Feminism Is No Longer Helping Women - Mary Harrington - #596

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Hello, friends, welcome back to the show. My guest today is Mary Harrington. She's a contributing editor at UnHerd and an author. Women have been subject to a lot of changes over the past 200 years, liberated first from the land, then from the house, then from the womb, and finally even from their own nature. But has it actually helped? Has modern feminism been for the best, or has it made women's lives more confusing than ever? Expect to learn why feminism might not have delivered on the promises it made to the world, why there is a war on relationships between the sexes, Mary's guess on why there are so few families getting together, how women's liberation has only worked for a small number of women at the expense of many others, why abortion and birth control actually led to more single-parent households, and much more. Mary is an incredibly smart human. I very much appreciate all of the work and background that she's done. And she is a card-carrying, used to have the short hair and do postmodernism before postmodernism was cool, credentials to look at this through the lens of someone who has been through the wringer and come out the other side. Very, very, very cool insight today. I really hope that you enjoy it. In other news, this episode is brought to you by Qualia Mind. Qualia Mind is a non-GMO vegan gluten-free blend of 28 of the most research-backed nootropics on Earth. It radically enhances mental clarity, energy and drive, so you can give your brain extra horsepower when it needs it. Qualia Mind is designed to enhance memory and cognition, fuel focus and concentration, amplify drive and productivity, and promote mental clarity. It's also got a 100-day money-back guarantee, so you can buy it and try it for 99 days. And there is a caffeine-free version, which I absolutely love and is great if you are doing late night works and you do not want to ruin your sleep for the evening, but you still need an extra boost when you're doing your graft. Also, you can get a $100 discount plus an extra 15% off if you go to neurohacker.com/modernwisdom. That's n-e-u-r-o hacker.com/modernwisdom and the code MW15 at checkout. In other other news, this episode is brought to you by Surfshark VPN. Protect your browsing online and get access to the entire world's Netflix library for less than the price of a cup of coffee per month. If you are using a public Wi-Fi network like a library or a cafeteria and you are not using a VPN, then the internet admin of that network can see everything that is going through your devices and you do not want that. Also, Surfshark VPN is available across unlimited devices, your laptop, your phone, your iPad and even your smart TV. And it gives you access to the entire world's Netflix library by being able to change your location at the touch of a button and immediately access that territory's Netflix. All of this is under one membership. It takes 30 seconds to download. It is super, super simple to set up. You just press one button and away you go. And there is a 30-day money back guarantee, three months free and an 83% discount. If you go to surfshark.deals.mdw, that makes it less than $2 a month, I think. Surfshark.deals.mdw. And in final news, this episode is brought to you by House Of Macadamias. House Of Macadamias have partnered with 94 independent farmers, forming the single largest producer in the world, which gets them the first pick of the highest quality macadamia nuts in the region to make their one-of-a-kind snacks. They really took their time to get these right with over two years of taste testing. They've got salty, sweet and spicy versions, and the straight up salted ones are insanely good. They've got a unique nutritional profile. They've got a really great omega 3 to 6 ratio. They're low in carbohydrates, but most importantly, they just taste very, very good. And you can get 20% off your first purchase if you go to houseofmacadamias.com/modernwisdom and the code MW20 at checkout. That's houseofmacadamias.com/modernwisdom and MW20 at checkout. But now, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Mary Harrington.
Tell me, how do you arrive at giving a critique of feminism? Why do you have any credentials to do this?

**Mary Harrington** (4:40)
Well, I mean, I'm a woman, which is a start. I was a fairly rabidly fully paid up second wave feminist in my teens, and then third wave slash woke, well, earlier doctor of the whole kind of woke postmodern world view in my 20s, and did my level best to live it, I'd say until I was about 28 And then for a whole load of very complicated reasons, kind of lost my faith in that way of living. And in the process of kind of reassembling a world view, which made sense, which I reckon took about seven years, having kind of hit that quarter life crisis. I came out the other end thinking, well, I don't believe in progress anymore. And then I thought, well, I've always thought of myself as a feminist. But if being a, if feminism is held up as one of the kind of central planks in the, in the sort of evidence stack that says we're, we're on a sort of never ending upward path of progress. Right. And people say, you know, the first thing people say when you say, well, you know, prove it. Like, if you say, I don't believe in progress, and they'll be like, well, how can you say that you're a woman? Like, you know, things are much better for women now than they were before. You know, that's just kind of treated as self-evident. And I thought, okay, well, this, is it still possible to be a feminist if you don't believe in progress? And I thought, well, I still care about women's interests, and I still think those are often sidelined. But then that sort of started me down a whole rabbit hole of, you know, the relationship between feminism and progress.