Since I’ve always been one of those snoots who proudly proclaimed, “I am not a feminist,” I’ve been having to re-evaluate my position in the face of Christina Hoff Sommers’ latest book, Freedom Feminism: Its Surprising History and Why It Matters Today.
Christina makes a compelling argument not just for the label but for the project in a must-read piece entitled “How to Get More Women (and Men) to Call Themselves Feminists” in the Atlantic:
Some will say the movement is receding because it has achieved its essential goals. So why not let it fade from the scene? That is an understandable but mistaken conclusion. Though the major battles for equality and opportunity in the United States have been fought and largely won, the work of feminism remains unfinished. Across the globe, fledgling women's groups struggle to survive in the face of genuine and often violent oppression. In the West, popular culture contains strong elements of misogyny. Women, far more than men, struggle with the challenge of combining work and family. Despite women's immense progress, poverty rolls are disproportionately filled with women with children.
Who needs feminism? We do. The world does. But an effective women's movement needs to be rescued from its current outcast state. Anyone who cares about improving the status of women around the world should be working to create a women's movement that resonates with women. A reality-based, male-respecting, judicious feminism could greatly help women both in the United States and throughout the world. I call it "freedom feminism."
Freedom feminism stands for the moral, social, and legal equality of the sexes–and the freedom of women to employ their equal status to pursue happiness in their own distinctive ways….
As the GPS lady says, recalculating, recalculating…
Read the entire article.