Who-Stole-Feminism.-How-Women-Have-Betrayed-Women

THE BACKLASH MYTH 237Faludi is especially critical of anyone in the media who finds fault withcurrent day-care arrangements. She treats a 1984 Newsweek story as adiatribe against day care that glorifies women who give up careers to raisetheir kids. But Cathy Young, the reviewer from Reason magazine, pointsout that Faludi carefully refrained from mentioning that the author of thearticle called for quality day care and considered it to be "a basic familyneed." 35To make her general case for a media backlash, Faludi assiduouslycollected media stories that question the joys of single life or thewisdom of a mother with small children choosing to work. Young observedthat Faludi nowhere mentions the numerous articles that encouragewomen in these choices, nor those that celebrate "the new fatherhood,the benefits for girls of having working mothers, women in business andnontraditional jobs." Throughout her long book, Faludi gives the clearimpression that the slant of coverage in major newspapers and magazinesis distinctly antifeminist. According to Ms. Young, the opposite is true.In a review for Working Woman magazine, Carol Pogash finds thatFaludi "misconstrues statistics to suit her view that American women areno longer very anxious to wed." 36Faludi interprets a 1990 Virginia Slimspoll as finding that women placed the quest for a husband way at thebottom of their list of concerns. "Perhaps," says Ms. Pogash, "that's because62 percent of the women in the sample were already married, a fact[Faludi] doesn't mention." 37Ms. Pogash notes that Faludi also misstatedthe results of another Virginia Slims poll as showing that "70 percent ofwomen believed they could have a 'happy and complete life' without awedding ring." In fact the question was, "Do you think it is possible for awoman to have a complete and happy life if she is single?"—not whetherthe respondent herself could be happy as a single woman.Faludi talks about "the wages of the backlash," and her most insistenttheme is that women are being severely punished economically for thesocial and civic progress they had made prior to the eighties. How afeminist reacts to data about gender gaps in salaries and economic opportunitiesis an excellent indication of the kind of feminist she is. In general,the equity feminist points with pride to the many gains women havemade toward achieving parity in the workplace. By contrast, the genderfeminist makes it a point to disparage these gains and to speak of backlash.It disturbs her that the public may be lulled into thinking thatwomen are doing well and that men are allowing it. The gender feministinsists that any so-called progress is illusory.I felt the force of this insistence two years ago when my stepson,Tamler, was a junior at the University of Pennsylvania. He had written aterm paper on Jane Eyre in which he made the "insensitive" observation