Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Feminist Founder Changes Her Mind


Betty Friedan was one of the founders of feminism.  She told women to "Leave home and go to work!"  Twenty years later after seeing the devastation that feminism had on society, she wrote The Second Stage and told women, "Feminism has failed.  I encourage you women to leave your jobs and go home," according to John MacArthur {source}

She began supporting abortion but later said, "[I]n recent years I've gotten a little uneasy about the movement's narrow focus on abortion as if it were the single, all-important issue for women when it's not." She asked, "Why don't we join forces with all who have true reverence for life, including Catholics who oppose abortion, and fight for the choice to have children?"

Her husband, Carl Friedan, had this to say about her, "She changed the course of history almost singlehandedly. It took a driven, super aggressive, egocentric, almost lunatic dynamo to rock the world the way she did. Unfortunately, she was that same person at home, where that kind of conduct doesn't work. She simply never understood this." {source}  They eventually got divorced.

John MacArthur believes that the number one symbol of rebellion to God's ordained order is the independent, unsubmissive working wife.  He believes that women leaving the home has hammered marriages and polarized the sexes which has led to the moral decay of our society.  The feminist agenda has appealed to women's pride, lust for material things, and a desire to dominate.

I agree with him.  I don't see anything good coming from women leaving their homes empty for hours every day.  Everything people argue with me when I write things against feminism say feminism has accomplished some good things like women are being treated better in the work force and many other things women have gained in the workforce.  Big deal...if they were home under their husband's protection and provision, we would never had to worry about sexual harassment, equal pay, etc. in the workforce.

So if even one of the founders of the feminist movement can see the harm it has done to society, can't you?  Can't you admit that God's ways are so much better and that women have been lied to?  Yes. I know lots of noses get bent out of shape because of what I teach, but if it just opens a few eyes and makes some reexamine their lives, it is worth a few bent noses.

She looketh well to the ways of her household, 
and eateth not the bread of idleness.  
Her children arise up, and call her blessed; 
her husband also, and he praiseth her.
Proverbs 31:27,28

Comments (48)

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I don't always agree with you, but on this topic I do! I wish more women were able to see through the lie of feminism. Thanks for sharing!
Very interesting! When women stayed home, it was easy for a man to provide for his family. Now almost two incomes in many places are needed for that same standard of living. It all has to do with supply and demand. Flood the business world with workers and businesses don't have to pay as much. If women actually left the business world (even just the women with children left the business world), wages would increase, and America would find it much easier for families to live on one income just as it has been in the past.
3 replies · active 576 weeks ago
I totally agree with you. My husband want me to work. I do, a 40 hour a week job. We are both exhausted all of the time, but he doesn't think that we can make it on one income.
2 replies · active 576 weeks ago
In this economy, most families are forced to have a dual-income earning household. Bills need to be paid, and needs must be met. Many families I know that are dual-income have cut down to the bare basics, and the wife remaining at home would not be an option. In an ideal world, yes, women should be able to stay at home and raise their children and care for their home. This is no longer an ideal world though. The economy is much different from that of the 1950's and 1960's.
5 replies · active 576 weeks ago
We tend to idealize the past and think it was much better than today. In terms of women being able to stay home with children that was true. But in virtually every other facet of life women were not respected nor were their opinions valued. Feminism allowed women to stand up and say that sexual harassment, rape, and general disrespect is not okay. Women used to have very few methods of recourse if their husband beat them, today women can put a stop to physical abuse. Rape used to have a marital exception, so if your husband raped you, you could do nothing about it. Today, women do have power to prevent this kind of unacceptable behavior. There are fewer instances of sexual harassment from men towards women. There has been a general increase in the amount of respect afforded women. I think these things benefit humankind generally and make us all better people, we should all be grateful for them.
6 replies · active 576 weeks ago
As a single woman who went through a divorce (abuse/alcoholism), I currently am in the working arena. How I wish that were not the case. To be a wife to a Christian man and a homemaker for him is a desire of mine. Only the Lord knows our future. I keep my hope in Christ.
Lady Virtue's avatar

Lady Virtue · 576 weeks ago

Yet another great post, Lori; you're truly on a roll!

Thank you for teaching the unpopular but true portion of God's Word about this subject. It is of great value to us younger women. We don't have a lot of sources for this.

A previous commenter said something about rape within marriage. How is it even possible for a husband to "rape" his wife?
2 replies · active 576 weeks ago
As I lay in bed this morning I contemplated my choices. I could decide to stay home today (and for evermore) and have a sleep in, a lazy day (as the housework is all done) reading, watching movies, sewing, blogging, cooking – putting my feet up or I could get up and go to work. I have no children at home – so life at home would be a breeze.

You are a very fortunate woman to have a husband earning such a comfortable income so you don’t have to make these choices, we aren’t all in your situation. But I feel completely blessed that the Lord has provided me with a job that pays very well, that has flexible hours which means I can still care for my home and my family. The Lord is good, but He isn’t going to pop a cheque into our bank account each fortnight to pay the mortgage and all our bills – what He has done is give me the strength, skills and knowledge to do the job I have, to pay those bills and put a roof over our head. I praise the Lord daily for what He has done for our family and I see His hand in work every day. I do all things through Christ which strengths me – I couldn’t do it without Him.
3 replies · active 576 weeks ago
I really loved Betty Friedan's quotes that you featured from later in her life! I agree with everything about this post in theory, but in practice, there is a whole generation of young women out there raised by baby boomer mothers and fathers (many of them Christian) who came of age in the height of the feminist movement and believed they needed to raise educated, self-sufficient daughters who would not rely on them indefinitely until marriage. I was raised in a Christian household by parents who came of age in the 70's. They instilled work ethic in me and I excelled in academic pursuits. I was always expected to get an education, work (from teenage years onward), and become self-sufficient in a career following college. I followed suit with my parents' expectations (I had never heard of being a stay at home daughter in high school). I have always thought, and still believe, that I was honoring them with my actions. They were not going to support me financially in my adult life, so pursuing a career to support myself was the only option. I know you don't write for the exceptions, but there is arguably a whole generation of young women (17-35?) who have been raised by believer parents who expected their daughters to get and education and be self-sufficient. Cabinetman pointed out recently that the fact that I have supported myself in a professional career as a young single woman will make me less desirable to a believing husband who wants a wife/mother at home, even though I would give up my career for a family happily. So is it wrong for single young women whose families won't financially support them to be happy about the fact that we get compensated equally to our male colleagues, have health insurance, and are able to support ourselves without going on government assistance, when our families would find it unacceptable to support non-working adult daughters? Especially if, as Cabinetman indicated, my chances of marriage are probably weakened solely based on the fact that I am, in fact, financially self-reliant (even though I had no other choice.) I kind of feel caught in a catch 22.
9 replies · active 576 weeks ago
Immigrant women, poor women, women of color, rural women, were already in the workforce before Betty Friedan penned The Feminine Mystique. They were working as servants, in factories, in restaurants, in mills, in laundries, as farm laborers and more. Poor women have always worked, since before Jesus' time and to the present.

What Friedan and her ilk did was convince the middle and upper class white women that they were unhappy, bored, and unfulfilled as housewives. The feminists told them that children were a burden, housework a bore, and that they were wasting their lives staying at home. These women, who lived relatively privileged lives, labelled themselves victims of a patriarchal society and sought freedom from a prison they were never in. They were well-educated they weren't going to settle for the menial jobs the poor women held, and sought out jobs with higher pay and more responsibility. So starting in the 60s white women have been taking jobs away from white men.

The modern feminist movement’s roots are very racist, classist, and narcissistic.
Keep up the good work of standing on the word of God and proclaiming it, unpopular as that may be for people to hear. God and His word never changes. And if something in our lives does not line up with what the bible says, then that is what needs to change. You are ever in my prayers. Thank you for speaking the truth of God boldly, meekly and unashamedly. <3
Loving been his wife's avatar

Loving been his wife · 576 weeks ago

Lori, have you read the book *Fascinating Womanhood* and what did you think of it?
1 reply · active 576 weeks ago
I haven't read The Second Stage, but I'd bet that quote is taken out of context. Friedan never called for ALL women to stay/return home and not pursue careers. I think she just realized that, for some women, being a stay-at-home mom is completely fulfilling (something she didn't seem to believe when she wrote The Feminine Mystique, and some feminists still don't believe). This article tries to clarify Freidan's legacy a bit: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/family/2006/06...
1 reply · active 576 weeks ago
Excellent..thank you.
Beautiful. God Bless You for coming out and speaking so boldly on such a sensitive issue. It does my heart good to see so many Christian women refocusing their lives on their husbands and children.
Loving been his wife's avatar

Loving been his wife · 576 weeks ago

Oops! Lori please delete them, I did some thing wrong! The name of the site is *The Lost Art of Scratch Cooking*
It looks really good!!!
http://www.off-grid.net/2013/04/14/the-lost-art-o...

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