[Tulip86]

Originally Posted by AGDee

This is how I think of feminism and I'm always confused about how a woman who has gone to college, held a job in an underrepresented field, owned property, or voted in an election can say they are not a feminist. Without feminism, none of those things would have been possible.

The feminist movement has had a great benefit to both men and women. It has raised our standard of living as we can have dual income households, taking the pressure off of the man to be the sole provider. Men can also choose any occupation they want, even things that were traditionally "female only" such as nursing. Men have different relationships with their children, more healthy relationships, than simply being the disciplinarian in the family. It also allows men to not always be stoic and strong. It also allows men to take paternity leaves in some cases (something I think should be universal!)

Feminism is about choice. It allows families to choose how they want to function, whether they decide, as a unit, to have a stay at home mom, stay at home dad, or two working parents. It allows women to leave abusive situations because they can have a job and own their own house. It allows divorced families to set up joint custody arrangements allowing the dads to remain involved in raising their kids. It is more the norm here for courts to grant joint custody than to automatically grant the mom full custody.

als, this is not an attack on you, but it is difficult for me to understand how you can say you do not believe in equal rights for women when you've done all of these non-traditional things that would not have been possible 50 years ago. I sometimes wonder if women of your generation don't realize how things were for my mother's generation. My mom had to quit her job as a bank teller as soon as she was visibly pregnant. Do you believe that is right?

In my experience, our sororities definitely support feminism. Much of our programming is about developing leadership skills and empowering women to make decisions. We encourage scholastic success and provide networking opportunities to aid our members in the work force. If you join a sorority simply for the mixers, you're going to be really disappointed because you spend a lot more hours doing other things with the chapter.

Very well said AGDee, I agree on every aspect.