The Feminist Dilemma: When Success is Not Enough (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "In a day and age when women are piloting space shuttles, starting their own businesses, and even running for president, it is easy to forget..." (more)
Key Phrases: affirmative employment program, statistical proportionality, standard deviation report, United States, New York, Department of Education (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Covering a range of issues, The Feminist Dilemma provides a comprehensive critique of the practical program of feminism." -- The Weekly Standard, February 4, 2002

Product Description

Over the past several decades, American women have gradually overcome the legal and cultural barriers to equal opportunity. Women now receive well over half of all B.A.s and M.A.s, and working women have become the rule rather than the exception. Women are becoming physicians, lawyers, CEOs, and scientists and are founding their own businesses in record numbers.

In The Feminist Dilemma, Diana Furchtgott-Roth and Christine Stolba argue that even though women’s opportunities are now equal, women’s and men’s choices are not always the same. Ironically, the achievement of women’s equality poses a serious dilemma for contemporary feminists, who do not want to acknowledge that some of women’s choices, such as studying literature rather than math, or leaving the work force to raise children, or even working part-time, lead to fewer women in top jobs. The flaw in contemporary feminist thinking, Furchtgott-Roth and Stolba contend, is its insistence that anything less than statistical parity with men in any field--or even on college sports teams--is proof of discrimination against women.

The Feminist Dilemma describes a wayward feminist movement that does not want to acknowledge women’s real accomplishments because their existence marks the end of the movement’s reason for being. Rather than celebrate victory in their pursuit of women’s equality, today’s feminists feign defeat. They adopt the rhetoric of victimization, suggesting that women can never succeed on their own, and they crusade for preferential programs for women in education and the workplace. Politicians and businesses fear becoming feminist targets and so lack the courage to challenge feminists’ claims.

The Feminist Dilemma explains how the contemporary feminists’ ideological campaign in the courts and in Congress is undermining the principles of our economic system--and how these efforts actually do not help women’s progress. The Feminist Dilemma will spark controversy and change the way we think about equality between men and women. It will be an eye-opener for anyone with an interest in politics, economics, and women’s issues.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: AEI Press; 1st edition (December 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0844741299
• ISBN-13: 978-0844741291
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,061,592 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Look At The Economics Of Feminists' Policies, April 7, 2002

By	Michael D. Mallinger (Woodbridge, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The "mainstream" feminist movement is under increasing fire for losing site of the goal of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 - equal protection of both sexes under the law. Those who challenge the radical leaders of this movement call themselves individualist feminists. They believe that equality for women is best achieved through supporting individual liberty, economic freedom, and the rule of law. Most individualist feminists attack "mainstream" feminism on philosophical grounds - arguing that it is unjust for the state to apply different rules toward men and women. In "The Feminist Dilemma," Furchtgott-Roth and Stolba extend that logic to economics - asserting that setting aside benefits for women via government fiat will harm men and women alike by inhibiting their abilities to succeed in the marketplace.

The authors argue that success has created an identity crisis for many feminists who make a living through activism. Because women made such enormous strides since obtaining equal protection under the law, many activists groups seek to justify their continued existence by promoting equality of results in the marketplace in areas like wages and affirmative action in education. This, the authors assert, makes the feminist movement seem more socialistic than democratic.

Socialism hurts women by reducing their freedom to make choices. Feminists claim that, when women choose job flexibility over higher wages, they are victims of a false consciousness that imposes a patriarchal agenda on them. They believe women are strong enough to accomplish even more on their own, but deny that they can do it without completely reinventing our legal system. The authors point out that, because they support redistribution through comparable worth legislation, radical feminists actually prevent women from gaining access to higher paying jobs by suppressing those jobs within the economy.

What sets Furchtgott-Roth and Stolba apart from many other individualist feminists is that, rather than focusing on political philosophy, they analyze and discuss both visible and hidden economic costs of the radical feminists' proposals. When firms are forced to incur higher operating costs to create new benefits for women - including expanded childcare and healthcare packages - these costs must be passed on to consumers via higher prices. If consumers aren't willing to pay those prices, employees must absorb the costs through wage reductions, layoffs, or reduced benefits in other areas. Although the costs may not be imposed immediately when the policies are enacted, they tend to exhibit themselves with force when recessions occur. In addition, many costs manifest themselves as opportunities foregone - new businesses not created, new products and ideas not developed, and potential investments never made. Both men and women must cope with these problems.

The authors present evidence to counteract radical feminists' claims in many areas. Some of their most impressive data shows that women are outperforming men in both college admissions and academic achievements. Women now receive more than half of all B.A.'s and M.A.'s and almost half of all medical and law degrees. They are more likely to attend college and graduate at higher rates than men. Because their choices of majors reflect their abilities and preferences, efforts to encourage women to study areas they do not like may actually reduce their future earning potential rather than raise it.

Furchtgott-Roth and Stolba apply the same logic to women's career choices. They believe women tend to want careers that offer flexible hours, or that can be interrupted at times, so they can set aside additional time for their families. Thus, they believe radical feminists who want comparable worth mandated by Congress are out of touch with working women's desires and goals.

The only area where the authors need to strengthen their case is Title IX's impact on college sports. They argue the courts' interpretations of Title IX as a quota system have forced many universities to shut down men's programs that fail to generate revenue. Although this is true to an extent, many of these programs may have been cut anyway due to revenue shortfalls. In addition, many women's programs - especially basketball in the ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Big Twelve, and PAC Ten conferences - are beginning to generate revenue for schools. Because college athletics was never a purely market-based system and involves using money from some programs to pay for others, a very strong case must be made to prove that Title IX, and not ordinary market pressures, is responsible for the loss of men's programs.

Furchtgott-Roth and Stolba do an outstanding job of showing why radical feminists' proposals to reduce economic freedom for women will harm them over time. As more and more women outpace men in the classroom, it will become clearer that affirmative action actually penalizes women for their hard work. One can only hope that legislators will heed the authors' advice and restore equality of opportunity to its rightful place as the cornerstone of our civil rights legislation before more harm is done to women's freedoms.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book tells it like it is!, January 10, 2002

By A Customer

This was a great read and the authors are to be commended for their research and honesty. The women's organizations have become dishonest political organizations, bent on their own survival and which skew facts and figures in order to propagate the myth that women are still victims in our society in need of special protection. Their organizations survival is dependent upon the success or failure of this myth and the book does a great job of exposing how these organizations twist and bend the truth to suit their own purposes. The playing field has not only been leveled, it is tilting the other way! I highly recommend this book for people who want to know the true facts regarding gender equality in this country.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Continuing Irrelevancy of Feminism, January 10, 2005

By	Derek Manchette (The South, USA) - See all my reviews

The premise of THE FEMINIST DILEMMA is fairly simply - as women have gained more and more ground in society, the ideological and political movement of feminism has become more and more irrelevant. That is the good news. The bad news is that feminists, being about as odious and dishonest as it is possible to be, refuse to acknowledge this and continue to contort the concept of "equality" in order to perpetuate their own existence.

There is actually not much new in this book. Anyone who keeps up on the subject already knows that the economic picture of women painted by feminists is bogus, that girls are not being shortchanged at school and that the legal area of sexual harassment has become a Kafka-esque minefield. THE FEMINIST DILEMMA is useful, however, by providing more in-depth statistical analyses of these subjects and by demonstrating that many programs specifically meant to benefit women are counterproductive by making business itself more difficult due to over-regulation.

There is one down point to this book. It is painfully dry. The two authors, Diana Furchtgott-Roth and Christine Stolba, are a couple of policy wonkettes at the American Enterprise Institute, one of our better think tanks. Unfortunately, like many eggheads, they are strong on intellect at the expense of excitement. Come on ladies, you are criticizing feminism! Your hearts should ring with merriment not only at the benefit you are doing for society by exposing feminist falsehoods but also for the emotional misery you no doubt are causing the feminists themselves. Let your writing style reflect the glee.