Chapter 1: A Band-Aid Equality

The first wave of feminism in the 1860’s saw the beginning of change for women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony headed large, powerful and well-organized groups of women that rallied for equal rights. Women finally got the vote in 1920. The second wave of feminism started again in earnest in the late 1960’s. Finally, all the doors opened for women and they eagerly embraced all the new opportunities. Males and females are now equal, right? But, why doesn’t it feel truly equal to women? It is easy to point to the facts that women still make less than men and are under -represented in many sectors, but those areas are only the tip of the ice berg. Even without fully understanding the problem, women can sense that something is wrong in a culture that spends a trillion dollars on war, while cutting spending on social welfare, schools and women’s reproductive rights. Females have been allowed into the male –based world of education and work, but other than being allowed to compete, little else has changed. The basis of our knowledge and how we know what we know is still based on masculine values, especially in the fields that inform our deeply personal lives–psychology, theology and philosophy. After years of angry feminism, it appears that we have settled into an uneasy, and still unequal, peace. Further, the current climate of political correctness has insured that we don’t research, explore or even talk about any real differences between males and females.