Power and money don’t always equal wealth, regardless of gender.

I personally enjoy it when my husband opens a door for me, along with other little entitlements (for lack of a better word) that come with being a woman, which would in all likelihood be scorned by the more hard-lined feminist. However, I have also been told by my husband that I am the strongest person he knows; which could be taken literally- there was a point in time where I could pick him up and carry him.

It all truly boils down to the individual. If a woman finds fulfillment in being in a role of little power and money (but is rich in other things), then let her! If she finds fulfillment in a position of power (a la Margaret Thatcher), then let her! It’s about what a person does well and loves to do, not what society, the feminists, and the patriarchies believes they *should* do.

There’s enough “should” in people’s lives as it is.

The NOW revoked my membership long ago [J/K] when I decided to have the original thought that “Yes! We *are* different!”

I know you are not advocating we’re the same but with acknowledging these differences, can we *then* still demand equality in pay and equality for the same work and equality in every other thing and right? Of course!

My beloved still opens the door for me because it’s chivalrous and I take it as a form of respect and admiration. However, there was a time I thought I would be hypocrite to enjoy such a small gesture.

Not anymore.

And that’s what true womanhood is about to me.

Coming into our own, realizing we *are* different, as a gender, but more than that, we are individuals deserving of the same rights as any other individual.

When Charlotte Allen spoke of screaming, swooning and being dumb, she was certainly not talking about me. And the fact she tried to turn the gender of female into a stereotype reminiscent of the 1870′s irked me.

She looks [and sounds] like life has been unkind to her so perhaps her mental state does reside in past centuries…not being able to add and all.

Why would these women do this? Why would they seek reasons for women to be stupider, make less money and be less powerful? Why would they quote research that has been discredited or never replicated? The only reason I can think of is that they hate women, meaning they hate themselves.

We are still in a revolution here. It is so exciting to see more female CEOs and world leaders. It is views like these that slow down the progress. Of course they can go ahead and continue their self-loathing, but they should recognize it as such.

I can understand how frustrating it must be to see women who are apostates, embracing a point of view that seems backwards.

But we’re fighting for their rights too. Why dismiss their views as self-loathing? To each her own. That’s what equality is all about.

I’m all for ambition and a lucrative career, but why do those need to lead to the male-dominated careers? I’m a man. I have spent many many years practising law (which I agree is a “competitive and rigidly hierarchical profession” that has been dominated by men). More recently I’ve switched to teaching (which I agree is a job with a “focus on empathy and social interaction” that has been dominated by women). But why need I conclude from my change of career that I am now less ambitious or in a less lucrative career? For example, I do make less money as a teacher, but I’d argue the job is *not* less lucrative. I see profit in more than its mere financial sense.

In short, I don’t accept the traditional assumptions of ambition and profit – assumptions long advocated by men in power and, seemingly, by some modern feminists as well. I believe that feminism will reach hitherto unseen levels of accomplishment when it is able to successfully challenge male-dominated myths of ambition and profit – not when it merely adopts them as its own.