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A
new study by the Independent Women's Forum has concluded that
Women's Studies textbooks "ignore facts in favor of myths,"
"mistake ideology for scholarship," and encourage students to
"embrace aggrievement, not knowledge." The study, Lying in a
Room of One's Own: How Women's Studies Textbooks Miseducate
Students, examined the five most popular Women Studies'
textbooks in the United States.
The study's author, scholar Christine Stolba, used the textbooks
because she sought to examine academic feminism's mainstream,
instead of its oft-criticized fringe. She divided her study into
three main categories, "Errors of Interpretation," "Errors of
Fact," and "Sins of Omission."
The "Errors of Interpretation" occur in large part because the
textbooks construe every study, statistic, or piece of evidence
to mean that women are miserable and oppressed, and that men are
privileged oppressors. Among the "truths" that the textbooks
tell us are: women are under siege from virtually all sectors of
society; little has changed for women in the past three decades;
believing that women have achieved equality is "modern sexism";
and most women are not naturally attracted to men but are the
victims of "compulsory heterosexuality" maintained through
(male) "social control."
The textbooks also depict motherhood as a
"burden for women, something to be overcome" and portray women
who choose to remain home with their young children as dupes who
buy into oppressive traditional female roles. In addition, bad
fathers are described as the rule rather than the exception, the
prevalence of sexual abuse and molestation are wildly
exaggerated, and students are told that fathers represent a
"foreign male element" that mothers and daughters must often
unite against.
Among the many "Errors of Fact" Stolba cites are the belief that
the government has ignored women's health needs at the expense
of men's, and that the gender wage gap is a direct result of
discrimination.
The women's health claim was made famous in
1990 by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), who generated national
headlines when she cited the fact that women-specific health
research comprised only 14% of the budget of the National
Institute of Health (NIH) and labeled it "blatant
discrimination." However, only 6.5% of the NIH's budget went to
male-specific research--the vast majority of the NIH's research
was (and is) addressed to health issues affecting both sexes.
Since 1990 the disparity favoring female-specific NIH research
has grown even wider.
The claim that men are paid more than women for the same job has
been refuted by studies by liberal, dissident feminist, and
conservative organizations, all of whom have found that single
men do not earn more than single women. The gender wage gap is
caused by the career sacrifices that mothers make for their
children, and the personal sacrifices fathers make (longer work
weeks, more consecutive years of service, more hazardous jobs,
etc.) in order to earn the money to support those children.
Surveys which take these factors into consideration have shown
that, for the same job, women earn within 2% of what men do.
In "Sins of Omission" Stolba notes that the textbooks airbrush
all heroines to remove their flaws. For example, Margaret
Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, is extolled, but her
well-documented racism is not mentioned. Similarly, former
Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is praised uncritically
without noting her administration's corruption.
Powerful or heroic women who happened to hold conservative
beliefs, such as Florence Nightingale, Golda Meir, and Margaret
Thatcher, are either ignored or are portrayed as sellouts who
"turned from other women." The power wielded by first ladies is
praised in the wives of Democratic presidents and ignored in the
wives of Republican presidents. Feminist dissidents, an
increasingly numerous and vocal group, are dismissed briefly, if
they are mentioned at all.
Alice Graves, a UCLA graduate familiar with
Women's Studies, agrees with Stolba's depiction. She says:
"Much of what is taught in Women's Studies panders to us and
insults our intelligence. I want to learn the truth about both
women and men, the good and the bad. I want all women's voices
to be heard, not just those who toe the party line. Do my
professors believe that I can't be trusted to think for myself?"
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