Dear Ms. Steinem: Thanks, but no thanks. - How Feminism is Changing

While feminism addressed important social justice issues for women, a great portion of its rhetoric has caused immense damage on a social, cultural and personal relations level in the US.  As the backlash against feminism has grown over the last 10 years, a new form, New Feminism, hopes to take its place and bring balance back on many levels.

Just what is New Feminism?  It's an updated version of feminism that addresses many areas where an increasing number of women feel older feminism (think 60's, 70's and 80's ) failed us.  Three of the main areas that New Feminism addresses are:  compatibility of the sexes, the importance of the Motherhood role and service to others instead of power or domination over them.

• Compatibility of the Sexes- traditional feminism focuses on gender neutrality, even to the point of arguing that there should be no distinctions between men and women based on their sex.  By contrast, New Feminism acknowledges and celebrates the differences between men and women.  New Feminists feel that men and women each have unique gifts to offer in the world, based on their sex, and that these unique gifts are compatible to each other and needed in the world to provide a balanced approach to life and a host of issues.
• Importance of the Motherhood role- New Feminism argues that by their physical and psychological make-up, women are designed from day one for the primary role of motherhood and that this role should be embraced, not derided or simply viewed as a "life choice".  Notice they espouse both "physically and psychologically".  The idea here is that you don't have to physically bear a child to be fulfill a motherhood role.  New Feminism supports the idea of a "spiritual motherhood" wherein women participate by exercising their maternal skills at work and elsewhere in numerous roles, the lives of others or their communities.  And this is not a new idea.  For centuries women have taken on roles in society where they helped raise, guide, support and mentor children or others who were not their own children by birth- and we're not talking about teachers, nurses and those in traditional "nurturing" profession alone.  Any woman, in any role has the opportunity to participate in a "spiritual" motherhood.
• Service, not power or domination- traditional feminism has focused on women having power or domination in numerous areas:  over men, over their lives, over their bodies and at a stretch, over the world.  New Feminism focuses instead on women taking their unique gifts, talents and skills into the world and working with others for the better of all, not just themselves.  It's not about me on top.  It's about working in community no matter what the situation or relationship and taking the focus off the "self" alone.

I recognize that what I've written above is a short and simple description of New Feminism and some of the key areas it focuses on.  If you'd like to learn more about New Feminism, check out these sources:

http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=12724

http://www.osv.com/tabid/7621/itemid/5232/In-Focus-New-feminism-shines-light-on-true-geni.aspx

http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/printarticle.html?id=804

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_feminism