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WHY REPUBLICANS SHOULD LOVE FEMINISTS (They Have So Much in Common, They Should be Dating Seriously) - The news that one out of three working wives earns more than her husband highlights a stubborn dilemma for Democratic candidates. To the extent that the Democrats are seen as the party of women and feminists, they lose votes not only from the Religious Right, but also from the broad masses of men who perceive themselves to be at a competitive disadvantage with women. Some analysts have suggested that one factor is the continuing loss of earning power by men who believe their wages have fallen as a direct result of the entry of more and more women into the labor market.
On closer inspection, it is ironic that the Democrats should bear the burden of this loss, as the feminist agenda advanced by NOW was an embarrassing break with feminist history, and, with the exception of equal pay for equal work, served the interests of the business community to the detriment of the labor unions. In this sense, feminism helps Republicans, the party of business, far more than it hels Democrats, the party of labor. The Republicans have the advantage of being able to benefit from the economics of the trend as well as the resentment it arouses.
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Women work for less.
They are more docile and less likely to deviate from company policies.
Women are less likely to join labor unions.
By increasing the size of the labor pool, they created more competition for jobs and enabled employers to make better deals.
In two-income families, one person is more likely to be willing to work part-time or as a temporary, which employers prefer as it tends to decrease various labor costs, including fringe benefits.
The atomization of the family reduces the strength of the individual worker by depriving him or her of a base independent of the company.
Taking children away from their mothers at an early age tends to increase their anxiety levels and results in higher rates of tension-relieving consumption as they grow up.
The loss of women's household services increases purchases of various forms of fast foods, which have higher profit levels than home-cooked meals.
Declining birthrates are associated with increased purchases of hard goods. This seems ridiculous but it is a well-documented fact, which I first saw in the Scientific American "Energy" special issue in 1975.
There is a startling congruence in priorities of NOW and the business community: children are at the bottom, or do not exist except as proto-consumer/worker. Children were Number 14 on the famed NOW agenda of fifteen priorities. Any attempt to re-capture the high ground here presents the Democrats with a dilemma pitting its feminist allies against the realities of American life.
The issue is family values. The feminist denial of the special role of the mother and her need to be sheltered from the brutalities of the work place does great damage to family values. It also makes it difficult for Democrats to respond to the deeply felt anguish of mothers and fathers who must sacrifice their children's well-being in order to feed, clothe and house them.
Thus, what was originally mostly a lower class problem has become one that crosses all class boundaries. We aren't all Bill or Hillary Clintons, are we? For most of us, the day care center is a new kind of hell that separates us from our children. To the extent that feminists are blamed for this, the Democrats lose votes.
JULES SIEGEL's writing has appeared in Playboy, Rolling Stone, Best American Short Stories and many other publications.
RDR RECOMMENDED SITE OF THE DAY: SALON ran a great article on April Fool's Day that we wish we had gotten first. The French, They Are Toast (Thanks and a tip of the hat to Matt W.)
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