"...(T)he feminist movement must now answer for the fact that women, by their own evaluation, appear to be less happy than before the revolution."

first, forgive any sense of harshness. i really don’t have that in view here.

this topic usually puts me in a funk, whatever that means. i don’t like the way any side handles it—like comps, egals, or feminists. they all are off somewhere(s).

there are pitholes everywhere. comp churches do women a disserve often b/c they stress the importance of wife/mom—you are made for this, this is your God-given role, oh, i mean it’s your God given role IF you are married (meaning, if you are not married, we don’t know what you’re here for); it’s your calling (?); it’s the high calling for women… this leads to women, for example, really struggling with the empty nest or being a widow; this view of women also marginalizes single women;

the parallel is men in depression or dying when they retire b/c they no longer have their reason to live—ie, career, making money … because that is what they were made for, their God-given role and their high calling … though we don’t really talk to men that way since there’s been no masculinist revolution.

i know that comp churches then try to make up for it by teaching “against” the empty nest stuff and not putting all your heart in your kids’ lives and now you should be teaching younger women, for example. but they seem to create this catch 22—this is what your made for, but when it’s done, don’t let let your whole life be wrapped up in it …

it also makes it sound like nurturing, mothering, and all the accoutrements that come along with that should be second nature, er, first nature, when it isn’t really, for anyone, and those things are often just living out a Spirit-filled life, not so much a “feminine” life.

in reacting to feminism, comps over stress or stress the wrong things. Is it inherently worse that women go to college, are involved in politics, have jobs? I don’t think Biblically we can say it’s inherently worse. it just depends on the woman, her situation, her family life, etc. the whole nature of an industrial society has changed the idea of what we consider breadwinning and income and “work.”

i struggle with this, not because i want to have some great career or whatever. i struggle with this for several reasons, one being that I do ministry, specifically pro-life work, and stuff that takes me out to meetings sometimes, gives me a lot to think about, work to do, sometimes Bible studies, etc. i do birth stuff, too, which can be a crazy life as well. I have young kids.

cooking and house cleaning happen, but they are pretty low on my priority list. The main reason i can do this stuff is because Vitaliy is for it. it is what he values, too, so he doesn’t mind doing some cooking or watching the kids if needed.

i don’t know. am i living a feminist life? i don’t think so. i’m not breaking the bands of my slavery, or whatever. but am i fulfilled by what i do? very definitely. Do i like having kids and having ‘work’ that i love? yes, i love it. is my life perfect? no.

i don’t know … happiness? why is that important? i am doing what God made me to do, the desires He’s put in my heart. and in many ways, it makes my life and my marriage and my motherhood richer. i *feel* like i am living out my deepest values as a Christian. i don’t know. i used to stress about if my life should revolve around motherhood and being a wife. But I don’t have to struggle that way in human logic. Those responsibilities and relationships just naturally take a lot of time and commitment and love to do them in a Christlike way, and that standard is a better guide than being attached to an anti-feminist agenda or ideas.

so anyway, i’m still waiting for a comp to put into words what I cannot.

maybe what mohler is talking about can be summed up this way (read the articles he quotes and refers to in the post):
women now have more stress = they sense less well-being
men now have less stress = they sense more well-being

?