What is the biggest feminist lie you remember?

The wage gap. There is no such as a wage gap as my sources state.

All my sources - from CBC to ABC - support my claim that the wage gap does not exist: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AoKkS...

All sources are included in the Best Answer.

Here is a logical argument as to WHY a wage gap could not exist: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Au0IO...

Also, keep in mind that we have the Equal Pay Act of 1693 which makes it illegal for an employer to pay someone less based on sex, gender, religion, sexual orrientation, etc [1].

Generally, the biggest lie is the implication that women aren't as capable of being power-hungry, mean, and complacent as men. I would surmise that women who imply this (feminist or not) are the biggest reason for the remaining backlash against feminism. Remember, this is rarely stated outright, it's implied though certain rhetoric, tone, and assumptions.

It's mostly the media who has been lying about feminism. Don't neglect to mention Newsweek's study on the chances of marriage for educated women.

That men and women are equally strong. I live on a farm and the Men do the heavy work, my mother and I do the housework and cooking, as well as minor chores outside. And that is fine with me.

That burning your bra would make a difference. men do not wear a bra why would it mean anything to them (in fact they loved it) it was a big event? always remembered in Australia.

Myself too young to have been there, but still commented in here

Some of waswisgirl1's myths and facts are a bit skewed.

___Presenting Pat Robertson as a mythmaker takes a minority attitude and presents it as conventional. Even among many conservatives, Pat Robertson was considered a lunatic and an embarrassment.

___If you're going to cite OSHA, include the fact that occupations rated as "most hazardous" by OSHA are filled by 98% men, and that roughly the same pecentage of on-the-job deaths are male. This is the case despite women's having freedom to choose these high-paying hazardous positions. But they choose to avoid them. And carpal tunnel syndrome isn't anything like death.

___"MYTH: Women are not strong enough to do heavy labor. FACT: ...while the average man is stronger than the average woman, some women are stronger than some men.... " This is a straw-man argument. Presenting the position to be refuted in its most extreme form, as an unambiguous generalization, and "refuting" it by simply rephrasing the same generalization in its more accurate, qualified form, presents the nameless "opposition" as being absolutist and extreme. When most people make generalizations, they use the short, unqualified form for economy of speech, but most thinking people qualify them when the details are discussed. This is a subtle kind of implied ad hominem attack, also, and by means such as this, feminists promote untruths without even having to speak them.

___"MYTH: Nontraditional jobs are too dirty, noisy and dangerous for women." This sounds like another Pat Robertson quotation.

___"MYTH: A woman's place is in the home, not on a construction site." Few say that women belong at home anymore, and women happen not to choose construction jobs, at least not the hazardous ones.

___A lot of these "MYTHS" are not current and not widely held views. Feminists like to present lists of "myths" to correct with alleged "facts", because presenting a repugnant view as "myth" suggests that it is widely and conventionally held, even when it isn't. Taking offhand bi***ing from barroom conversations and presenting it as if it represented widely held considered positions is intellectually dishonest. Doing this creates the impression that women have a much more righteous and difficult struggle than they really have. But this is a method of exaggeration, and exaggeration is lying-- marginal lying, but lying nonetheless.

___"MYTH: Married women who have husbands to support them should stay home and leave the good paying jobs for men." This was an issue in the post-WWII era, when there was a shortage of jobs and millions of soldiers were coming home. But no one with any power says this today.

___"FACT: Many American families are unable to support themselves on a single income." This is largely a matter of choice, not necessity. Look at average house size, numbers of cars and TVs per household, wardrobe size, appliance-ownership, etc, as they have evolved over the past several decades, and much of the "inability to afford" to live on a single income reveals itself to be a choice not to live as modestly as in the past. Health care costs are a different matter, but these are a relatively recent factor.

___"MYTH: Women will lose their femininity if they work in a trade." How does this qualify as a myth, in the sense it's presented? The aesthetic position that tradeswomen are unfeminine is not a matter of fact either way. It is a preference of taste, and doesn't fit into this format. Perhaps it pads out the list of "myths", though, adding quantitative weight to the impression of the horrible struggle women are up against..

___"MYTH: Women do not have the mechanical or mathematical aptitude for skilled trade work. FACT: There is no difference in women's and men's innate skills and potential to justify existing occupational segregation. A study conducted by the Johnson O'Conner Research Foundation Human Engineering Laboratory found no difference attributable to sex in 14 of 22 aptitude tests given to men and women. In the eight remaining tests, women excelled in six tests and men scored higher in two." See the contradiction here? Besides, the matter of innate skills is still controversial and unsettled. While the internal diversity of the two sexes precludes absolute categorizing of any individual member of either sex as intrinsically more or less capable in any particular dimension, any aggregate differences preclude the use of 50-50 quotas as a measure of equality in the various roles in society. Or ought to.

___"MYTH: MEN ARE MORE POLITICALLY ACTIVE THAN WOMEN...During the 2004 presidential election, 65 percent of voting eligible women voted, compared with 62 percent of men...."Women are voting in higher numbers because we see what government is doing at all levels. Everything is at stake, from access to health care to child care, violence prevention, economic security, reproductive choice. It is all on the table and it is very personal to women," says Hannah Rosenthal, executive director, Chicago Foundation for Women. This might also be taken as a reason why men are discouraged from participation, especially men at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. Feminism has been making strides for decades, and little attention has been paid in academic resesarch to its unintended consequences and outright damage it has done to society. Academics overwhelmingly tend to be liberal, with at least moderately feminist leanings, after all. Men are being discouraged from education, and are falling behind, and participate in civic life less than in the past. Under current skewed circumstances, there is little reason to take recent voting data as generally indicative of male and female tendencies for civic participation.

___"FACT: The 'mommy track' is a blatant form of institutionalized sex discrimination. It is an excuse to pay women less and to swell the ranks of middle-management by keeping women from competing for the top jobs. In effect, the "mommy track" penalizes women who have children by placing them in dead-end jobs which ask them to do essentially the same work as their male counterparts on the "fast track" - but at a fraction of the pay." This ignores the fact that the number of hours worked and the number of years at one job have real economic importance to an employer, and that it it economically valid to pay those who work longer higher salaries.

___"...talk of a "mommy track" is only directed at the most promising women executives...." OH, REALLY?!?!?

___"No one ever asks women who are on night-time cleaning crews... whether they can "have it all." The notion of "having it all" had its birth in women's literature, by and for women. This is a bit like Naomi Wolf's argument about eating disorders that blames "society" (implicitly the patriarchy, and hence men) for the stick-thin ideals of feminine beauty, even though this standard is a product of the fashion industry, where heterosexual men are only rare participants. The standard, the "ideal" of anorexic "beauty" is a creation of women and gay men, and even now isn't held by a majority of heterosexual men. But they get blamed anyway. Go figure. This "having it all" jargon is a the product of women's fantasy, and blaming men for it, as if it's some sort of conspiratorial trap men set for women, defies reason. Issues of glass ceilings and other discrimination at work are at least reasonable issues to bring up, but this one is ridiculous.

___"Women are far more likely than men to be the sole supporters of their family at one time or another." Collectively, feminists made this bed. Now lie in it. One little-examined aspect of this has to do with the white-knuckled grip many women try to maintain over their children. It's a domain of control for any parent, but women cling to it more tenaciously than men, and it shows in a lot of control-freak child-rearing practices. I don't want to say that this is the primary motive for most women, or that men aren't control freaks in more or less equal numbers, but the male side of this moral failing is a lot more explored and written about than the female side. This is part of the women-do-no-evil-men-do-no-good doctrine of extreme feminism that influences even moderate feminism's axssumptions somewhat.

___"FACT: Women executives are no more likely to leave their jobs than men. According to studies of mobility patterns and turnover rates, if anything, women in executive positions have traditionally exhibited lower turnover rates than men, because their chances of finding another high level post were more limited." But later: "...the 'exodus' by women from corporate ranks is more likely the result of carefully calculated career decisions by women who have bumped into the glass ceiling..." There's a contradiction here.

___"Moreover, women executives often display more modern leadership traits than men. In fact, many recent studies show than women's style of leadership varies from the style exhibited by men and that these differences may make women more effective leaders in today's business arena. These studies indicate that women's manageltent style more often encourages consensus, participation, and interaction - traits which today's employees value - whereas men's management style often reflects a basic commitment to the premise of a 'hierarchy.'"

___This is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, isn't it? Anti-hierarchical themes in all areas have been promoted by feminists, with little attention paid to whether or not there are advantages to hierarchies. Values, for instance, are necessarily hierarchical. Decision-making is hierarchical, in prioritizing one option over others. And consider the phrase "designed by committee". Nevertheless, anti-hierarchicalism is trendy this half-century among those at the vanguard of conventional notions of "progress", so those employees surveyed, presumably educated by conventional academics, are likely to judge in the expected manner more than in times past. This isn't to denigrate employee participation, but only to note that it isn't the panacea it's sometimes said to be.

___Further, one should keep in mind that feminists' control over the gender discourse means that most of the research being done is being done by researchers with agenda to pursue. Much of feminist "research" has been shown to be biased, unreasonable, and sometimes outright garbage. So until more objective studies are done, one should take those studies that support feminist conslusions with a grain of salt.

This was a big feminist lie:

“Feminism is a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.”

- Pat Robertson quote-

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Here's the truth about the Bra-burning MYTH:

As far as any serious scholar has been able to determine, NO EARLY FEMINIST DEMONSTRATION BURNED BRAS!

The best guess is that images of draft card burning and images of women tossing bras into trash cans merged in many minds, and thus was created a vivid memory that just wasn't so.

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/mythsofwomenshis...

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Here's a number of myths about women and the workforce:

MYTH: Blue-collar work or heavy, physical labor is nontraditional for women.

FACT: Many jobs now thought to be nontraditional for women have been performed by women in the past. Throughout history, women have done heavy labor on the farm and in the fields alongside men, and during World War II, over 6 million women entered the labor force to build ships, airplanes and factory goods.

MYTH: Women are not strong enough to do heavy labor.

FACT: The strength requirements for nontraditional jobs are often exaggerated. Many nontraditional jobs are less physically demanding than housework, and many traditional women's jobs, such as nursing and waitressing, are just as physically demanding as some nontraditional jobs. Moreover, the Occupation Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires that special equipment be provided for every heavy job regardless of whether they are being done by men or women. In addition, mechanization continues to decrease the level of physical demand of many jobs. Finally, while the average man is stronger than the average woman, some women are stronger than some men. Women have excellent lower-body strength and with training can develop strong upper-body muscles as well.

MYTH: Nontraditional jobs are too dirty, noisy and dangerous for women.

FACT: Nontraditional jobs are often dirty and sometimes dangerous. However, both men and women must weigh the hazards with the benefits of taking certain jobs. In addition, many traditionally female jobs, like mothering and nursing, are dirty and messy, and some also have health hazards, such as computer terminal radiation and carpal tunnel syndrome. Many women do not mind getting dirty when they are paid a good wage, and with proper safety instruction, all workers can minimize the danger they experience on the job.

MYTH: A woman's place is in the home, not on a construction site.

FACT: In 1994, women accounted for 46 percent of the total labor force. Nearly two thirds of all women age 16 and over were in the labor force in 1991. Women accounted for 62 percent of total labor force growth between 1980 and 1991 and two out of every three workers entering the labor force between 1990 and 2005 will be women. The majority of women work because of economic necessity, and nontraditional jobs better enable women to support themselves and their families.

MYTH: Women won't like trade work.

FACT: Many women enjoy working with their hands and outdoors. They take great pride in knowing that they have helped to build or create something. As a result, researchers have found that most tradeswomen have a high degree of job satisfaction.

MYTH: Women will leave a job to get married and have children; therefore, the job should go to a man who will stay.

FACT: In March 1992, on average, women were found to work 30 years over the course of their lifetimes, regardless of whether or not they married. Of those women who do leave to have children, more than half return to the labor force when the child is one year old or younger. By the time the youngest child is three years old, at least six out of every 10 mothers have entered or returned to the labor force.

MYTH: Married women who have husbands to support them should stay home and leave the good paying jobs for men.

FACT: Many American families are unable to support themselves on a single income. As a result, the proportion of married-couple families with the wife in the paid labor force rose from approximately 40 percent in 1972 to 59 percent in 1990. In that same year, the median income for married-couple families with both husband and wife in the labor force was $44,053 compared to $32,478 for those without the wife in the paid labor force. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, even if all the employed married women gave their jobs to unemployed men, there would still be 1.2 million unfilled jobs.

MYTH: Women will lose their femininity if they work in a trade.

FACT: Women can encounter offensive language anywhere, not just on the job site. While women need to be physically prepared for nontraditional jobs, there is nothing unfeminine about being physically fit. Finally, many women find that earning the good wages that nontraditional jobs pay enables them to buy the things that make them feel feminine, like nice clothes and cosmetics.

MYTH: Women do not have the mechanical or mathematical aptitude for skilled trade work.

FACT: There is no difference in women's and men's innate skills and potential to justify existing occupational segregation. A study conducted by the Johnson O'Conner Research Foundation Human Engineering Laboratory found no difference attributable to sex in 14 of 22 aptitude tests given to men and women. In the eight remaining tests, women excelled in six tests and men scored higher in two.

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MYTH: MEN ARE MORE POLITICALLY ACTIVE THAN WOMEN

Statistics: During the 2004 presidential election, 65 percent of voting eligible women voted, compared with 62 percent of men.

"Women are voting in higher numbers because we see what government is doing at all levels. Everything is at stake, from access to health care to child care, violence prevention, economic security, reproductive choice. It is all on the table and it is very personal to women," says Hannah Rosenthal, executive director, Chicago Foundation for Women.

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MYTH: MEN USE COMPUTERS MORE THAN WOMEN

Statistics: About 84 percent of American women use a computer at home, while 82 percent of men report they do. Internet use for women is also greater -- 83 percent to 81 percent.

"Men and women use the Internet for different activities," says Cindy Royal, a Virginia Commonwealth University professor, who has researched women's Internet usage. "Men are more likely to use the Internet to check weather, get news, get sports information, political information, financial information, download software, listen to music, use a webcam or take a class.

"Women are more likely to use the Internet to send and receive e- mail, get health and medical information, religious information."

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MYTH: MEN CAN GET ALONG WITH ANYONE

Statistics: A UCLA study of college freshmen shows that women are better at mixing with other races, with 72 percent of the women saying they socialize with people outside their race. It was 68 percent for men.

"What seems to be happening is that as students of different races have more contact with each other, their concern about racism and their commitment to racial equality grow stronger," says Alexander Astin, who directed the 2001 study.

More myths about Women and Corporate America

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MYTH: Times are changing and the younger generation of men is more supportive of the idea of working alongside women executives in high level positions.

FACT: Unfortunately, the younger generation of corporate men seems to be holding tight to the negative attitudes their predecessors displayed toward women in top positions. Between 1975 and 1983, men MBA students "retained consistently negative attitudes toward women as managers, while their female counterparts were consistently positive." Nor will sex discrimination automatically decrease as the proportion of women in business increases. In fact, studies suggest that as women increase their numbers and get closer to the top, the resistance from men hardens, and discrimination becomes more open, according to Harlan and Weiss.

MYTH: The "mommy track" is a practical way for women to "have it all" and get to the top while fullilling their child-rearing responsibilities.

FACT: The "mommy track" is a blatant form of institutionalized sex discrimination. It is an excuse to pay women less and to swell the ranks of middle-management by keeping women from competing for the top jobs. In effect, the "mommy track" penalizes women who have children by placing them in dead-end jobs which ask them to do essentially the same work as their male counterparts on the "fast track" - but at a fraction of the pay.

The two-fold danger of the "mommy track" is that it provides a rationale for keeping women out of the top and in the middle or bottom, low paying positions. The reasoning goes something like this: obviously, if women cannot keep up, they deserve less pay - after all, these jobs must be easier, or how could they do them and juggle family responsibilities?

It is interesting that talk of a "mommy track" is only directed at the most promising women executives on the "fast track" to the top. It seems that the question "Can women have it all?" is really asked as a way of challenging women who are at the top and who exercise power. No one ever asks women who are on night-time cleaning crews and who often hold one and a half other jobs while raising children whether they can "have it all."

Besides, most women executives do not have the luxury of deciding to go on the "mommy track." In general, women are far more likely than men to be the sole supporters of their family at one time or another. To accept less pay and forego career growth opportunities, a woman would be jeopardizing her ability to adequately provide for herself and her family in the future.

The problem is not that corporations need to provide greater flexibility to women executives balancing career and family responsibilities, but rather to provide women executives the same flexibility and choices already enjoyed by male executives. Corporations readily provide paid extended leaves of absence for male executives who have suffered heart attacks without questioning their returning status or growth potential.

MYTH: Women are not as serious about their careers and often "drop out" to have children or start their own business to better accommodate their family responsibilities. As a result, they are poor investments for companies that must spend considerable amounts on executive development.

FACT: Women executives are no more likely to leave their jobs than men. According to studies of mobility patterns and turnover rates, if anything, women in executive positions have traditionally exhibited lower turnover rates than men, because their chances of finding another high level post were more limited.

And there is also no evidence that executive women leave corporations to have children. In fact, a 1980 study by Catalyst found that 37% of women in two-career families return to work within 2 months of childbirth; 68% are back after 4 1/2 months; 87% are back in 8 months. A followup study in 1986 found that women at the top took even shorter pregnancy leaves of 6 to 8 weeks.

Furthermore, there is no evidence that women are dropping off the corporate fast track to start their own businesses because of the desire to balance family and work. While it is true that more women than ever are starting their own businesses, most are past the age of 40 when child rearing responsibilities are largely ending, according to a 1984 study by Hisrich and Brush. Besides, a new business venture requires neverending attention from its owners - not leaving much time for taking on even more family duties.

For men executives who start their own companies, the move is seen as a bold and positive career maneuver. For women, entrepreneurial ventures are seen as retreats from the corporate world and a chance to devote more time to the family.

Corporate America take note: the "exodus" by women from corporate ranks is more likely the result of carefully calculated career decisions by women who have bumped into the glass ceiling and see little advantage in staying with the corporation.

MYTH:Women are not suited for top management because they aren't aggressive enough and lack the self-confidence required for the top jobs.

FACT: Sexual stereotypes like these persist because the best defense by executive men trying to protect their privileged status is an offense that "keeps women in their place." Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, these stereotypes will be used - until women won't tolerate them anymore. And so, in the mode of fighting one old saw with another, whenever a sexist derogatory comment is made about women, find a parallel to fit men.

Study after study shows there are more similarities in these personal traits between women and men managers than there are differences. One of the most comprehensive long-term studies done found that men and women have very similar "profiles of high power and achievement needs, high self-esteem, and high motivation to manage" (Harlan and Weiss). A separate study of 2,000 men and women managers found "a significant case of no significant difference."

Moreover, women executives often display more modern leadership traits than men. In fact, many recent studies show than women's style of leadership varies from the style exhibited by men and that these differences may make women more effective leaders in today's business arena. These studies indicate that women's manageltent style more often encourages consensus, participation, and interaction - traits which today's employees value - whereas men's management style often reflects a basic commitment to the premise of a "hierarchy."

MYTH: Any woman can make it to the top is she's competent and works hard. That's how men make it and, after all, the corporation is looking for the best person for the job.

FACT: Don't we wish. That's not how men make it to the top. From all the evidence we've seen, it is clear that the corporation is not the meritocracy that we've all been led to believe. At least up until now, "who makes it to the top" appears to be as determined as much by "who you are" and "who you know" - as by "what you know."

The most convincing example of this is found by looking at who is at the top in corporate America: more than half of the board chairmen of the Fortune 500 companies are the sons of former chairmen their single most common shared trait. (One is tempted to ask whether these men had any daughters!) What this is doing to American competitiveness and our long term future should be a big issue today for corporate America.

# MYTH: Most women senior executives suffer from the 'Queen Bee' syndrome and are not helpful to younger women below them on the corporate ladder. Or, women are their own worst enemies in the competitive corporate world.

FACT: Since when don't men seek to be "King of the Mountain?" If anything, women executives complain about their treatment by men - not their treatment by other women. Executive women say men patronize them and they often note male chauvinism. None of the women in the Gallup Survey spoke about the attitudes of other women.

In the Korn/Ferry survey, 57% of women executives report belonging to women's groups. The majority (56%) of women in the Gallup Survey are involved in networking with other women - "getting together regularly in groups to discuss problems and offer support." A huge majority (83%) say they "feel responsible for helping younger women advance in business."