Conservative, Feminist and Proud : Our foremothers believed in the true equality of women, while honoring their uniqueness, and in the value of all life.

Because I am a conservative, I am constantly challenged when I describe myself as a feminist. To begin with, I am not a lesbian, I was never sexually abused by my father, I have been happily married for 21 years, I am pro-life and I do not believe God is a She.

So how can I be a feminist? Easy. I am a woman with traditional feminist values, who was raised by a mother with traditional feminist values and a grandmother with the same values. Traditional feminist beliefs were a way of life for me and for the mother who raised me. It was a normal way of thinking, not some cult I discovered while in college or at a National Organization for Women meeting.

I grew up being taught that women were strong and must learn to be self-sufficient. My mother always said: “The only person who will stand in your way, Susan, is yourself.” My mom dearly loved my father and taught me great respect for men and also that women were equal but wonderfully different. So when I entered college in the late ‘60s, I was appalled to see women burning their bras, refusing to shave their legs and cutting their hair short. I remember thinking that these women were not fighting for equality, but instead imitating the men they believed were suppressing them. Contemporary feminists lost the ability to successfully fight for the rights of women because they refused to recognize the tremendous power in difference.

Abortion quickly became the cornerstone of this new and revised feminist movement whose members falsely believed that they could become like their wombless counterparts, unpregnant. They viewed child-birthing as something that would hold women back, foolishly denying the true power that the female body holds: a body able to carry life and give birth. No longer was the womb a source of female pride; it became a curse. Through male manipulation, feminists saw abortion as a freeing procedure instead of what it really is--a form of female castration.

Next on their agenda, men were portrayed as unnecessary for the family unit. Women were told, if only society would provide the right atmosphere--child care, child support and removal of the so-called glass ceiling--then women could raise their children alone. The single mom became chic, avant-garde, almost preferable. With the advancement in modern technology, in vitro fertilization allowed radical feminists to reduce men to sperm donors. Armed with their single-minded feminist ideology, these women have caused damage not only to women but also to the American family.

So what do traditional feminists believe? We believe in the agenda set forth by our founding mothers, women like Alice Paul, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, who believed in the true equality of women while honoring their uniqueness. Paul, founder of the National Woman’s Party and author of the 1923 Equal Rights Amendment, called abortion “the ultimate exploitation of women.” Suffragettes never pitted women against the fetus or women against men, but instead called for feminism that rejected abortion along with sexual exploitation. Our foremothers instinctively knew that you could not replace one form of suppression with another and for women to be truly free, all in society must be free: women, men and unborn children. In 1869, Mattie Brinkerhoff wrote in the suffragette newspaper the Revolution, “When a man steals to satisfy hunger, we may safely conclude that there is something wrong in society . . . So too when a woman destroys the life of her unborn child, it is evidence that she has been greatly wronged.”

A true feminist honors not only her body but also the separate body that grows within her. Women by nature are protectors, not butchers. Traditional feminists view the family unit as the cornerstone of their existence, and thus society’s. As equal partners, we build our homes, raise our children, work and play together, honor each other, listen to each other, trust and learn from each other and together assess each situation and decide who is best for the job. Certainly bigotry, sexism and abuse exist, so we must protect those who are unprotected, be they a child in the womb, a battered wife or an abandoned husband. For only a society that fosters love and respect can be a society that breeds love and respect.

The erosion of female self-esteem brought about by radical feminists has not only helped to foster sexual harassment, but it has also hindered the advancement of women due to male fear and contempt. Over the last 25 years, women have been seriously damaged by contemporary feminists, whose values and ideology no longer represent what our founding mothers taught us, that none are equal till all are equal.