Equality in diversity

Looking at conservatism in the 20th century, we read from Phyllis Schlafly's "The Power of the Positive Woman." Schlafly's writings came as a backlash against the women's movement. In this work she tries to portray feminists as self-haters who can appreciate the benefits of being female. 

There are a couple of things that Schlafly speaks of that I agree with, though for the most part I find her writing to be simply ridiculous. The one positive thing that Schlafly does speak about is accepting that men and women are not equal. This, of course, is not to imply that they are unequal, or that one sex is superior to the other. But women and men are simply different - different anatomy, different strengths, different weaknesses, different skills.

However, Schlafly takes her assessment of the difference between men and women a little too far. She assumes that all men are cut from the same cloth, and so are all women. This is just insane. There is every bit as much difference between one woman and the next woman and one man and the next man as there is between a woman and a man. It is particularly infuriating when Schlafly describes every woman as having some sort of overwhelming imperative to be a mother. This is simply not true. Not every woman is maternal, just like not every man is stoic in regards to parenting. Every person is different in their needs and wants, whether they be a result of nature or nurture.

I also find her description of self-hating feminists as completely illogical. Feminists do not hate being female, they hate the constraints that society places upon them because they are female. Most frustrating by far is Schlafly's complete misunderstanding of the televised NOW advertisement. It is obvious that the description of the small child's gender as a handicap is meant as a satire of the way American society treats women. Schlafly completely misconstrues this as evidence that feminists think being female means something is wrong with them. 

As I see it, Schlafly's article is an excellent example of people completely misinterpreting facts and the ideologies of others in order to suit their own belief system.