Why Women’s Liberation is Not Doomed

A woman of Attica (the area where Athens is located) asked Gorgo wife of Leonidas (the Spartan King who commanded the 300 at Thermopylae), “Why is it that you Spartan women are the only women who lord it over your men?”. Gorgo replied, “Because we are the only women that give birth to men.” This story is related by Plutarch in his “Sayings of Spartan Women”

The status of women changes in different ways in different societies. Sometimes as in Egypt, among the Zuni’s of the Southwest US, and the Spartans women maintain a high status in society. Generally women are reduced to chattel property, frequently having the lowest legal status in the most advanced Civilizations as in Athens during its Golden Age, Confucian China, Republican Rome, and Islam.

A search of “The Federalist Papers” shows that the word history occurs in 24 of them. The Federalist #5,

Think of that statement, “We may profit by their experience without paying the price which it cost them.” This is the reason we study history, and it is in the examples of history that we can find the solutions to the problem of how to keep women free and equal to men. An intelligent approach to women’s liberation is to look at the examples of societies in which women did maintain a high legal status and use them as examples to follow in securing a lasting high status for women in the US.

In the section on abortion it was pointed out that the US Supreme Court rejected the moral standards of Egypt as religious superstition and cited the laws of Greece and Rome where women were mere chattel property. It was noted that the pro-choice movement condemned the moral movement that invaded the privacy of men’s homes in Victorian England to extend the protection of the law to battered women because that same movement also outlawed abortion. It was pointed out that this was the exact opposite of the position that should have been taken if women’s rights were really being protected.

The relationship between women’s status and the manliness of men is complex. Women had the highest status in Sparta that they held in any of the Greek City States. Spartan men have come down in history as an example, possibly the example, of manly, strong, fearless men.

Roman men under the Republic held to an extremely high standard of manly virtue. During this period it was a legal requirement that for a Roman to serve as a Priest to the Gods of the City he had to be married in the old manner. I.E. he had to have the absolute right to kill his wife. The men of Confucian China represent a high level of scholarship and culture but have not come down to us as examples of military virtue. In Confucian China, women were held to the three obedience’s. In youth they were to be completely obedient to their Fathers, in marriage to their Husbands, and in old age to their Oldest Son. As in Rome, they were never considered to have a legal status higher than children.

Two things distinguish societies in which women maintain a high status. One thing that distinguishes the women of societies in which women have held high legal status is a high standard of personal responsibility and respect for the rights of others. Not the manliness of the men in that society. Putting men down is not directly related to Women’s Status. Among the Zuni of the Southwest, a woman can divorce her husband at any time simply by putting his clothes outside the house. She owns everything that he produced during the period that they lived together. The house he built, the corn he grew, etc. all belong to her. On the other hand, he has absolutely no financial responsibility for the children after the marriage is ended. He is guarded from loneliness, social isolation, or disgrace by the mores of the Society. He goes home to his mother where he serves as an Uncle to the children in her house. He is still a man and role model to children. Zuni society goes to a great deal of trouble to protect the male ego and the self-respect of men.

In many primitive societies women had higher status than in early civilizations. In a hunter-gatherer society the gathering activity of the women provides the majority, as much as 70% of the food consumed. This economic importance could give women greater power than they had after agriculture was invented.

In Ancient Egypt property descended through the female line as did social status. Women administered the wealth of the family. Almost alone in societies around the Mediterranean, abortion and infanticide were condemned. Women assumed moral responsibility for the lives of their children from the moment of conception, and showed respect and concern for men.

In the US Military today, where men are required to be absent from the home for several months a year, women cannot be helpless. They have to handle the house, pay the bills, etc. in the man’s absence. When he comes home frequently she gives him an allowance of 100 dollars a month or so, and continues to handle all the money herself. A military man cannot be married to a weak and helpless woman. She has power proportional to the responsibility that a military marriage forces on her. This is much like the status of Women in Sparta. Similar needs create similar social customs.

The Federalist Papers make frequent mention of Responsibility.

Aristotle mentions the absolute necessity of responsibility in his Politics as is quoted in the section on the Social Contract. In any contract, including the marriage contract or the relationship between women and other persons, responsibility and power are proportional to each other. The more responsibility a woman assumes the greater her power. The less responsibility a woman accepts the less her power.

Women can only remain free in a society to the degree that they accept a real responsibility for their behavior and treatment of others. To the degree that they attempt in one way or another to refuse responsibility, they create a situation which can only result in their loss of freedom.

Women’s Liberation in the US today as typified by organizations like NOW is entirely about ensuring that women are never, ever, under any circumstances, responsible to another human being for their actions. This policy can only result in women being reduced to chattel slavery. NOW is literally doing everything in its power to ensure that women will be reduced to chattel slavery in the next 100 years.

For women to remain free, the lessons of history are quite clear. They must insist on their fellow women assuming a high degree of personal responsibility in their lives. They must recognize a personal responsibility to be fair in their treatment of others, and they must accept financial and personal burdens involved in things like marriage and parenting.

Today Women’s Liberation is a culture of irresponsibility and license. In order for women to remain free this has to change into a culture of personal responsibility and the deliberate acceptance of duties to others.

Today women cry about pregnancy and abortion, it is the woman’s body. A man doesn’t get pregnant. Abortion is not about avoiding pregnancy and childbirth. A woman could avoid that permanently if she wanted to by having an operation. It is about avoiding pregnancy and childbirth then, at that time, because it is personally or financially inconvenient. It is not about a woman’s body it is about money and personal convenience. The woman wants to have children, just not at that time.

Let us compare this standard of refusing to accept responsibility to the standard women insist on for men. Men are held legally liable for the child from the moment of conception. Indeed there have been cases where men used condoms to prevent pregnancy. The woman then took the sperm from the condom, inserted it without the knowledge of the man, and the man was still held legally responsible for the child. She saved the cost of going to a sperm bank and stuck him with child support payments for decades. A lot is said about dead-beat Dads. Less is said about dead-beat Moms. Most of the time women get custody of the children. So, there are more Dads paying child support. Women who do not get custody are more likely to refuse to pay child support and refuse responsibility for their children than men are. This is a culture of irresponsibility and license, a culture which through clever manipulation and wordplay systematically justifies the abuse of others.

This is a double standard. In order for women to remain free they must assume as much responsibility in their personal lives as they insist that men assume. The laws in the US today reflect a period when women were not legally persons. They place strong standards of personal responsibility on men because the history of law reflects a time when men had a great deal of authority. As a man’s authority has decreased, the standards of personal responsibility he is held to have actually increased. Women have insisted on an ever decreasing level of personal responsibility while their authority has increased.

This cannot last. In the long run for any system to work, responsibility and authority must be proportional. From The Federalist #31 by Alexander Hamilton,

The quote from Gorgo at the beginning of the paper makes the relationship between personal merit and authority quite clear.

Abortion must be outlawed, men must have more rights to visit the children they support. Separation must become less abusive of men. Abuse of men must not be sanctioned by women.

In order for women to remain free, they must insist on their Sisters maintaining a high standard of personal responsibility in their treatment of men and children. Women must begin vocally condemning the excesses of Women’s “Liberation” and examining the behavior of other women to ensure that they deserve to be Free. Instead of asking themselves how much can I get away with, Women must ask themselves what burdens must I assume, and how much authority must I give the man in proportion to the burdens I expect him to assume?

It is almost a certainty that changes like this will occur. Responsibility and Authority go hand in hand. For men to assume the kind of authority over women that they used to have, they would have to assume a similar responsibility. This is a burden that most men are happy without. The kind of authority that men used to have includes with it the duty of maintaining what in Rome was called Gravitas. A constant grave attitude of personal majesty. Most men would rather relax than be constantly on their guard at home as well as in public.

It is really easier for men to live with “Liberated” women if the women actually assume the burdens that real Liberty involves. Modern Society is comfortable enough that the Roman Gravitas is no longer a necessary virtue in a man. Virtus and Arete the old models of manly virtue can be relaxed. This being true, they will be relaxed. Women will not be reduced to Chattel Slavery regardless of how hard NOW works to ensure that that happens by claiming that Liberty means an unlimited License to abuse others.

This essay is unlikely to change the inevitable outcome. At most it will make the forces involved clear and help women to accept and make the changes and adjustments which are inevitable if they are to remain free. On the other hand, history does show as Spinoza noted, a preponderance of social systems in which women were subordinate to men. Unless women do change their ideas of what Liberation means, such an outcome is very possible.