Some gems

Here are some of my favorite moments from Harvey Mansfield's article "Some Doubts about Feminism"

"feminism should be understood originally and essentially as neo-Marxism" (p292)
"Women have always felt they were put upon, and today they seem to feel less so" (p295)
"The complementarity of the sexes is forgotten or denied, and it is replaced by 'choice'" (p296)
"But the only family is the traditional family. The one-parent family - a euphemism for a fatherless family - does not as a rule keep women as happy as the traditional family" (p296)
"The family atmosphere is now more competitive between husband and wife, and it does not appear that women are usually winners in the competition or that they gain by having to compete with their husbands" (p297)
"Feminism has left women with a choice indeed, but one between swallowing the unacceptable and further agitation toward the unattainable" (p297)
"On the contrary, it seems to me that the standard of excellence in the most prestigious positions has been lowered by the normal entrance of women" (p297)
"Feminists have come to demand equality without considering whether equality is just, and even when it is plainly unjust" (p298)
"They [feminists] try to manipulate our admiration for greatness as if their justice could even out greatness or level it down. But great merit rules justice, and is not ruled by justice" (p298)
"It is a philosophy of irresponsibility, claiming in effect that women should be as selfish as men" (p298)
"Women - or the best women - took a quiet satisfaction from their family duties that was rarely disturbed by expressions of gratitude from the husband and children they benefited" (p299)
"Feminism is about independence more than equality; or it is about equality in independence. Yet the independence consists, not in unselfish satisfaction, but in getting credit or recognition from others" (p299)
"when women have become as selfish as men, they have also become as obtuse" (p299)
"A woman does not get enough credit for taking care of her own child; so she sends him to day care and takes a job where she can be important, like a man" (p299)
"The byword of the feminist side of the abortion debate is choice, and the meaning of choice when a woman chooses abortion is almost always choice without responsibility for a previous choice to have sex" (p299
"But it hurts women when they treat human life as a matter of their convenience" (p299)
"Their responsibility takes the form of protectiveness toward women when men earn a living not just for themselves but also for their wives and families. Feminism rejects male protectiveness because it allows men to believe in their owns superiority, and it substitutes male 'support' for their wives' independence and equality" (p299-300)
"Facts suggest that many men support their wives' independence by walking out on them, leaving them to support their own independence" (p300)
"Yet that justice gives women equal access to employment and thereby the right to displace men with families to support. It denies, or obstructs, a man's responsibility to take care of his family" (300)