Stoking the Mommy Wars

Responding to an unnecessarily provocative review in Reason Magazine (not available online), Carrie Lukas ably defends her excellent book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Women, Sex and Feminism.

The Reason reviewer argues that the necessary effect of Lukas' book (and that of another, by Caitlin Flanagan) would "force" women home because they point out some of the trade-offs and difficulties confronted by working mothers.

But the reviewer's reaction is typical of what we often hear from the feminist left. Ironically, a libertarian magazine, supposed to be devoted to individual freedom, is effectively arguing that women shouldn't be given all the facts from different perspectives, lest they make the wrong (in her judgment) choice.

And for way too long, researchers with an agenda have worked hard to prove that children have no particular need for their own mother -- just as for too long, Americans were told that divorce had no impact on them. People like Lukas are simply presenting the other side of the story, so that everyone can make her own choice . . . an informed one.

So who's really trying to "force" women into a choice they may not want? Seems to me it's the people who want to deprive women of the facts they need to make and live by their own decisions.