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"Call my dad, my mom is too busy."

~ Chelsea Clinton to the school nurse.


"Nature has given the female the means to nurture. Environment enhances or lessens this ability, however, the fact remains that it is a female role. If forced by circumstances, the male can learn basic technique, but nurturing is not a natural ability in males. The psychological health of a male is directly related to the extent and quality of the nurturing he has received from the primary females in his life."

~ C. Brimmer


"There are people in Europe who, confounding together the different characteristics of the sexes, would make man and woman into beings not only equal but alike. They would give to both the same functions, impose on both the same duties, and grant to both the same rights; they would mix them in all things - their occupations, their pleasures, their business. It may readily be conceived that by thus attempting to make one sex equal to the other, both are degraded, and from so preposterous a medley of the works of nature nothing could ever result but weak men and disorderly women."

Alexis de Tocqueville


Women's work is always toward wholeness.

— Ibid.


Our Toil and Labour's daily so extreme, That we have hardly ever Time to Dream.

— Mary Collier (1689/90-post-1759; English poet, laundress, writer), The Woman's Labour, 1739


Gammy used to say, "Too much scrubbing takes the life right out of things" . . .

— Betty MacDonald (1908-1958; American fiction writer), The Egg and I, 1945


I stop writing the poem to fold the clothes. No matter who lives or who dies, I'm still a woman. I'll always have plenty to do. I bring the arms of his shirt together. Nothing can stop our tenderness. I'll get back to the poem. I'll get back to being a woman. But for now there's a shirt, a giant shirt in my hands, and somewhere a small girl standing next to her mother watching to see how it's done.

— Tess Gallagher (1943- ; American screenwriter, educator, poet, writer), Instructions to the Double, 1976


Most so-called women's work is not recognized as real activity. One reason for this attitude may be that such work is usually associated with helping others' development, rather than with self-enhancement or self-employment.

— Jean Baker Miller (1927-; American psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, editor, teacher, author), Toward a New Psychology of Women, 1976


When her last child is off to school, we don't want the talented woman wasting her time in work far below her capacity. We want her to come out running.

— Mary Ingraham Bunting (1910-1998; American educator, microbiologist, bacteriologist), Quoted in Life (New York), 13 January 1961


The intrinsic value of work, the ability to have an impact and operate in relationship with others, seem to motivate women more than anything else -- more than climbing to the top, more than financial reward, more than power for power's sakes.

— Virginia O'Brien (1946-; American nonfiction writer), Success on Our Own Terms: Tales of Extraordinary, Ordinary Businesswomen, 1998


"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

—Margaret Mead


As women, our historical role has been to clean up the mess. Whether it's the mess left by war or death or children or sickness. I think the violence you see in plays by women is a direct reflection of that historical role. We are not afraid to look under the bed, or to wash the sheets; we know that life is messy. We know that somebody has to clean it up, and that only if it is cleaned up can we hope to start over, and get better.

— Marsha Norman (1947-; American arts administrator, playwright; Pulitzer; Tony, 1983, 1991), in Interviews with Contemporary Women Playwrights by Kathleen Betsko and Rachel Koenig, 1987


"The family unit plays a critical role in our society and in the training of the generation to come."

—Sandra Day O'Connor

What's Happened to Feminism?
Exactly how far have we come, baby? This is the question I asked myself while standing in line with other baby boomerettes and young coeds hoping to nab the remaining seats to hear feminist political activist and writer Gloria Steinem speak at a local college. In front of me a lovely young woman with coiled braids and an ankle-length flowered dress wanted to hear what Steinem had to say about being married. Her friend, a tall Lisa Loeb look-alike, hadn't even planned on going until she realized she'd already seen that evening's episode of The Simpsons. Despite her altered marital status, Steinem's message hasn't changed much. She discussed politics, both in the home and out, and the need for women to take an active stand in deciding which politician has their best interests at heart. She reminded us that the most dangerous place for a woman is the home, where she is most likely to become the victim of violence, death or (worse?) replacement by a "younger worker," a euphemistic jab at the trophy wife. Could these bright, accomplished young students relate to these issues? Not entirely, according to freshman Liz Bonovitz: "I've never felt that boys were more favored in school or that my jobs didn't pay as much as boys would've made." Bonovitz believed that in some ways, her gender has worked to her advantage. "I started baby-sitting at 12. Nobody would have hired me at that age if I were a boy." She's got a point. Perhaps this is the new feminism — an awareness of the perks of being a woman instead of focusing on the disadvantages. Bonovitz concedes that inequality issues might hit home once she gets into the work world, but she's confident of her abilities and the opportunities to succeed. Steinem spoke of the need to create democratic families before we can have a democratic state. Listening to the students, I felt encouraged that someday women may no longer need a feminist movement and that maybe, just maybe, my sons and their friends will be among the empathetic, fair-minded men who help to close the gender gap and create a true democracy.

Jane Brooks

Many young women on campuses combine two very dangerous things: moral fervor and misinformation. On the campuses they're fed a kind of catechism of oppression. They're taught "one in four of you have been victims of rape or attempted rape; you're earning 59 cents on the dollar; you're suffering a massive loss of self-esteem; that you're battered especially on Super Bowl Sunday." All of these things are myths, grotesque exaggerations.

Christina Hoff Sommers

The orthodox feminists are so carried away with victimology, with a rhetoric of male-bashing that it's full of female chauvinists, if you will. Also, women are quite eager to censor, to silence. And what concerns me most as a philosopher is it's become very anti-intellectual, and I think it poses a serious risk to young women in the universities. Women's studies classes are increasingly a kind of initiation into the most radical wing, the most intolerant wing, of the feminist movement. And I consider myself a whistle-blower. I'm from inside the campus. I teach philosophy. I've seen what's been going on.

Christina Hoff Sommers


In family life, love is the oil that eases friction, the cement that binds closer together, and the music that brings harmony.

We have to be careful in this era of radical feminism, not to emphasize an equality of the sexes that leads women to imitate men to prove their equality. To be equal does not mean you have to be the same.

Many of our troubles in the world today arise from an over-emphasis of the masculine, and a neglect of the feminine. This modern world is an aggressive, hyperactive, competitive, masculine world, and it needs the woman's touch as never before.

Those who think the family has had its day should think again.

Serenity and inner beauty come when we wait upon God. "Waiting" like that is not merely wasting time.

Homelessness is not just an isolated social evil. It is the catalyst and the breeding ground for other problems such as marriage difficulties and family breakup, stress, unemployment and alcoholism.

Staring us in the face is the desperate plight of the poor. We don't need statistics to tell us that. They are flesh and blood people like ourselves, often out of work, forced out of rented premises, without money and without food.

People want progress, but they don't want change.

The hardship and suffering caused by unemployment penetrates every area of life. While politicians are tallying up the economic costs of unemployment, I wish they'd be more aware of the social and moral consequences which are unparalleled in many nations today.

We are working to help people become better people; then this will become a better world.

We may have lost the fear of the bomb in this post cold-war era, but many have not lost the fear of what the future will hold. As someone said to me recently, "The future isn't what it used to be."

People are looking for an answer, and I know that Answer is Jesus Christ.

lnspite of the way many people are turning away from God, not for other gods, but for no god; in spite of the mess we are making of this beautiful Planet Earth which God has given us, God still loves the world.

General Eva Burrows

Post Feminism Era 2
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