Since women are still confined to producing babies, and NOW have to do all the work men do besides, I'd say the movement was less than a success.
I guess if you define success as giving women the "opportunity" to do everything they used to do, AND do a job besides, then you've got a success. For those few women who never wanted babies it must feel like a great thing- but it seems maladaptive to plan society for people like that, since if everyone thought that way society would end, with this generation. I think the women's movement did women a huge disservice to ignore the value added women bring to the table by producing the next generation. They basically fought for the right to ignore that women do that work, which men can't do (producing children), and now we simply ignore it as valuable work. And with women out of the home, parenting has suffered as well, which creates ripples all over society (including the ripples we see in schools, where children with deficits in parenting, cause disruptions that make it very hard to teach).
The unexpected consequences of the women's movement have been so great I'd be happy to throw it out, and go back and start over. At this point, I think they did more harm than good to our society. |
