Dimensions: 6'' x 9'' 200 pages AEI Press  (Washington) Publication Date: February 2001 Hardcover ISBN: 0844741299 Price: $ 25.00 Add to Cart   Examination Copies

Over the past several decades, American women have gradually overcome the legal and cultural barriers to equal opportunity. Women now receive well over half of all B.A.s and M.A.s, and working women have become the rule rather than the exception. Women are becoming physicians, lawyers, CEOs, and scientists and are founding their own businesses in record numbers.

In The Feminist Dilemma, Diana Furchtgott-Roth and Christine Stolba argue that even though women’s opportunities are now equal, women’s and men’s choices are not always the same. Ironically, the achievement of women’s equality poses a serious dilemma for contemporary feminists, who do not want to acknowledge that some of women’s choices, such as studying literature rather than math, or leaving the work force to raise children, or even working part-time, lead to fewer women in top jobs. The flaw in contemporary feminist thinking, Furchtgott-Roth and Stolba contend, is its insistence that anything less than statistical parity with men in any field--or even on college sports teams--is proof of discrimination against women.

The Feminist Dilemma describes a wayward feminist movement that does not want to acknowledge women’s real accomplishments because their existence marks the end of the movement’s reason for being. Rather than celebrate victory in their pursuit of women’s equality, today’s feminists feign defeat. They adopt the rhetoric of victimization, suggesting that women can never succeed on their own, and they crusade for preferential programs for women in education and the workplace. Politicians and businesses fear becoming feminist targets and so lack the courage to challenge feminists’ claims.

The Feminist Dilemma explains how the contemporary feminists’ ideological campaign in the courts and in Congress is undermining the principles of our economic system--and how these efforts actually do not help women’s progress. The Feminist Dilemma will spark controversy and change the way we think about equality between men and women. It will be an eye-opener for anyone with an interest in politics, economics, and women’s issues.

Diana Furchtgott-Roth was a resident fellow at AEI from 1993 to 2001. She is the coauthor with Christine Stolba of Women's Figures (1999). Her articles on labor and tax policy have been published in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Investor's Business Daily, the Los Angeles Times, and other publications. Christine Stolba, who has a Ph.D. in American history, is an adjunct scholar at AEI. She has written numerous opinion pieces for the Wall Street Journal, the Manchester Union-Leader, the Houston Chronicle, the Salt Lake Tribune, and the Orlando Sentinel.