The Great Feminization

Helen Andrews is the editor of Compact magazine. In a recent speech she warned of what she calls the “Great Feminization,” the takeover of many of our institutions by women. She says it threatens the very existence of our civilization. And it’s another example of the danger of rejecting the teaching of the Bible.

Ms. Andrews says the turning point for her came twenty years ago when Lawrence Summers was fired as president of Harvard University. It was the beginning of the “woke” era. In a talk before a conference on “Diversifying the Science and Engineering Workforce,” Summers said the plethora of men in those two fields was the result of simple differences between men and women not a conspiracy of hostility toward women. He said there was a difference of aptitude between men and women at the “high end” and there were simply differences of preferences. It was not the result of sexist socialization but buried deep within male-female differences.

Feminists went ballistic and eventually demanded Summers’ resignation which they got. Ms. Andrews observes that Summers wasn’t just forced to resign but he was cancelled in a uniquely feminine way. “They made emotional appeals rather than logical arguments.” Everything Summers said was accepted scientific fact. But no matter. The emotional response was what mattered. One feminist professor said his remarks had made her ill. It didn’t matter if the remarks were true.

Ms. Andrews goes on to say that not only was Summers cancellation feminine but that all cancellations are feminine. “Cancel culture is simply what women do whenever there are enough of them in a given organization or field.”

Andrews then says, the explanatory power of the Great Feminization thesis is remarkable. “It really did unlock the secrets of the era we are living in. Wokeness is not a new ideology, an outgrowth of Marxism, or a result of post-Obama disillusionment. It is simply feminine patterns of behavior applied to institutions where women were few in number until recently.”

She argues that the turning point was not when women were given equal opportunity in various fields of employment. The turning point came when they became the majority in those fields. For example, “In 1974, only 10 percent of New York Times reporters were female. The New York Times staff became majority female in 2018 and today the female share is 55 percent.” Because it is now majority female, the New York Times is a very different newspaper.

Medical schools became majority female in 2019. Women became a majority of the college-educated workforce nationwide in 2019. Women became a majority of college instructors in 2023…[It is no accident] that wokeness arose around the same time that many important institutions tipped demographically from majority male to majority female.”

Everything you think of as wokeness involves prioritizing the feminine over the masculine: empathy over rationality, safety over risk, cohesion over competition.

There is another important difference between men and women. “The most important sex difference in group dynamics is attitude to conflict. In short, men wage conflict openly while women covertly undermine or ostracize their enemies.”

Another difference between men and women: Men compartmentalize better than women. A male medical doctor can detach his political views from his diagnoses and treatment. It is much harder for a female medical doctor to do this. She will openly broadcast her views on Palestine or gay rights, something a male doctor rarely does.

How big of a threat is this? Ms. Andrews argues that it depends on what field or what institutions you are looking at. English departments at every university have been feminized but English departments don’t matter all that much. If the New York Times is feminized then what it deems as truth can be greatly affected. The feminization tendency to suppress unpopular facts will cause the news to be reported very differently.

But Andrews is most concerned about the legal profession. “All of us depend on a functioning legal system, and to be blunt, the rule of law will not survive the legal profession becoming majority female.” That’s a remarkable statement. The rule of law will not survive. Why is the law threatened? Because the law depends on fixed rules and decisions that, even if they tug at your heartstrings, still have to be followed. This was clearly seen in the Obama Title IX interpretation that threw out due process for young men when women accused them of inappropriate sexual behavior. Andrews predicts that if the feminization of law spreads what you will see is, “Judges will bend the rules for favored groups and enforce them rigorously on disfavored groups.”

Andrews warns of future catastrophe: “No civilization in human history has ever experimented with letting women control so many vital institutions of our society, from political parties to universities to our largest businesses.”

She continues, “The problem is not that women are less talented than men or even that female modes of interaction are inferior in any objective sense. The problem is that female modes of interaction are not well suited to accomplishing the goals of many major institutions.”

Andrews does not wring her hands in despair. Is there anything that can be done about the Great Feminization? Yes. You first have to understand what caused it in the first place. Some people think this is the result of giving women equal opportunity—the chance to stand toe to toe with men in the workplace.

“That is what feminists think happened, but they are wrong. Feminization is not an organic result of women outcompeting men. It is an artificial result of social engineering, and if we take our thumb off the scale it will collapse within a generation.”

At the heart the problem is caused by anti-discrimination law.  “It is illegal to employ too few women at your company. If women are underrepresented, especially in your higher management, that is a lawsuit waiting to happen.” That’s not giving women equal opportunity. That’s giving them a gigantic advantage over men. Employers are forced to hire women no matter how qualified in order to avoid ruinous lawsuits. Hundreds of millions of dollars have already paid out by institutions because they were sued for not having enough female employees.

“Dozens of Silicon Valley companies have been hit with lawsuits alleging “frat boy culture” or “toxic bro culture,” and a law firm specializing in these suits brags of settlements ranging from $450,000 to $8 million.” Andrews has a memorable phrase describing how unfair the workplace is to men. “Women can sue their bosses for running a workplace that feels like a fraternity house, but men can’t sue when their workplace feels like a Montessori kindergarten.”

Men are fleeing workplaces that have been taken over by women. 56% of lawyers are women. 75% of psychology doctorates go to women. The academy is more than 50% female. Fewer and fewer men will pursue careers where men are discriminated against. As I read this essay I thought, “No wonder the Christian church is becoming more and more popular with men. It is one of the few places where they are welcome.

Ms. Andrews does not want to be misunderstood. She is grateful for the opportunities she has received as a woman. All she is calling for is fairness in institutions. Stop discriminating against men. Right now anti-discrimination law requires that every institution has to be feminized. This has to stop.

This is what happens when you abandon the truth God has given us in His Word. The Bible teaches that men and women are different. They complement each other. Marxist-style equality is a disaster. The Bible teaches the intrinsic, equal worth of all people. But it also says each person is unique and different from all other people. The body has different members and different gifts. All are needed. All are important. But inequality is essential. As C.S. Lewis says, it provides room for admiration. We applaud the abilities of others.

I realize that Helen Andrews arguments will be deeply offensive to some. But she is taking on an issue of extreme importance in our culture. We need to heed her voice not just for men but for women. A society of emasculated men is not good for women and we are moving close to that now. Let’s return to biblical truth for the well-being of everyone involved and for the glory of God.



More: Helen Andrews; https://www.compactmag.com/article/the-great-feminization/