Despite the resounding rejection of the European Constitution by French
and Dutch voters, the fact is, old Europe still genuflects at the altar
of socialism and collectivism. So it comes as no surprise that feminism
has taken root there as readily as mushrooms sprouting on a pile of
barnyard manure.
Karl Marx taught that if women desired to free themselves from the
shackles of patriarchy, they first had to wrest control over the means
of reproduction. Now birth rates in Europe have plummeted, choking off
the inflow of young workers and imperiling the financial viability of
the social welfare state.
The situation is especially acute in Germany, where the population is
projected to decline from the current level of 82 million to 70.8
million persons by 2050. The fertility fall-off stems from a
disintegration of family relationships -
83%
of Germans say their main
reason for not having children is their inability to find a partner or
stable relationship.
In Europe, gender equality programs march under the flag of what the
European Union bureaucrats call "gender mainstreaming."
So blithely ignoring its impending demographic time-bomb, the German
Ministry of Education and Research has announced a new gender
mainstreaming program designed to entice even more women out of the home
and into the workforce.
Advocates of gender mainstreaming claim they are merely trying to
promote equal rights for the sexes. But in practice, this grand-sounding
concept doesn't quite work out that way.
For example, men in Austria live 76 years, while women enjoy a full 82
years of life. But that six-year disparity in life expectancy didn't
stop the government from establishing the Bundesministerium fur
Gesundheit und Frauen - Ministry for Health and Women.
In Austria, some deaths apparently are more equal than others.
In sun-drenched Spain, gender equality meant passing a law that requires
husbands to "share domestic responsibilities and the care and attention"
of children. Like most countries, the most laborious and dangerous
occupations in Spain are virtually all-male. One only hopes that in this
new era of gender enlightenment, the Spanish senoras will soon be
casting off their mantas to help out as hod carriers and to work the
olive groves in the sweltering heat.
In Norway it was announced that women compose only 11% of members of
corporate boards of directors, those bastions of male power and
privilege. So minister Laila Daavoey recently decreed that henceforth
all companies would be obliged to meet a
40%
female board quota - or
else face closure.
Once those companies shut down, I'm sure the E.U. will be more than
happy to subsidize the checks for all those unemployed workers, male and
female.
But it's Sweden where the Sisterhood has made the most progress toward
true gender equality. There, almost half of the entire workforce and 45%
of the members of Parliament are female.
Given these signs of an imminent gender paradise, one might expect the
Swedish fems to embrace the now-deposed patriarchs and break into a
heart-warming round of Kumbaya. But funny, that's not what happened.
One of the more colorful Swedish politicos is one Gudrun Schyman, an
alcoholic who got caught not paying her taxes and was forced to resign
as a leader of the Left Party, the former Communist Party of Sweden.
Schyman apparently forgot that in socialist societies, paying taxes is
more inevitable than death.
That scandal didn't stop Schyman from hatching her ultra-radical
Feminist
Initiative, which is now threatening the coalition government
of the ruling Social Democrats. The FI's shrill manifesto makes Schyman
sound a lot more like David Duke than Mother Theresa.
Early last month a group of Stockholm women put the Feminist Initiative
message to the test. One night they showed up at a local strip club
wielding baseball bats and umbrellas. Police ended up
arresting
16 women
after the melee.
And to think all these years, I had thought that women were genetically
incapable of inflicting violence.
In 1620 a small band of Pilgrims fled Europe in a pluckish effort to
escape tyranny and secure their religious freedom. That experience
weighed heavily on the minds of our nation's forefathers as they forged
a new country based on limited government, free markets, and individual
liberties.
Nearly 400 years later, a new totalitarianism is blossoming in Europe.
Under the seductive guise of gender equality, this ideological tyranny
resorts to over-heated rhetoric, intrusive government, and intimidation
tactics.
Maybe Europe hasn't progressed as far as we'd like to think.
