Susan A. Patton, a Princeton University alumna who was among the 200 ‘pioneer’ women enrolled in the Ivy League school in 1973, penned a fascinating letter to the editor of the Daily Princetonian addressed to the “daughters I never had.”
Here’s what nobody is telling you: Find a husband on campus before you graduate. Yes, I went there.I am the mother of two sons who are both Princetonians. My older son had the good judgment and great fortune to marry a classmate of his, but he could have married anyone. My younger son is a junior and the universe of women he can marry is limitless. Men regularly marry women who are younger, less intelligent, less educated. It’s amazing how forgiving men can be about a woman’s lack of erudition, if she is exceptionally pretty. Smart women can’t (shouldn’t) marry men who aren’t at least their intellectual equal. As Princeton women, we have almost priced ourselves out of the market. Simply put, there is a very limited population of men who are as smart or smarter than we are. And I say again — you will never again be surrounded by this concentration of men who are worthy of you.
As a college-educated professional, I admire Patton’s bravery in challenging the notion that career should be the #1 driving force in a young woman’s life. I detest the fact that gender-feminists promote the idea that women postpone childbearing until their career is established, despite the fact fertility drops significantly with age.
In fact, the response to Patton’s letter prompted her to follow-up in the Huffington Post, where she expanded on the reason for promoting marriage-oriented priorities:
I understand that this can be seen as retrogressive, but for those women who aspire to what used to be thought of as a traditional life with home and family, there is almost no ink addressing personal fulfillment outside of the workplace. Specifically, finding lifelong friends and the right partner with whom to share a life and raise a family.
Interestingly, Patton’s advice is part of an intriguing trend I am seeing among younger women. As I noted earlier this week, women are “dropping out of feminism” and choosing to stay-at-home to raise their children.
But young women aren’t the only ones rebelling against the progressive feminist agenda. At College Insurrection, I reported on an event by University 0f Toronto’s Men’s Issues Awareness Society,during which Dr. Janice Fiamengo (an English professor at the University of Ottawa and former radical feminist) denounced women’s studies.
The focus of Fiamengo’s critique was the “women-as-victim” template used by equity feminists. She also gave the men a few words of praise, noting “self sacrifice and heroism are not exclusive to men…but they are distinctive to men.”
It is good to see that an Ivy League mom and a former radical feminist have come to the same conclusion as I: We all want young women to make fully informed choices about all aspects of their lives.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY
