Here are my thoughts regarding feminism and history. Feminism is not a new concept. It has been around since the 1700s. The original message was to empower women to work and live freely. Nothing wrong with that. There are certainly new waves of feminism that are more toxic but I’m just going to stick with the original concept of feminism.
Why hasn’t feminism actually played out sooner? Propaganda has existed long before this modern era as well so you can’t argue that it’s brainwashing.
What history shows us is that ideological movements cannot succeed without an accompanying technological innovation. The Protestant movement had the printing press. The Industrial Revolution had the steam engine. Without gun powder, we’d still be living in a medieval feudal system. These technologies were essential for the success of the movement. So an ideology needs a new piece of technology for it to spread. And if that’s the case, then I would argue that the technology is actually more important than the ideology. We believe Bitcoin will succeed because it is a world changing technology, not because we think that the ideology of sound hard money will gather up the masses for a common goal. If the ideology was the most important factor, then bitcoin wouldn’t fix the fiat problem.
So what is the technology that actually led to the seemingly successful feminist movement? It’s birth control. Birth control is the most important factor that led to the liberation of women. Not liberating them from men but from their reproductive biology. For the first time, women could delay childbearing. Casual sex became free of risk for men and women. A woman at the age of 18 could choose to get married or try her hand in a career. If she didn’t like her career, she could just abandon it and get married. Since childbearing is an irreversible commitment, many women choose to pursue careers at first. Some choose to travel and experience things that she wouldn’t be able to experience as a mother. It’s actually a reasonable decision given the risks. She can have kids later.
Now obviously this doesn’t work out for everyone. Some struggle to find suitable men and miss their chance at having children. These are the stories that people remember and feminism gets blamed. But I think that the lack of suitable men is more to do with fiat. The fact is that if you believe in freedom, then women’s right to freely choose how they live their life must be respected. Even if it were true that most women would be happier becoming mothers instead of boss girls, it’s their right to learn that for themselves. I have personally met women who never had children and don’t regret it. I’ve also met women who had children young and regret not delaying it. And some women won’t even believe that they’d be happier as a housewife without trying a career path first. Just like how poor people will never believe that being rich doesn’t make you happy. Let people make their own decisions about their life: they’re the ones who have to live with the regrets of whatever decision they make.
