Joan Swirsky's scathing takedown of feminism isn't just a polemic, it's a requiem for a movement that promised women freedom but delivered a fractured society. Her argument? Feminism, sold as a ticket to equality, has been hijacked by forces hell-bent on dismantling America's core: faith, freedom, and family. By luring women from hearths to cubicles, vilifying motherhood, and outsourcing parenting to screens and strangers, it's left us with fractured homes, alienated kids, and a culture that mistakes independence for isolation. I will discussSwirsky's case, interrogate its claims, and ask: Did feminism really crash, or was it sabotaged by bigger agendas?
Swirsky frames America's strength, and the rest of the West to, as a tripod of faith, freedom, and family, each a target of "America-haters" who've schemed for 250 years to topple the republic into Big Government's arms. Faith? Undermined by "Social Justice" dogma that swaps God for ideology. Freedom? Eroded by rigged elections and a compromised military. Family? The toughest nut to crack, but feminism, she argues, became the crowbar. It's a bold claim: a centuries-long plot where feminism isn't just a misstep but a weapon wielded by socialists-cum-communists to destabilise the nation.
Is this conspiratorial overreach? Maybe. The idea of a 250-year master plan strains credulity, coordinating that many players across generations would make herding cats look like a cakewalk. But Swirsky's not entirely off-base. Ideological shifts, from Freud's mother-blaming to tech's depersonalisation, have reshaped society in ways that align with centralised control. Whether by design or accident, the family's taken a beating, and feminism's fingerprints are on the scene of the crime.
Swirsky starts with Sigmund Freud, the Austrian shrink who pinned neuroses on "cold" mothers, setting the stage for a culture that devalued parenting. By 1998, Judith Rich Harris debunked this, showing peers, not parents, shape kids most. But the damage was done: Mums were already suspect, their role diminished. Enter the birth control pill in 1960, Swirsky's "world-changing" moment. It gave women reproductive control, sparking the Free Sex movement and a redefinition of morality. Women could "be like men," chasing pleasure without pregnancy's shadow.
Here's where Swirsky's critique bites: The Pill didn't just liberate; it shifted expectations. Sex without strings sounds empowering, but it also fuelled a culture where commitment became optional. The Pill's promise of freedom came with a hidden cost: a casual attitude toward intimacy that eroded the family unit. Data backs this up, by 2020, U.S. marriage rates hit a historic low of 6.1 per 1,000 people, down from 8.2 in 1960. Single-parent households, mostly mother-led, surged to 65% of Black families and 25% of white families by 2021. Coincidence? Or collateral damage?
Betty Friedan's 1963 The Feminine Mystique lit a fire under housewives, arguing they were too smart for nappies and dishes. Swirsky sees this as a siren call that sent women rushing to careers, leaving motherhood in the dust. The economy conveniently shifted, suddenly, two incomes were needed to afford what one once covered. By 2023, 70% of mothers with kids under 18 worked, compared to 47% in 1975. Day-care boomed, with 60% of pre-schoolers in non-parental care by 2019.
Swirsky's point stings: Women were sold "having it all" but got exhaustion instead. Careers promised fulfillment, but many found cubicles as soul-crushing as critics claimed housework was. And kids? Shuttled to day-care, raised by strangers who couldn't match a parent's nurture. Studies show day-care kids face higher risks of behavioural issues, 3-4% more likely to show aggression or anxiety than home-raised peers. The nuclear family, once a fortress, started crumbling.
Swirsky's sharpest jab lands on Roe v. Wade (1973), feminism's "Holy Grail." The right to abortion, she argues, turned the miracle of motherhood into a disposable choice. Post-2022, when Roe was overturned, abortion access remained widespread, yet Swirsky highlights extremes, like California's laws allowing termination up to 28 days post-birth (a claim that's contested but refers to perinatal death policies). Her point? Feminism normalised a culture where life's sanctity takes a backseat to convenience.
The numbers are grim: Since 1973, over 63 million abortions occurred in the U.S., with 2020 alone seeing 620,000. Black women, 38% of the female population, accounted for 58% of abortions in 2021. Swirsky sees this as a betrayal of family's sacred role, with feminism cheering the sidelining of motherhood. Even if you're pro-choice, the cultural shift, where parenting became optional, not aspirational, has left families leaner and lonelier.
Swirsky saves her venom for the digital age, where Steve Case's AOL and Steve Jobs' iPhone/iPad empire turned families into screen-addicted strangers. By 2023, kids aged 8-12 spent 5.5 hours daily on screens; teens hit 8.2 hours. Parents aren't far behind, 70% of U.S. adults check their phones within five minutes of waking. The result? Conversations replaced by emojis, intimacy by porn, and parenting by algorithms. Swirsky's horror peaks with an ad (since scrubbed) implying mums don't need to "be there" for their kids, iPads suffice.
This hits hard. Studies link excessive screen time to empathy deficits in kids; teens with high device use score 40% lower on emotional intelligence tests. Swirsky's "generation of sociopaths" might overstate it, but the data isn't rosy: Youth mental health crises, with 20% of teens reporting depression in 2022, track with tech's rise. Families, once bound by shared meals and stories, now share Wi-Fi passwords.
Swirsky's thesis, that feminism was a trojan horse for anti-family agendas, has teeth but needs nuance. Early feminism fought real injustices: voting rights, property ownership, workplace barriers. But by the second wave, it morphed. Gloria Steinem's "becoming the men we wanted to marry" mantra and Ms. magazine's anti-motherhood vibe shifted the goalposts. Instead of expanding choices, it pressured women to prioritise careers over kids, equating domesticity with defeat. The result? A 2023 Pew survey found 61% of women feel society undervalues motherhood, even as 71% say they're judged for prioritising work. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Was this a deliberate plot? Swirsky's "America-haters" narrative points to intentional erosion, but it's more likely a mix of idealism gone astray and opportunistic power grabs. Economic shifts, like the mysterious need for dual incomes, weren't feminist conspiracies but systemic pressures from inflation and wage stagnation (real wages grew only 0.7% annually from 1973-2023). Still, feminism's cheerleaders didn't push back; they leaned in, leaving families as collateral damage.
Swirsky's bleakest claim is that feminism killed the American family. Divorce rates stabilised but hover at 40-50%; only 50% of kids live with two married parents, down from 85% in 1960. Birth rates are at a record low, 1.6 children per woman in 2023, below replacement level. And those late-30s pregnancies? IVF use has spiked 140% since 2000, with complications rising for mothers over 35 (20% higher risk of miscarriage).
The cultural shift is palpable. Social media buzzes with "childfree" influencers glorifying solo travel over Sippy cups, while X posts lament "trad" values as a lost art. Feminism didn't single-handedly cause this, but it amplified a narrative where family became optional, not foundational. Swirsky's right: When kids are raised by day-care and devices, empathy wanes, and society frays. The 2024 Surgeon General's report on loneliness, calling it an "epidemic," links declining family bonds to rising isolation.
So, did feminism crash? Yes, if you measure it by Swirsky's yardstick: the erosion of family as the West's bedrock. But it's not game over. The warrior-scholar conservatives could counter this — men and women who value faith, freedom, and family without demonising women's ambitions. Solutions? Tax breaks for stay-at-home parents, not just corporate climbers. Schools that teach virtue, not ideology. Tech policies that curb screen addiction, maybe a national "unplug" day. And a cultural push to celebrate motherhood as fiercely as we do CEOs.
Feminism's failure isn't universal; it's the betrayal of its promise to expand choice, not dictate it. Women can be doctors, soldiers, or mums, or all three, without society sneering at any path. The real enemies are the forces (economic, cultural, digital) that pit women against their own instincts and families against survival.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/10/the_crashing_failure_of_the_feminist_movement.html