What Is Women’s Liberation Saying?

“THE underlying mood of women in America today is one of conflict, frustration, deep division and change.”

That conclusion comes from a poll taken of both men and women. It reflects a mood that has become widespread among women in various parts of the world, especially in the United States.

Is this to say that before our time all women were content with their lot in life? No, because for centuries many of them did have complaints. Then what is different about the situation today?

What is relatively new is how wide an area of life the grievances cover and how persistent the outcry is. Also, beginning about the second half of the 1960’s many women began to organize and take definite action as never before. They now demand changes to correct what they claim are widespread injustices toward their sex. They say that the day is gone when they will passively submit to them.

This movement has generally been given the name “Women’s Liberation.” A dictionary defines the word liberation as being set free from bondage, the quality or state of being free, having the legal and political rights of a citizen. Those advocating women’s liberation are at times called “feminists.”

What kind of freedoms do the women in this movement desire? While the freedoms they want vary in detail from one group of women to another, there are several main trends among most who support the movement. One is their resentment at being treated only as objects for the sexual gratification of males, instead of being treated as persons. Men who regard women in this way are called “sexists.” Also, these women object to the excessive or blind belief in male superiority, labeling such “male chauvinism.”

Another strong objection is the fact that when women work for a salary, they usually do not get the same pay as men who do the same work. Also, they consider it unfair that women are excluded from many occupations and positions dominated by men.

Some of the women demand equal rights in the home. They want to have the husband share equally in doing the housework so that the wife can hold a job. They consider housework ‘inferior’ and would rather work outside the home in jobs they consider more interesting, challenging, or even ‘glamorous.’

Many women demand the right to get a legal abortion if they choose to end a pregnancy. They feel that this would free them from coming into slavery to another person, the unwanted child.

Another demand is that government agencies set up child-care centers. Mothers who work as the sole support of a family want someone to look after their children. They would rather work for a decent wage than accept welfare and barely exist. But they want some arrangement to care for their young children.

Tens of thousands of women have already marched through city streets to make known their demands. In New York, about sixty women ‘seized’ the Statue of Liberty and draped it with a banner that said: “Women of the World Unite!” According to one of the women, Miss Liberty was chosen because “it is ironic that a woman symbolizes the abstract idea of liberty, but in reality we are not free.”

In the Netherlands a group of women burned a corset before a statue of a famous Dutch suffragette. They then raided men’s public washrooms to dramatize their complaint that there were no such washrooms for women. They whistled at men on street corners and discussed out loud their good and bad points. The Dutch women demanded equal pay for women, an equal division of household duties between husband and wife, legalized abortions, sex education in schools and birth-control pills for teen-agers.

Norwegian women shocked the men of their country by turning out in huge numbers to vote for their own women candidates during local elections. Numerous city councils came into their control where their candidates won the majority. This included councils in two of Norway’s largest cities.

Differences of Opinion

However, we are not to think of women’s liberation as a unified, international movement under a central control. There are many groups and individuals involved, and wide differences of opinion exist among them. There are disagreements among women of different countries and racial backgrounds. Even within a nation or racial group there are wide areas of disagreement.

For example, some want to bring women into positions of power in today’s society by working with “The Establishment.” But others want to dismantle the established society completely and replace it with a different order. While some want more equality in marriage, others want to abandon marriage altogether. There are those who want total sexual freedom, including the acceptance of lesbianism for women and homosexuality for men. But others object to that kind of sexual freedom.

The women in the movement are not sure in which political direction they should go. The National Observer remarked of meetings of those in women’s liberation: “The workshops were lively with argument. In one, a group of young women . . . got into a shouting match with older delegates about political procedures and strategy.” One woman protested: ‘Look, I didn’t drive 600 miles to argue.’

While disagreements are common, at the same time the women warn that the depth and breadth of their feelings should not be underestimated. Others agree. The National Observer noted: “For those who don’t already, it is time to take women’s lib seriously.”

This is so because, while there are many disagreements among those favoring women’s liberation, the areas of agreement are even stronger. For instance, in Europe the outcry carries the same ring as in the United States: that women are second-class citizens and suffer discrimination in marriage, education, vocational training and jobs. They, too, demand equal pay for equal work, abortion reform, nursery schools and day-care centers.

What, then, of the claims of those who support the women’s liberation movement? Do they have a point? Is there any truth in what they are saying?

Is There Any Truth in What They Say?

IT WOULD be easy to dismiss women’s liberation as being entirely the product of women who just like to complain. Many men feel that way about it.

Yet, a wise person wrote: “When anyone is replying to a matter before he hears it, that is foolishness on his part and a humiliation.”​—Prov. 18:13.

If you had a pain in your body, would you appreciate a doctor who dismissed you as being just a complainer? Or would you want him to analyze the problem and tell you what the cause is and if there is a remedy?

Another Bible principle says: “As for anyone stopping up his ear from the complaining cry of the lowly one, he himself also will call and not be answered.”​—Prov. 21:13.

So the wise person listens. He weighs the facts to discern if a complaint is valid or not. Then he takes action accordingly.

What Cause for Complaint?

If you take an unprejudiced look at history, you will be compelled to agree that women have had many reasons for complaint.

Throughout history, the political, economic and religious power has been mainly in the hands of men. But the result has been a sickening repetition of brutality. Of World War II alone the World Book Encyclopedia states: “It has been estimated that civilian and military dead totaled 55 million. . . . Civilians suffered the greatest losses. . . . from bombings, massacres, forced migrations, epidemics, and starvation.”

Of course, one cannot say that things would have been any better had women made all the decisions. When women did rule some nations, things were really no different. Read the history about Cleopatra of Egypt, Zenobia of Palmyra, Mary I (“Bloody Mary”) of England, or Mary Queen of Scots. You will find that their rule was no improvement.

Yet, the fact remains that men have been primarily responsible for wars. Also, the weapons of war have been mostly the inventions of men. Women have seen their homes demolished, their loved ones killed or maimed. And as armies swept over large areas, women by the millions were brutalized. Untold numbers have been raped.

On the other hand, how much do women protest on either side during war? In both world wars, for example, were not the German women just as industrious in aiding their war effort as the English or American women were in theirs? When was the last time you heard that the majority of women refused to go along with the wars of a nation? Some of the loudest champions of certain war efforts have been women.

It is true, however, that in various lands many women have been treated little better than animals or slaves down through history. Among other things they were taught to commit suicide when their husbands died, had their feet bound and deformed, were not allowed to eat at the same table with men, or were sold to the highest bidder regardless of their feelings. And even in peacetime, thousands of women are raped every year. The list of oppressive acts against women is long, it cannot be denied.

Even in many ‘advanced’ societies today, women do experience forms of discrimination. The New York Times stated: “American law, with its roots in a medieval society that considered women as chattels, and with embellishments added by generations of male legislators and judges, has many features that might be said to deny women the equal protection of the laws.”

In New York state, girls considered “in need of supervision” can be imprisoned until age eighteen. But the cutoff age for boys on this count is sixteen. Sally Gold, a lawyer on the staff of the Department of Consumer Affairs, says that “a 16-year-old girl could . . . be placed in a reform school for up to four years for promiscuous behavior.” “There is no such notion for boys,” she says. A sixteen-year-old boy who was just as promiscuous would not be punished.

What About Family Life?

Many women complain about their role in family life. Is there any truth to their claims? Cornell psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner says:

“I have a great deal of sympathy for the anger and frustration that are reflected in the Women’s Liberation movement. Not only are women discriminated against in the so-called man’s world, but they have now been deprived of prestige in their role as women.

“It used to be that a mother would get recognition in her neighborhood for the fact that she had brought up her children well. Now the mother still has the responsibility for her children, but not enough support or recognition. Her husband is away most of the time, and her neighbors are often not really her friends.

“We are creating a situation where women are frustrated in both worlds.”

Many fathers shift the responsibility for training their children to the mother. As a result the mother has to make decisions and care for matters that the husband should be handling. Of this, Look magazine said:

“The American woman is accused of displacing her husband as head of the family. In her mind, she meets this familiar charge with the countercharge that she knows scarcely a household in which the mother doesn’t struggle​—in vain—​to have the father make the important decisions in the children’s lives, exercise the discipline, be a model of manliness to his sons. . . .

“By his own choice, and in the face of his wife’s protests, he leaves the vital decisions in his children’s lives​—their schooling, their sexual instructions, their religious and moral training—​to their mothers. He says that she ‘knows more about these things’ than he does, but even as he says this, he is entirely convinced that his wife robs him of authority in the home.”

Because too many men abdicate their family responsibilities, some in women’s liberation say that the family is outmoded and should be abandoned. But would that improve matters? Dr. Paul Popenoe of the American Institute of Family Relations states: “No society has ever survived after its family life deteriorated.” Harvard Professor Emeritus Carle Zimmerman said of the decay of family life in ancient Greece and Rome: “In each case the change in the faith and belief in family systems was associated . . . with enormous crises in the very civilizations themselves.”

Abandoning the family arrangement is like ‘throwing out the baby with the wash water.’ The fact that many families are happy and do cope with their problems shows that the fault does not lie with the family arrangement. It lies with people who are too selfish or unwilling to do their part.

What About “Equality”?

In nearly every field, a woman holding down a job does not get the same pay as a man who does the same work. This is a particular hardship for mothers who must work as the sole support of their families.

Because of such inequalities, some women now demand complete equality with men in all spheres of human activity. Yet, what would be the consequences if total equality were enforced?

If women had complete equality with men, governments would draft women to fight in the fields, jungles and trenches during wartime. Once when New York Times correspondent Gloria Emerson was in Khesanh, South Vietnam, the area underwent bombardment by North Vietnamese troops. She fled to a bunker which was occupied by American soldiers. Afterward she stated: “In that lonely moment I became more equal with men than I have ever cared to be. I would have gladly shared the horror of it with the fiercely fashionable advocates of women’s lib.”

Equality in every sense would do away with sound laws that govern the type of work women can be asked to do. If you are a woman, would you really want equality with men in digging coal out of a mine thousands of feet underground if men did their share of the housework? Would you really want to spend equal time plowing fields and shoveling manure with your farmer husband if he agreed to help you cook and clean at home? Is that what you prefer?

Still, some women claim it is unfair that they are consigned to the ‘dull’ housework. But other women find it challenging to manage a home, prepare menus, arrange furniture and decorations and help mold their children’s minds. To those who find this dull, many men would ask: How many ‘white-collar’ or ‘blue-collar’ jobs for men are ‘glamorous’ or ‘exciting’? Most of them are monotonous, frustrating and unsatisfying. The men are usually chained to a rigid schedule of hours, and if they deviate from that they imperil their jobs. Many of them envy the more flexible schedule their wives have at home.

Of all the working wives or mothers that you personally know, how many of them would keep their jobs if they did not need the income? Very few women prefer the monotony of a rigid job schedule over caring for a home. Ask the women, the wives and mothers, who do have to work and see if this is not so.

Recently, women were asked about this in a poll. It showed that, by a 71- to 16-percent vote, women agreed that “taking care of a home and children is more rewarding than having a job.”