Who Stole Feminism?: How Women Have Betrayed Women
Christina Hoff Sommers
Language: English
Pages: 320
ISBN: 0684801566
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Philosophy professor Christina Sommers has exposed a disturbing development: how a group of zealots, claiming to speak for all women, are promoting a dangerous new agenda that threatens our most cherished ideals and sets women against men in all spheres of life. In case after case, Sommers shows how these extremists have propped up their arguments with highly questionable but well-funded research, presenting inflammatory and often inaccurate information and stifling any semblance of free and open scrutiny. Trumpeted as orthodoxy, the resulting "findings" on everything from rape to domestic abuse to economic bias to the supposed crisis in girls' self-esteem perpetuate a view of women as victims of the "patriarchy". Moreover, these arguments and the supposed facts on which they are based have had enormous influence beyond the academy, where they have shaken the foundations of our educational, scientific, and legal institutions and have fostered resentment and alienation in our private lives. Despite its current dominance, Sommers maintains, such a breed of feminism is at odds with the real aspirations and values of most American women and undermines the cause of true equality. Who Stole Feminism? is a call to arms that will enrage or inspire, but cannot be ignored.
ence magazine says, "It s h o w s J a p a n e s e s t u d e n t s out front at every age g r o u p in a test that m e a s u r e s six logical thinking o p e r a t i o n s . " Professor Stevenson has d o n e s o m e of the most t h o r o u g h comparative studies. H e found a big difference b e t w e e n the average American score a n d the average for J a p a n e s e a n d Taiwanese students. (Only 14.5 percent of Taiwanese a n d 8 p e r c e n t of J a p a n e s e eleventh-graders h a d scores
in part because in m o s t states w o m e n were n o t allowed to vote in federal elections or h o l d office until the twentieth century. This m a y b e regrettable, b u t it is still a fact. W h a t , then, is a nonsexist writer of the American history textbook to do? T h e answer is filler feminism. 19 Filler feminism p a d s history with its o w n "facts" designed to drive h o m e the lessons feminists wish to impart. The following passage from o n e of the m o s t widely used high school
the tests. But their conclusion w o u l d have h a d m o r e credibility h a d they also considered the possibility that there could b e a grading bias against boys. According to the 1 9 9 2 Digest of Educational Statistics, m o r e boys d r o p out. Between 1980 a n d 1982, 19 p e r c e n t of males a n d 15 p e r c e n t of females b e t w e e n the tenth a n d twelfth grade d r o p p e d out of school. Boys are m o r e likely to b e r o b b e d , threatened, a n d attacked in a n d o u t of
Steindam, o n e of h e r school administrators w h o h a d w o r k e d w i t h the Sadkers. "Dateline" did interview o n e skeptic. Ms. Pauley asked Diane Ravitch, then assistant secretary of education u n d e r Lamar Alexander, w h a t she t h o u g h t of the Wellesley Report. Ms. Ravitch told Pauley all a b o u t the overwhelming data that s h o w boys to b e in serious trouble. She s p o k e a b o u t d r o p o u t rates, the grading gap that favors girls, the far greater n u m b e r of boys
. ' . . . T h e Report was written to d o c u m e n t g e n d e r bias a n d to suggest positive steps to c o m b a t it. Reference to guys [and] dolls . . . does little to h e l p o u r schools or o u r s t u d e n t s . " Mr. Seligman's choice of w o r d s m a y have b e e n frivolous, b u t his p o i n t was not. A n d w h a t are w e to t h i n k w h e n those w h o claim to b e helping o u r schools refuse to answer a criticism that presents a simple finding of error? Criticism by the