For women, “having it all” was a concept that became mainstream in the ’70s and ’80s and culminated with the publication of Helen Gurley Brown’s 1982 book of the same title.
This 1979 ad exemplifies the era:
Even then, it didn’t seem realistic, so feminist scholar Ruth Rosen told women that while they deserved to have it all (an unfettered career, family, independence, freedom), they couldn’t have it unless they got:
- Child care — paid by the government
- Legal abortion — on demand with no rights granted to the fetus whatsoever
- Equal pay — not for equal work, because women wanted the option to leave the workforce and return with no loss of position, anytime they wanted.
That was her solution to the dilemma of raising children and having a career.
She explained her views at the leftist Open Democracy outlet:
The fact is, activists in the women’s movement knew women could never have it all, unless they were able to change the society in which they lived.
At the August 1970 march for Women’s Strike for Equality, the three preconditions for emancipation included child care, legal abortion and equal pay. “There are no individual solutions,” feminists chanted in the late sixties. If feminism were to succeed as a radical vision, the movement had to advance the interests of all women.
The belief that you could become a superwoman became a journalistic trope in the 1970s and has never vanished. By 1980, most women’s (self-help) magazines turned a feminist into a Superwoman, hair flying as she rushed around, attaché case in one arm, a baby in the other. The Superwomen could have it all, but only if she did it all. And that was exactly what feminists had not wanted.
It’s telling that Kamala Harris has specifically endorsed all three of those ideas in particular in her 2024 campaign.
Feminism is all about bigger government and has since become a gateway drug: From feminism, we extended to genderism, the acceptance of single-parent families, and a big government support system for it.
The rise of feminism marked the beginning of the end for America as we knew it. Feminism is essentially collectivist in practice, although claiming to be empowering. Feminism requires the elimination of almost all the essential tenets that made America great: individualism, risk, the ability to fail, and limited government.
I’ve been called ‘avuncular’ at times in my writing. I had to look it up the first time an editor told me that. For all the rest of you who also don’t know what avuncular means, it is a pejorative word that infers someone is talking down to you, like your know-it-all-all uncle. Some may think the same about this article.
So let me make clear: Not all women are radical feminists. Women deserve an equal seat at the table commensurate with their commitment to the same rules that our social and economic system require, not vast government support systems to achieve it. And there’s the rub. Life is unfair, they can’t have it all and you can’t legislate fairness — sorry, gals. Sometimes, you need to state the obvious.
Feminists hate us know-it-alls because we are a threat to a worldview that sees equivocation in all or most things and calls on all society to accommodate their vision. Feminists frequently use the term “toxic masculinity” to describe men who believe in an absolute view of right and wrong, truth and fiction, that one plus one equals two is always true and not subject to interpretation or has any need for an explanation.
Along the way, American males, through their schooling and growing up in fractured non-traditional families, became weaker and adopted many attributes of feminism, which included cooperative problem-solving and a requirement for “fair outcomes.” The critical mistake that feminism and our political system have adopted is that fairness can be legislated despite millions of years of evolution saying otherwise. Yet, evidence to the contrary, some believe we can overcome genetics, sex, family structure, and societal evolution in a generation or two, turning Darwin on his head.
They were and are wrong, and the disarray we see before us is the result of allowing morons with charisma to run our country into the ground. Many of us saw it but went along to get along. It’s not a good prescription for the greatest nation on Earth’s continued success.
A quick refresher should demonstrate that all real progress is earned, never given. The larger the gain, the more pain was endured along the way. Markers along our journey highlight America as unique and seemingly without any limits:
- Our Founding—never before was a nation like the United States created by man, of the people, by the people, and for the people. Even today, few nations accept that the people have inalienable rights. Europe, for instance, does not, with politicians ultimately guaranteeing human rights. What a politician gives can be taken away.
- Self Introspection—when we realized the Constitution wasn’t perfect, we didn’t have a revolution; we fixed it! We have amended our Constitution numerous times over the years.
- Willing to spill blood to defend the Constitution—our Constitution is more than a piece of paper. It is the living embodiment of what it means to be an American. It is too often spoken of, not in terms of reverence but derision, or matter of factly, as if the Constitution was a once-and-done type of thing or stands in the way of too many “rights” that are popular and trendy. Americans fought Americans in a Civil War on the principles contained in that document.
- Our secret sauce—the ability to fail infers that we are free to try things that the majority may hold in disfavor or don’t think enough of you and your ideas to approve of your actions. No society should have that kind of power, yet that is the direction we are moving in. A nation that can and will prevent individual failure can and will prevent individual success.
- Never give up your right to fight — we are a nation of fighters, at least until the feminists unleashed themselves on us. Women have equal rights to men and commensurate responsibilities subject to their genetic limitations. Like all creatures, great and small, they must place their motherhood above all else when they have a child. They can’t have it all.
America is about heroes and heroines. And, for many today, wearing blinders is all some do. Those people no longer reflect what an American is. They rely on the government to provide safety, protection, and sustenance. The pie cannot grow if everyone clings to hypothetical safety, which too many do. To prosper another 50 or 250 years, growth is the only savior, and the government is effectively anti-growth no matter what they state. Our government is only interested in fairness and equity with all that entails, with spokespeople mouthing platitudes they don’t mean. Governments don’t have spines; only flesh and blood people do.
It would be well for all of us to stop lying to ourselves concerning the immutable truths of life. Much is required to prosper, and life cares little for your beliefs that demand fairness over productivity and individual accomplishment. We would be wise to remember this when we claim to be American.
God Bless America.
Allan J. Feifer is a patriot, author, businessman, thinker, and strategist. Read more about Allan, his background, and his ideas to create a better tomorrow at www.1plus1equals2.com.
Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License
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