**Previously recorded by Phyllis Schlafly // February 2011 **
The most scholarly book written about the feminist movement by a non feminist is Domestic Tranquility: A Brief Against Feminism by Carolyn Graglia. She read all those tiresome books and articles by the feminist leaders, Betty Friedan, Germaine Greer, Kate Millett, Gloria Steinem, and Simone de Beauvoir, and concluded that the principal goal of the feminists since the 1960s has been “the status degradation of the housewife’s role.”
Mrs. Graglia documented the fact that all branches of feminists are united in the belief that a woman can find identity and fulfillment only in a laborforce career. Gloria Steinem said that when a woman gets married, she becomes a “semi-non person,” while Simone de Beauvoir and Betty Friedan labeled the housewife a “parasite,” wasting her adult capabilities and intelligence.
This devaluing of the role of fulltime homemakers has now become part of our culture. That is what is taught in women’s studies courses in colleges and endlessly reiterated on the media. Today, it is simply accepted by most people that the modern woman should be in the workforce because being at home is not enough for a fulfilling life.
However, the feminist movement isn’t the only factor that has moved wives out of the home into the labor force. Another big factor is the invention of so many labor-saving devices that have reduced the time necessary to care for babies and keep the household functioning. Another factor is that women are having fewer children today than they did in the previous generation. Perhaps the most important factor is free trade policies that have shipped millions of well-paying blue-collar manufacturing jobs overseas so that men today are stuck in jobs that don’t pay enough to support a fulltime homemaker.
