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Feminist Says Child Rearing not Worthy of Time and Talents of Intelligent Humans
LifeSiteNews ^ | 6/20/06 | Hilary White

Posted on 06/20/2006 3:34:11 PM PDT by wagglebee

NEW YORK, June 20, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Linda Hirshman, a feminist US writer on cultural issues, has told the world why she thinks staying at home with the children is an occupation “not worthy of the full time and talents of intelligent and educated human beings.” She complains at length that the feminist movement, while making some gains in public life through legal activism, has largely failed in the one area where it counts most: the family.

She upbraids women who stay at home for failing the feminist agenda, saying, “They do not require a great intellect, they are not honored and they do not involve risks and the rewards that risk brings.”

Writing in the November 2005 edition of the American Prospect, Hirshman admitted that the real intention of the feminist movement was not “equality”, but to destroy what she calls “the unreconstructed family” of a husband and wife rearing children. She writes that the goal was to see as many women as possible abandoning family life for high-level professions and politics.

Hirshman a committed radical, was a member in the 1970s of the feminist lobby, the National Organization for Women (NOW), a donor to the pro-abortion political organization, EMILY’s List, and a professor of women’s studies.

But, she complains, the movement has “stalled”; while the “public world has changed…private lives have hardly budged.” Childrearing is still seen by both men and women to be the natural purview of women. She writes of her “shock” to discover that among those professional women whom she called the “logical heirs of feminism”, large numbers were leaving their careers to opt for childrearing.

“Marriage is essentially unchanged,” she laments. “The real glass ceiling is at home…Looking back, it seems obvious that the unreconstructed family was destined to re-emerge after the passage of feminism’s storm of social change.”

She writes, “this represents not a loss of present value but a loss of hope for the future -- a loss of hope that the role of women in society will continue to increase.”

Some of the women she interviewed confirmed her worst fears: they liked being mothers. One declined to be interviewed because she could not leave her activities with her daughters: “We’re all in here making fresh apple pie,” she said.

Another, an “an Ivy Leaguer with a master’s degree” described her at-home activities: “I take my [3-year-old] daughter to all the major museums. We go to little movement classes.”

The article ignited a blaze of online outrage from feminists and traditionalists alike. Bloggers and editorials in print and online editions of a number of magazines have run comments blasting Hirshman.

In an op-ed at the online edition of the political magazine, the Huffington Post, Ann Coulter wrote that Hirshman and those who think like her, are “expressing an intolerant world view that women who don't work are losers.”

“Hirshman isn't just expressing an opinion about what she thinks is best, she is saying that any woman who makes a choice different from what she espouses is unequivocally ‘wrong.’”

Coulter writes that feminism is losing its sway in public because it focuses on “problems that hardly exist…while spending precious little energy on issues that indisputably have a negative impact on women: pornography, sex trafficking.”

“If [feminists] spent a fraction of the time on these issues that they spend trying to get women to get their men to vacuum the living room, the world would be a better place.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: childraising; feminazis; feminism; lindahirshman; moralabsolutes
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To: RobRoy
A true MALE atheist would be more like the lead character in Natural Born Killers.

That is one of the most absurd and ignorant statements I've read in a while. Morality does not arise from religion, but from within, IMO. It can be reinforced through religion, and also education and example. A punk is still a punk regardless of their religious beliefs or lack thereof.

Atheists can respect others beliefs without mocking them and stereotyping them, however, there will be some who cannot resist such, and most of those are usually of the liberal/socialist persuasion. Some of the more murderous figures in history were deeply religious, remember?
61 posted on 06/20/2006 4:08:51 PM PDT by Pox
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To: wagglebee

I thought the most important and most formative years were a childs first 5 or so years.

Imagine if every child had a good personal teacher (stay at home mom) for the first 5 or 10 years of their life how much better society and individuals could be for all of us.


62 posted on 06/20/2006 4:09:11 PM PDT by garyhope
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

Goes with the belief that women who stay home with their children do so because they are incapable of doing anything else. God forbid any woman would CHOOSE this life! /sarc


63 posted on 06/20/2006 4:09:58 PM PDT by jnygrl
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To: wagglebee

Is there an Email address for this uglydikebitchfreak?


64 posted on 06/20/2006 4:10:24 PM PDT by MAWG (In the shadows, on permanent ambush duty.)
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To: wagglebee

Pathetic person.

My wife did not work for 14 years while we homeschooled our daughter. No amount of money could buy a teacher/mother like her. And no feminist could have raised such an exceptional person as my daughter is. And, for the record, there ain't a feminist out there that my wife couldn't run circles around intellectually or otherwise.


65 posted on 06/20/2006 4:11:14 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s...you weren't really there.)
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To: BenLurkin

If it is, you can bet she can only discuss family issues and childrearing in a theoretical sense.


66 posted on 06/20/2006 4:11:15 PM PDT by PzLdr ("The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am" - Darth Vader)
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To: wagglebee

If only all the feminazis would put their money where their mouth is and get their tubes tied as soon as possible...


67 posted on 06/20/2006 4:11:20 PM PDT by Zechariah_8_13 (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.)
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To: jnygrl

I already had my bone fides before I stayed home.


Family is what the past passes down to the future. When the selfishness says don't do it, the future dies a premature birth.


68 posted on 06/20/2006 4:12:30 PM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: wagglebee

On News/Activism 03/09/2006 11:58:52 PM EST · 44 replies · 975+ views

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | 3/9/06
Zelda's revenge: Gender-neutralizing bill could also jeopardize prom kings, queens A traditional-values organization in California is warning the state's residents that a bill pending in the Legislature, if approved, could remove all references to gender in public schools – threatening even references to "mom" or "dad" in textbooks. If the bill, SB 1437, were to become law, warns the Capitol Resource Institute, "it could potentially require gender-neutral bathrooms in our schools and all references to 'husband' and 'wife' or 'mom and dad' removed from school textbooks as the norm." Sponsored by Democratic Sen. Sheila Kuehl – a lesbian actress ...



69 posted on 06/20/2006 4:13:04 PM PDT by purpleland (Elegy 9/11/01 Vigilance and Valor! Socialism is the Opiate of Academia)
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To: wagglebee
Here is an article from 2 years ago:
http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/07/6workingmoms.html

This moonbat Prof goes so far as to say that staying home with kids hurts society AND the children. Talk about not having a clue.
70 posted on 06/20/2006 4:13:50 PM PDT by socialismisinsidious ( The socialist income tax system turns US citizens into beggars or quitters!)
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To: wagglebee

More news from the orgasm free zone.


71 posted on 06/20/2006 4:13:54 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s...you weren't really there.)
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To: thoughtomator
Apparently this woman is too slow-witted to understand what any primitive anywhere understands - there is no future without children

I an mot a real eloquent guy but; when I look at my beautiful grand daughter I remind myself that she represents all that has ever been and all that ever will be.

72 posted on 06/20/2006 4:14:36 PM PDT by dearolddad
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To: small voice in the wilderness

That is exactly why it is important for groups like the NEA to get control of public school content.

If you don't breed them yourselves, you need to get your claws into other people's children somehow.


73 posted on 06/20/2006 4:15:17 PM PDT by bordergal (uis)
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To: wagglebee
She upbraids women who stay at home for failing the feminist agenda...
I thought it was all about giving women "choices"

... they are not honored and they do not involve risks and the rewards that risk brings
Investing your time, heart, soul, life in another human being requires great personal risk. When that human being is your child, the rewards are great. Stop projecting your own unhappy life on others.

Hirshman admitted that the real intention of the feminist movement was not “equality”, but to destroy what she calls “the unreconstructed family
A great many knew that you were lying all the time. Some are just finding that out.

She writes that the goal was to see as many women as possible abandoning family life
Of course if feminists had admitted this up front, the movement would not have gained so many followers.

She writes of her “shock”... large numbers were leaving their careers to opt for childrearing
These are the ones now realizing the damage your lies have done “
74 posted on 06/20/2006 4:16:25 PM PDT by D1X1E (No, I'm not PC. What about it?)
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To: ChessExpert
"Writing in the November 2005 edition of the American Prospect, Hirshman admitted that the real intention of the feminist movement was not “equality”, but to destroy what she calls “the unreconstructed family” of a husband and wife rearing children."

What a coincidence?
That's exactly what Satan wants!
75 posted on 06/20/2006 4:16:32 PM PDT by G Larry (Only strict constructionists on the Supreme Court!)
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To: wagglebee

"Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.......The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.......Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.....She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness......Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.......Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all......Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.

These "feminists" weary me with their blather. There is much joy and satisfaction...fulfilling of self, to be had in caring for husband and raising healthy, respectful, children. A truly "intelligent" woman knows this. I really feel sorry for any children these woman produce. It sure has become a topsy turvy world.


pattyjo


76 posted on 06/20/2006 4:16:33 PM PDT by pj_627
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To: BenLurkin

Wasn't she in The Buggles?


77 posted on 06/20/2006 4:16:54 PM PDT by Crawdad (I cried because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no class.)
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To: mikrofon

If my dog looked like this broad I'd shave her a*s and teach her how to walk backwards.


78 posted on 06/20/2006 4:16:58 PM PDT by dearolddad
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To: Tall_Texan

Please.....let me be the first to slap you for that comment!


79 posted on 06/20/2006 4:16:59 PM PDT by derllak
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To: wagglebee
Maybe if none of the feminazis reproduce the gene will die off in a few generations.

I know a couple of guys (in academia) that married self-proclaimed
"strong women".
Generally, they've each told me "my next wife will NOT even have feminist sentiments".
80 posted on 06/20/2006 4:17:01 PM PDT by VOA
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