My mother did not, to my knowledge, abort any of her children. I do, however, distinctly recall a miscarriage she suffered when I was twelve years old, which caused her great emotional and physical pain. I understood, from my adolescent perspective, that what was lost was somehow precious to her. As another of her children, … Read more
I took the year off from Father’s Day yesterday. For several years I’d been making a point, in my secular newspaper column, of writing something quite opposite to “feel-good” on the subject for the Sunday corresponding to this secular occasion. But glancing through the last couple of them, I thought, “That’s enough now: People are … Read more
Men are still the major breadwinners in most families, but over the past few decades they’ve been expected to pull more weight at home. Wives now ask husbands to help around the house, share in child-care, and take leadership in areas other than career and finances. Men are finding this very stressful, according to an … Read more
I posted a while back about Ayaan Hirsi Ali and her new book, Nomad: From Islam to America. On the Ms. Magazine Blog this past Monday, Rafia Zakaria focuses on an interesting new development in Ali’s views of Islam and women. Ali, as you may recall, is Somali-born and a former Dutch parliamentarian who became … Read more
The July/August issue of The Atlantic has a provocative lead article entitled “The End of Men,” by Hanna Rosin. Bound to raise some hackles, it’s a well-written, fascinating, worrisome piece that looks at women’s growing dominance in the West and considers whether the modern, post-industrial world is actually more suited to the female: Man has … Read more
Should feminists embrace Sarah Palin and those like her? Last week, feminist author and blogger Jessica Valenti offered an emphatic no in The Washington Post. But Cathy Young, a columnist for RealClearPolitics has an interesting response in The Boston Globe. She thinks feminists make a big mistake when they ignore women like Palin: If feminism … Read more
On this Memorial Day, I find my thoughts turning to memories of my father, Jack W. Hudson. He served during World War II as the captain of a “Liberator,” the B-24 heavy bomber. Here he is with his crew (top right) — all of whom came back to the US alive. He only told me … Read more
On this Memorial Day, I find my thoughts turning to memories of my father, Jack W. Hudson. He served during World War II as the captain of a “Liberator,” the B-24 heavy bomber. Here he is with his crew (top right) — all of whom came back to the US alive. He only told me … Read more
This is interesting: A newly-completed study of fetal death rates in September, from 1996 to 2002, found that 12% more male fetuses died in September 2001 (after the 20th week of pregnancy) than in the other years. According to the BBC News, fewer boys were born in the U.S. three to four months following 9/11. … Read more
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an impressive woman. In her late 30s, she speaks six languages — that includes both her native Somali, as well as Dutch, which she learned so she could run for the Dutch parliament. Of course, she’s best known for what Theodore Dalrymple calls “her public and uncompromising repudiation of Islam.” Her … Read more
The paycheck — that plucky, stubbed, cashable contribution to a family’s daily sustenance — has become a problem to every adult woman. It’s a challenge to earn it, and it’s a challenge to live without it. This reality can pervade and put pressure on even faithful marriages, where husband and wife have discussed their priorities … Read more
Burqas are fast becoming a heated subject in parts of Europe, notably France and Belgium. The UK Telegraph reported an incident over the weekend where two women came to blows over the burqa: [A] 26-year-old Muslim convert was walking through the store in Trignac, near Nantes, in the western Loire-Atlantique region, when she overhead the woman lawyer … Read more
Are the liberal arts and sexual morality connected? There is strong evidence that they are, for if we graph their development over the last half-century, we will see an almost identical curve of accelerating decline. Although this proves nothing, it certainly suggests something worth exploring more deeply. Spectacular proof of the decline of the liberal … Read more
Award-winning actress and sex symbol Raquel Welch has a message for young women today, and it’s not what you might expect. In a piece on CNN Opinion called, “It’s sex o’clock in America,” Welch comments on the effects the Pill has had: These days, nobody seems able to “keep it in their pants” or honor … Read more
Award-winning actress and sex symbol Raquel Welch has a message for young women today, and it’s not what you might expect. In a piece on CNN Opinion called, “It’s sex o’clock in America,” Welch comments on the effects the Pill has had: These days, nobody seems able to “keep it in their pants” or honor … Read more
A nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center studied the changing demographics of motherhood in the United States, examining data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the U.S. Census Bureau from 1990 to 2008. Mothers of newborns are now older, better educated, less likely to be white, and more likely to be … Read more
The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) is at it again. For those not familiar with AGI, it is a $30-million-a-year research group based in Washington, D.C., and New York City. Named for Alan Guttmacher, former president of Planned Parenthood, the mission of the organization is to “advance sexual and reproductive health” around the world. This makes … Read more
With all the pontification lately about the visitation of women’s religious orders, as well as the call in some corners for “more women in the Church” as a means to combat the sex-abuse scandal, Kathy Lopez of National Review Online has done a real service by speaking with an actual religious sister for her perspective … Read more
I’m no great cheerleader for NFP, but I have a growing respect for its medical usefulness. Here’s a story from NPR about primary ovarian insufficiency, a condition which causes infertility and a host of other medical problems. One doctor says he “got a wake-call” about 10 years ago when 23-year-old twin sisters with POI came to an … Read more
What can you say when the U.N. elects Iran to its Commission on Women’s Rights, elevating a backwards theocracy that made international news last week when one of its “respected clerics” claimed that immodestly dressed women cause earthquakes? Iran as a nation has a well-documented history of gender inequality and is an oppressive environment for women … Read more