March 26, 1998

Women need to be non-combative toward men

Pete Eubanks, Staff Writer

There may have been a time for women to be combative towards men, but according to Christina Hoff Sommers, author of the controversial best seller, “Who Stole Feminism,” it’s time to ascend to a higher level.

Sommers voiced strong accusations about feminism and women’s studies programs on March 18 in Farthing Auditorium.

Sommers is convinced that the women’s movement has taken a wrong turn.

Instead of a movement based on good information, common sense and fairness, the current feminist movement is plagued by political correctness, male bashing, and victim politics, said Sommers.

She referred to the thieves of the feminist movement as “gender feminists.”  According to Sommers, gender feminists are a group of illiberal, anti-intellectual feminist activists who have been promoting an agenda that sets women against men.

During her research, Sommers said she found that the information people are getting on critical issues  involving women is inaccurate.

“What I’m saying is that feminist activists, in their commitment  to prove how oppressed women are and how dangerous men can be, have mangled the truth,” said Sommers.

Sommers said she believes in what she calls “equity feminism.” According to Sommers, “an equity feminist is someone who wants for women what she wants for everyone.”

Sommers said that women are not doing merely as well as men, but better in many areas.  She said 55 percent of students in college are women, and careers that were once male dominated have increasing numbers of women.

“I believe that American women are the finest and most liberated (women) in the world,” said Sommers.

Sommers talked about the varying beliefs between gender feminists and herself concerning men and women.

While gender feminists believe that differences between men and women are caused by cultural and environmental influences, Sommers believes many differences can be attributed to biological differences.

She said that experiments on girls and boys beginning at age one prove that boys are naturally more aggressive and, on average, have different cognitive strengths.

“Natural differences between men and women suggest that we may never get mathematical parity in all fields,” said Sommers.

Sommers criticized women’s studies programs and said that in most women’s studies courses, women are likely to hear a lot of bad news about the condition of women.

She thinks there is “crushing conformity” in women’s studies programs with most women of the cultural and political left wing.

“What we need is a movement that respects the preferences of all kinds of women, including the majority who are not of the cultural left,” said Sommers.

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