When Women’s Liberation Disappoints
June 28, 2026
If modern feminism’s premises are correct, this should be a moment of unmistakable triumph. Since the second-wave pioneer Betty Friedan famously wrote in 1957 that she wanted “something more than my husband and my children and my home,” the movement’s central ambition has been equality in the workplace. That ambition has largely been realized.
As Helen Andrews detailed in a widely discussed essay last year in Compact magazine, women have moved from minority status to clear majorities in a range of influential fields: law schools (2016), medical schools (2019), the college-educated workforce as a whole (2019), law-firm associates (2023), and college instructors (2023). Women hold about a third of U.S. judgeships — with nearly two-thirds of recent appointments — and are nearing parity in management. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, women now earn the majority of undergraduate and graduate degrees in the United States, including doctorates.
