A Lot Of People Seem To Want

The Last Decade Has Seen A Powerful Counterassault On Women's Rights, A Backlash, An Attempt To Retract The Handful Of Small And Hard-won Victories That The Feminist Movement Did Manage To Win For Women. This Counterassault Is Largely Insidious: In A Kind Of Pop-culture Version Of The Big Lie, It Stands The Truth Boldly On Its Head And Proclaims That The Very Steps That Have Elevated Women's Position Have Actually Led To Their Downfall.

Having Whipped Single Women Into High Marital Panic-or "nuptialitis," As One Columnist Called It- The Press Hastened To Soothe Fretted Brows With Conjugal Tonic.

An Accurate Charting Of American Women's Progress Through History Might Look More Like A Corkscrew Tilted Slightly To One Side, Its Loops Inching Closer To The Line Of Freedom With The Passage Of Time-but, Like A Mathematical Curve Approaching Infinity, Never Touching Its Goal.

A Backlash Against Women's Rights Is Nothing New. Indeed It's A Recurring Phenomenon: It Returns Every Time Women Begin To Make Some Headway Towards Equality, A Seemingly Inevitable Early Frost To The Brief Flowerings Of Feminism.

A Lot Of People Seem To Want To Make The Institution Of Marriage Substitute For A Real Relationship.