IT’S NOT YOUR (Grand)MOTHER’S MOVEMENT ANY LONGER

Betty Friedan

Gloria Steinem

I came of age as the “Second Wave” of the Feminist Movement took center stage in American society. The baby boom generation was well established as a cultural force; Viet Nam captured the political spotlight; hippies, free love, LSD, and flower power were all the rage; and Betty Friedan’s book, The Feminine Mystique” was the instruction manual for a whole bunch of young women searching for something more exciting than a wedding band, a mortgage, and soap operas.

Enter Gloria Steinem – she of the “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle” mantra – and cue the angry, man-hating bra-burners. The 20th Century feminist evolved into a shrill, ultra-left harridan who viewed traditional values, not as a choice, but as a threat. God help the ’70’s woman who wanted to fly the Friendly Skies in a cute little mini-dress and sassy bobby cap as she trolled for Mr. Right and the suburban cottage complete with picket fence and 2.5 adorable toddlers. A traitor to the cause! A “real” woman wouldn’t be caught dead serving a meal to a man, and the healthy male who took a second glance at the mini-skirted stewardess was roundly castigated as a chauvinist pig.

The War of the Sexes went nuclear. Millions of young women – intimidated and berated by the sisterhood for wanting a husband and family – were pressured into becoming Super Mom, juggling a full-time job and a full-time family. Family planning evolved from the pill to abortion, and the late twentieth century feminist became a dogmatic, hard-core progressive with a rigid agenda: Her way or the highway!

But something happened for some of us who didn’t buy into the ’60’s Women’s Movement and our daughters who came of age at the end of the century. We, and they, looked around and saw that, while career options had expanded into almost every field, and the wage imbalance was improved (albeit not yet equal), the rage of the sixties feminazis had become limiting rather than empowering. Much to the disgust of the aging leaders of the movement (see pictures of Betty and Gloria, above), the new generation, with their mothers’ support quietly and effectively paved the trails that had been blazed a quarter century before, and began accepting a new view of a woman’s place in society and a different way to reach her goals: She could be anything she chose to be and – horrors! – she could achieve her objective without emasculating the opposite sex or suppressing her own femininity.

The “Third Wave” of the Women’s Movement is hitting the beaches.

Tuesday’s elections graphically underscored the new type of American “feminist” leaders – among them, Carly Fiorina, Jan Brewer, Nikki Haley, Susana Martinez, Kristi Noem, Liz Cheney, and of course, Sarah Palin – as truly empowered women, able to have careers, families, husbands, AND conservative values.

The last forty years have seen a dramatic change in the feminist movement. The laws of nature have shown those radical bra-burners that time will cause the loose boobs to drop farther than Al Gore’s pants in a massage parlor, while a strong, traditional foundation can keep the girls looking real good.