Tried With Fire

the two most important qualities [of the Ideal woman] were obedience and femininity... She wrote, "The first law of Heaven is obedience, and it should be the first law of every home." As a practical reminder of women's obedience to men, Andelin presented each her of students with a gold-painted dowel to represent her husband's authority. Then she assigned students to give the gold stick to their husbands in order to provide the couple with the opportunity to discuss their respective roles in a humorous manner. "The husbands like it, and often hang their sticks on the wall as a reminder and threaten to use it if the wife doesn't obey," she said. [1] Helen Andelin's book Fascinating Womanhood (1963)   was probably the mother of all conservative women's books to combat the 2nd wave of feminism. The above quote regarding her view on male authority isn't an anomaly but the norm. The man "was created in the image of God and given domini...

A letter to the editor from a male mechanical engineering student at Eastern Washington University recently went viral. This letter was addressed to the women in his engineering classes and highlighted the subtle discrimination toward women in this field of study. One statement was of particular interested to me because my experience was more like that of this male student: I did not, for example, grow up in a world that discouraged me from focusing on hard science.  I grew up in a Christian family with several female scientists including my mom. I studied chemical engineering and computer science in the 80's when women were beginning to break into these previously male-dominated fields. I don't recall any derogatory attitudes. The course material alone was sufficient to weed out students from the programs regardless of their gender. After grad school, my first manager and client contacts were women. So based on my limited observations, I don't think discouraging g...

As part of my exercise in reading primary sources, I've started  Women Caught in the Conflict: The Culture War between Traditionalism and Feminism . I am well aware that the author, Rebecca Groothuis, is an evangelical feminist which is precisely why I am reading her book. The traditional side is not without its prejudices and stereotypes, so I want to hear it straight from the horse's mouth. So far Women Caught in the Conflict has been very thought-provokoing. Groothuis lays some groundwork by giving a history of the women's rights movement in American history and the influence on and from the church.  She also spends time delineating the various streams of secular feminist thought. This section was interesting in the light of Rosaria Butterfield's prior life as a lesbian feminist. However, feminism is not a monolithic ideology, and to lump these streams together is, in my opinion, a misrepresentation. To include egalitarianism with secular feminism is inaccurate a...

I was wandering around the public library, and this book caught my eye,   Cinderella Ate My Daughter by journalist Peggy Orenstein, HarperCollins, 2011. As a new mother and firm feminist, the author vowed to raise her daughter to be free from the passive, fairy tale princess stereotype only to discover her 3 year old reenacting the tale of Snow White. Where on earth did she learn this? This led Orenstein on a search to examine the influence of the girlie-girl culture which include: ~ The power of marketing, i.e. the Disney Princess merchandising jackpot - 26,000 Princess items which raked in $4 billion by 2009. ~ The princess meme, a harmless phase or narcissists in training? ~ Gender differences, real or imposed? Real. ~ Beauty pageants and teen idols with feet of clay. ~ Looks versus achievements, which one is more important and which one wins out? Unfortunately, it's still looks. ~ Social media  - virtual friends and intimacy, cyber-bullying, and ...