‘Women’s March’ feminists want entitlements, not equality

March 8 is the latest installment of the trendy new thing among liberals — organized protests against the Trump administration.

Sure, America has a history of valiant (and not so valiant) protests and we even have an enumerated right to “peaceably assemble.” But ever since the inception of Donald Trump’s campaign and especially since his November 2016 election victory and January 2017 inauguration, liberals have organized protests so frequently that there is now an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to documenting them.

{mosads}So what’s happening this time? The short answer is nothing new and certainly nothing important. But if you ask the group of women that organized the inauguration weekend Women’s March, they will tell you they are calling for women to skip work today, March 8, 2017, and strike in protest of the Trump administration “and his aggressively misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic, and racist policies.”

It’s the new wave of militant feminism. Like the January march, this latest demonstration is seeking to capitalize on the trendy protests that garner media attention and assert the liberal narrative that Trump’s administration does not value “women’s rights.”

This is absurd. Nothing about the Trump administration or its policies to date have remotely suggested that women are valued less or do not have the same rights or legal protections as men. In fact, Trump’s own campaign manager was the first woman to manage a winning presidential campaign and his cabinet and group of advisors include multiple successful women. So why the outrage over women’s rights?

“No success story ever began with someone taking a day off of work.” #WomenAtWork #IWorkFor #WomensHistoryMonth https://t.co/kpL7PIrD6z

— Enlightened Women (@NeWNetwork) March 8, 2017

As a woman myself and someone very concerned about preserving and protecting fundamental rights, I have to ask, what exactly defines “women’s rights?” Historically, this meant that women should have the same legal, social, and governmental privileges as men. This is what women traditionally meant by equality — literally, having equal status. But in the past few decades, this idea of women’s rights has evolved to mean some sort of additional, special rights or privileges that position us above men, categorically.

Though feminists won’t admit it, this isn’t actually equality. It’s playing governmental favoritism and demanding to in fact not be equal. Feminism has gone from demanding equality to demanding entitlements.

Moreover, why should women be entitled to take a day off of life in all its grand responsibilities to prove we’re equal to everyone else who isn’t entitled to take the day off? That’s an internally inconsistent assertion. But liberal women often assert the inconsistent role of being an “empowered victim.” We first resign ourselves to victim status — that is, claiming we’re being treated unfairly and inequitably by society (i.e. “the patriarchy”) and demand entitlements and reparations — and then simultaneously assert we are empowered and actually better than men because of our awareness.

If these women placed truly equal value on both ourselves and also the males in our society, we would not want entitlements or preferential treatment on the basis of gender. We would simply work (maybe not take a day off men don’t get to?) and work hard at being the best at what we do.

Imagine the outrage if men organized a similar protest — A Day Without Men. They would be snubbing women and our rights and be labeled misogynistic chauvinists. Or worse. Perhaps the ultra-feminist would simply laugh and say, “We don’t need men!” Militant feminism also suggests that fathers should not have any say in abortion decisions, which again is not actually equality, but giving preferred legal status to women. It’s the exact opposite of the patriarchy and everything women originally protested about the patriarchy. Liberation of women has come at the expense of men’s equality.

Women’s rights as a movement began to seek equal treatment, which is fundamental fairness and equitable standing under the law, but we have gone from being equal to demanding preferred status. “Vogue” even suggested ways that men can support this latest women’s strike.

But the feminists don’t really care about any of this. They want their entitlements and they want them now. They’re even willing to oust women who disagree with their extreme positions and definitions of “women’s rights.”

We can’t buy into the hypocrisy and inequality. The best way women and men can support genuine rights for women is to truly be equitable and treat women with as much value as men. Not more, not less. And we certainly don’t need another march over it.

Dr. Jenna Eilis is an assistant professor of Legal Studies and Leadership at Colorado Christian University.

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