Are you a feminist? Or are you a masculinist? It's a trick question--they're the same thing, says mother of two and parenting magazine journalist, Natalie Ritchie. Five decades after feminism began, women are trapped in a masculinist dead end. Feminists claim to be women's friend, but their actions shout the opposite. Feminism cheerleads a woman's man-identical career, but sneers at her work as mother and housewife. It pushes women into nine-to-five jobs designed for a man with a 24/7 wife at home, but fails to shape jobs around the domestic workload of the working woman who is also that 24/7 wife. It exhorts women to ape men's working style, and shuns development of a truly womanly working style. It celebrates a woman's 'leadership' that copies a man's leadership in the economy and politics, but blindsides a woman's more profound leadership outside the workplace as the one who shapes the souls of the next generation, and who lives, loves and spreads the joy in our homes, friendship circles and communities. Feminists seek a 50/50 'gender-equal' world in which one hundred percent of women do what one hundred percent of men do, ensuring women's interests, contributions and priorities are eradicated. In its bid to bust the patriarchy, feminism has become the patriarchy. After a wide-ranging career in public relations and writing, as a mother, and from her most recent role as features editor at a national parenting magazine, Natalie Ritchie shows feminism up for what it is--masculinism. With a warm regard for women, a big-picture eye for feminism's hypocritical man-worship, and a defiant refusal to bow to it, she points to what the world looks like when it truly values women.
