I ran across a bizarre specimen of patriarchy this morning. Four intelligent young women have a good-looking website in which they routinely cast suspicion on the women's movement, feminism, and the right to abortion.

I am never as surprised to find a man who attacks these common sense elements of American freedom, as I said in a recent post, since men have more to lose than we do from the advancing equality of all people historically disempowered. But to find women who side with men on this issue never fails to confuse me. Particularly young women like these who are attending or attended undergraduate colleges that either would not exist or certainly would not have admitted them if not for, yes, the women's movement and the men and women who have fought for it.

One is at Barnard, which only came into being when the president of Columbia failed in his bid to get women admitted to that intitution. One is at Cornell, which led the pack in insisting upon co-education for women at a time when it was considered absurd. And one is headed back to Yale, which resisted admitting women until well into the twentieth century, finally bowing from pressure exerted by, yes, feminists.

You're welcome, ladies. And I will keep fighting for your rights, just as my ancestors did, even if you are not grateful for your educational opportunities provided by feminists or even cognizant of the need to keep going for the next generations.

http://toughlove.catallarchy.net/blog/2005/10/30/why-maureen-dowd-isnt-married/#comments