Picking a Villain: Feminism

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself in a debate with a friend about women’s liberation and its effect on the modern world, particularly American society. Now, this friend is kind of a chauvinistic douche, but he does tend to have good ideas. After a fair amount of back and forth, this is the agreement we came to: overall, women’s liberation = awesome. 

The problem, as he and I see it, is the way that we have responded to this movement. You’ll notice that America (particularly in areas regarding the family and parenting) struggles in ways that most other modern Western nations do not. The difference, we decided, is that when women’s liberation became a fact of life, most European nations adjusted their social and cultural values to accommodate this change. America didn’t. 

In most European nations, maternity leave is fully paid (either by the government or the employer or some combination of both), and lasts at minimum six months to one year. In America, it’s maybe paid (if you’re lucky and have a good job), but only lasts 12 weeks. 

For those of you not familiar with child development, what’s the most important developmental time period in a child’s life? Birth to one year. European mothers and fathers have the opportunity to spend this important, formative time with their children. American mothers find themselves dropping their infants off at day care about 15 minutes after their C-Section scars heal. 

Now, raise your hand if you’re surprised that we have such rates of gun violence, mental illness, suicide, unwanted births, and crime in general.

Once again, way to go, America.