Must I Become a Misogynist “Man” to be a “Liberated” Woman?

by Cynthia Millen
Catholic Stand

“Now, we are becoming the men we wanted to marry. Once, women were trained to marry a doctor, not be one.” Gloria Steinem, Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions

“Suddenly, I began to wonder: If one in three or four American women had an abortion at some time in her life–a common statistical estimate, even in those days of illegality– then why, WHY should this single surgical procedure be deemed a criminal act? Gloria Steinem, The Choices We Made: Twenty-Five Women and Men Speak Out About Abortion.

First of all, one in every three or four American women has NOT had an abortion. This is how statistics can be skewed. Many women who have had abortions have had more than one. In addition, it has also been shown that the statistics used were not reliable. (False! 1 in 3 Women Will NOT Have an Abortion in Her Lifetime, LifeNews.com, August 14, 2014.) So any attempt to portray abortion as a mundane, normal event in which one out of every three women has partaken is inaccurate.

Second, the idea that women must be have unfettered access to birth control in order to truly be successful has been a mantra for the traditional feminist movement since the 1960’s. “ [It is well settled that] women’s ability to provide for themselves and their health depends on maintaining maximum access to birth control.” (How important are women’s reproductive rights as a political issue for female voters in the US? Quora.com, July 7, 2014.)

According to “traditional” feminist thought (not to be confused with those wonderful pro-life feminists who are now filling our blogosphere), in order for a woman to be able to work and provide for herself, she must be able to use chemical or obstructive contraceptives and have unlimited access to abortion. In short, she must be able to make herself infertile and be able to walk away from her offspring. Hmmm. So, women must deny, they must suppress, they must incapacitate that uniquely female part of themselves in order truly to be a successful……female. Something seems amiss here. It sounds sort of manly.

A liberated woman, of course, should be free to choose when she wants to have sex. No patriarchal system of morals should be used to suppress a woman’s natural desires. Again, a quote from Ms. Steinem says it succinctly: “A liberated woman is one who has sex before marriage and a job after.” (Gloria Steinem quotes, Goodreads.com) So she should be free to sow….er, be free to allow a man to sow his wild oats with her (speaking heterosexually here) before marriage, and then work at a job outside the home afterwards. Sounds even more like a man, and sort of a sexist man at that.

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After marrying her husband, Jim Roberts, in 1980, Cynthia Millen graduated from law school and practiced in Ohio for a short while. Excited about having a large family, Jim and Cindy were blessed more quickly than expected with the birth of five children in four years (two set of twins). Her love for reading and writing grew into the publication of several children's books (under the name C. M. Millen), poems and short stories (including a 2014 Tuscany prize winner). Millen earned her Masters in Literature from Trinity College, Dublin, and relishes the teaching (and learning) of reading, writing, and grammar with middle school students at Christ the King School in Toledo, Ohio.