just supposing that the idea of all or most women running off to join the 'man's world' did take off and since males seem to have a much harder time fulfilling traditional female roles than vice-versa, might not a situation ensue that the culture was permeated with very masculine women, and masculine men.

where would that leave the children?

i agree with frank, in the sense that women have come much further towards our point of view, and until we men full reciprocate, we will continue to leave women with a double bind: that women's work is actually more important than all the achievements men accomplish, (tall buildings, moon rockets, guns a gogo, financial weapons of mass distruction, etc etc), yet in order to participate more fully in the deciders' club, women have to learn to be harder and harder, more and more ruthless, and therefore set new role models for young women, to emulate mens' values, still 'feminine' looking in the glamour sense, but hard, hard, hard inside...

so much feminism has been twisted and become male-with-better make up and hair, but it doesn't fool this man.

some women are afraid to raise sensitive men, (in case they might turn gay?), so they sometimes conspire to further the macho myth, in order to have an alpha son who will earn more out in the economic jungle, not get bullied, and better protect his frail and ailing mum when the time comes.

what if these apparently recalcitrant women who reject feminism are actually a brake on the process that is turning women more competitive, and leading to them often being as awkward around children as men can be?

and only when men have the courage to express their feminine side, and meet women halfway, will women feel comfortable to be accepted and appreciated as equals to men, and not feel like they have to imitate us in order to get somewhere? (while men are happy to have token women, who are as male as they are inside, become co-opted into the male paradigm, because it make them look progressive, it validates their values (this woman 'get's it'), and thus lose the impetus to do our part to meet in the middle?

what if these condoleeza/maggie T types who are seen as symbolic advances for the cause of womens' rights, are actually just as clueless as those women raising uber-macho sons, and demure little stay-at-home daughters.

seems that way to me sometimes...

little late, but best woman's day wishes to all the wonderful ladies who balance and soften ET's pages, may you multiply your influence here, and everywhere.

~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~