How has feminism hurt women?

Question

Inspired by an earlier question. A lot of women say that feminism has caused problems in their lives. I have a hard time believing this but please prove me wrong. If you can be really specific in how feminism or a feminist has harmed your it will be a lot more credible too.

Answer 1

Perhaps you should speak to Rebecca Walker the Daughter of Feminist Icon Alice Walker the Authoress of book "The Color Purple". About how Feminism ruined her Childhood, and how she is estranged from her Mother. Or ask Faye Weldon the UK Feminist who says that if Women want to become Men Feminism has not gone far enough. If they want to stay Women it has gone too far.

Germaine Greer who has stated she regrets not having had children. Many Women who opted out of the Baby making business to make a Career find it less fulfilling than Family. And not having Grandchildren is a painful loss that no career can erase.

Many Women are now regretful that they Divorced decent Men due to Feminist pressures. And the reality is more Women will never have children. The Marriage Strike is turning into a Lock Out. Where Women desperate to have children are forced to Be Single Moms. Or they will never have children at all.

Who are you kidding? Boomer Women are paying for s*x. Going on Sexual Vacations to Third World nations. And generally acting like idiots. We have hundreds of Married Women having s*x with Minor Males in our Schools. And you post this idiocy? Who are you trying to convince? Yourself perhpas, the uninformed who are not paying attention?

Answer 2

The women who put down other women because they either question the role of feminism in America or do not like feminism are judgmental, uptight or uninformed - if not all 3.

The women's movement was a good thing. It empowered women - It had real commonsense issues that were accomplished.

Feminism is a radical group that want society to define women as men - so long as it works to their benefit.

The fact of the matter is no matter how many times you repeat it women aren't just like men, and men aren't just like women. There really is a difference for both good and bad on both sides.

I'm sure they're out there but I have never met a man that says he wants to marry or date a feminist. That said I know many men that want a equal partner - which isn't a women who poses as a man.

You are going to get a bunch of posts from women who will say feminism is good it makes them equal to men. The fact of the matter is that the women's movement  is responsible for these achievements not the in your face group that talks out both sides of their mouth when it comes to "equal" rights.

Answer 3

this is quite a sensitive topic and i was taken aback when i heard this too. Femininism has brought great opportunities but it actually does have a downside (doesn't mean its bad though! i love it but i'm just aware of the small negative side).

I personally think we've lost appreciation for something we are really good at. Managing a home is a very difficult task and sometimes we become so goal oriented that we totally forget this. Great we're making our careers but let's face it, we're better than them in managin an entire household. Being a stay-at-home mom is like a bad thing to some people but i think its great (the amount of multitasking involved). Physically and emotionally we are able to take better care of a family but as females we don't even appreciate it. So engrossed in our careers and proving our point we somtimes the awesome quality we were born with. I luv being female.

Answer 4

It doesn't matter, as long as its working for you as an individual, that's all that counts. the only people who matter in this ideology are the idealists themselves.

If anyone disagrees, eff em, shame them, put them down and keep the ideological blinkers on.

Answer 5

Actually, less than ten percent of women have made that claim. Most women think feminism has either improved their lives or had no effect at all. I don't think feminism in general has hurt women, but it has had its problems here and there. It's certainly never hurt me in any way.

Answer 6

I don't agree that feminism means that women lost credit for what they are supposedly good at:managing a home. Firstly, not all women are good at managing homes and not all men are bad at managing homes. I strongly believe that the division to roles in the home to the point where men are mainly the bread winners while women are mainly the caretakers and in most cases the only parent the children really know, has a lot to answer for in the way children turn out today. A parnership needs both members to be their own individual selves and nurture themselves and their self esteem while contributing to the maintainance of the home. Women need to find value and self worth outside the home just as men do and relegating women and their self worth to the tiny confines of domestic duties does her AND their shared children no favors. I agree that feminism has been ALL good. For some that are still in teh transition stage, a few difficulties may be encountered but feminism is civil rights for women. And arguing that it has been in some ways negative to women or to society is equivalent to arguing that the abolision of slavery or racism has been in some way negative to society.

Answer 7

yes its made it harder to stay home, however it means each home that works has to work twice as hard to have what one worker had 50 years ago. (that should make you mad however most seem fine with it)

We have lost some main skills, sewing, cooking, mending,gardening, quilting ect many of them help the health and well being of their families (now we have fast food and throw cloths out that have a minor tear in them)

More teens are dropping out of school, more teen pregnancies are rising as well as abortion rates and teen suicide. - again most seem fine with it.

Divorce rates and multi families are not only high but now the norm - again most very happy with it.

The worst part that I have seen is that women are afraid to be "feminine" seeing being girly as weak, pathetic or manipulative. I wish we could be women and work instead of feeling we need to act like hard, "aggressive" men.

Even customer service has changed 50 years ago things were done with a smile and manners were key, now its not unusual to meet as many as 3 bad/angry service people in a shopping trip.

And yes these are the side effects of a "new age" each new era brings in something new, I am a stay at home we cut a lot out of our life because we want our children to have our full attention. Its my choice - however I like that if something happened to my husband I can rejoin the mainstream workforce and support my family with out needing to beg off family or the state.

There are many things that have changed over the years and I am sure in the next 50 years many more things will change.

So I guess its a matter of personal choices and what we are willing to sacrifice to not be "dependent" on another person.

There will always be a give and take its just the way things work and while many ( I assume) that will thumbs down me it is only my opinion and in today's society really what is the worth of a lowly stay at home mama??

Answer 8

What modern feminism has done is to foster contempt for women who do not want to have high-powered careers and are happy to be at home raising their children, or even working in less high-powered jobs.

For instance, a few years ago a British female cabinet minister was complaining about the fact that so many girls were becoming nurses and teachers and hairdressers, as if these jobs are no longer good enough for women.  She wanted women to be engineers and scientists and things instead.  But if there are no nurses or teachers what is going to become of us all?  Teaching women to despise the jobs that keep society functioning hardly seems to me to make much sense.

And Betty Friedan sniped endlessly at stay-at-home wives in The Feminine Mystique, and yet although she thinks that being at home with the children is not a good enough occupation for women, she doesn't explain who she thinks should be looking after the children.  If it's not good enough for women to do it, then who is it good enough for?  Feminists simper "Oh, I couldn't stay at home with the children, I'd be bored" yet they expect other people to suffer the boredom of looking after their children.  Why?  if they are bored by their children, why wouldn't they expect other women to be even more bored by them?

So now, unless you are a high-achieving career woman (which comparatively few women are) there is not, it seems to me, any aspect of feminism that is relevent to your life.  it has done nothing for the majority of women who lead ordinary lives and follow ordinary occupations and aren't aiming to be Chancellor of the Exchequer or Regius professor of nucleuar physics or something.

And then you've got idiots like the woman above who thinks that women in the past were 'helpless and wilting' when they were nothing of the kind.  Women in the past had to be as strong as oxes, with the amount they had to do.  There was nothing helpless or wilting about them, but to hear feminists talk you'd think no woman before the 1960s ever did anything of value at all.  Feminists are profoundly ignorant.

Answer 9

Jade M

"I personally think we've lost appreciation for something we are really good at. Managing a home is a very difficult task and sometimes we become so goal oriented that we totally forget this."

First of all, you're implying that A: All feminists have careers outside the home, B: That you can't have goals outside the home and C: That most women that have careers don't often end up doing most of the house work anyway (There are stats that show that women who work outside the home end up doing majority of the housework).

"Great we're making our careers but let's face it, we're better than them in managin an entire household. "

Okay, last time I checked, having a vag doesnt' make me more inclined to pick up a Swiffer and start cleaning.  Being clean and/or domestic is not biological; it is a learned behavior.  The reason you don't see more males doing housework is that it's not pushed in their faces all the time.  How many guys are taughtto do their own laundry or cook and clean?  Even the toys girls get promote being a housewife.  Easybake Ovens, tea sets...the list goes on.

"Physically and emotionally we are able to take better care of a family but as females we don't even appreciate it. So engrossed in our careers and proving our point we somtimes the awesome quality we were born with"

So women that have careers are trying to "prove a point"?  Maybe some of us want careers because certain things are our passion.  I'm sure that female doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc. do what they do because it's in their hearts, not because they want to "prove a point".  I don't know about you, but whatever decisions I make in my life, I make for me, not to please or annoy men.

Answer 10

Women tried so hard to become 'equal to a man' that now many women that have careers are facing hard decisions when it comes to rasing children.  Me for example, I have a career and makre more money than my husband.  I used to never wanted kids, but after I met him, I can't wait!  We are actually trying now.  But because of equal rights and women pursuing careers and of course the economy, it is almost impossible for one parent to stay home and raise the child.   Not like it was 50 years ago when only one parent needed to provide.  So, I know thier are many factors relating to this, but being 'one of the guys' has definately led to not being a mommy.  I am smat, i make good money have owned businesses, but all I want right now is a family and to raise a few children.  It's weird how I never wanted that before.

Answer 11

Just because I don't buy into it; does not mean it has hurt me in any way; life goes on.  Besides; tell me what can a simple 8 letter word do to any one?  Absolutely nothing.

Answer 12

Hasn't hurt me one smidge.

Answer 13

The way I see it, it's only the type of women who love playing the helpless wilting flower to their big strong man who object to feminism. It has sent them from the mainstream a few decades ago into the fringes, bordering on fetish territory.

Answer 14

This is such a great question!!!  I guess my view is that it's not truly feminism that has hurt women, but the response to it from the world, or the fact that feminism is still in its infancy period.  Yup, for all of like 40 years now, out of how many millenia, women are asking to be treated equally.  That's new.  

This can translate into hurting women by simply changing the options available to us, and not actually getting rid of the system that limits women to options or categories.  For most people, the default human is still a man.  That means that women are an "other."  And, as default humans, men can do pretty much anything they want.  But as others, women are either pretty, fun, S****y, prudish, careerist, soccer moms - you get the idea.  So so far, all feminism has accomplished is adding a few more options to our choice list, and frankly, the new options are impossible to live up to.

Today, because of how people have translated feminism, women are expected to be superheros - moms, careerists, independent, beautiful, fit - the list goes on and on and on.  When will I, as a woman, be allowed to just sit back and barely hang in there like most of the men I know?  Do I really have to tell myself that "I'm worth it!" when it comes to hair dye or exercise?  Can't I just say "eh, not today?" and walk around looking like c**p like most of my guy friends?