that work plays in a man or woman’s life,” the author pointed out.
“Why do we assume that men have the right priorities and women have the wrong priorities in the workplace?” It follows that the primary goal of men in the workforce is to make money, while women tend to balance work with many other priorities, and desire total workplace satisfaction rather than merely a competitive salary.
A question presented to the author confronted her views on women in the military. Lukas appealed to the larger consensus that “We understand that we can’t put our troops in any more danger.”
To answer her previously posed question, Lukas concluded, “Simply put, No, men and women are not the same, and don’t have to be the same to be equal.”
Mary Kapp is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a program run jointly by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.