You say you want a revolution? pro-life philosophy and feminism.

I am a philosophy professor at the College of Saint Catherine -- a small, Catholic liberal arts college for women. The focus at St. Catherine's is on its nature as a women's college. I am glad that St. Catherine's is a women's college, and very glad to teach there. What continues to frustrate and puzzle me, however, is an all too common notion here at St. Kate's that to be pro-woman one simply must be in favor of abortion rights. I teach feminist philosophy, and I am committed irrevocably to the value and importance of women. I see no way to hold the feminist values I do without being at once wholeheartedly pro-life.

I would like to explain my reasons for saying this in the following essay. In the course of my remarks here, I hope to accomplish four things. First, I will outline what I take to be the two major strands in contemporary feminist thinking. I will term one of them "Androgynous Ideal Feminism" and the other "Woman Ideal Feminism." Second, I will show that Androgynous Ideal Feminism is truly a wolf in sheep's clothing, that what many feminists call an androgynous worldview is in fact a worldview that posits what is male as what is valuable. Third, I will show that Woman Ideal Feminism may be a more honest and accurate mirror of authentic feminist thinking. Fourth, I will outline and briefly analyze the theory of one Woman Ideal thinker, Nel Noddings, in order to show that, despite her own pro-abortion stance, a careful and consistent reading of the principles that she espouses can only give rise to a worldview that embraces the distinctive value of women and a wholeheartedly pro-life point of view.

The Androgynous Ideal Feminists

What I am here calling the Androgynous Ideal Feminists include those feminists who describe themselves as "Liberal Feminists," some of the "Radical Feminists" and "Socialist Feminists." In contemporary feminist scholarship, these would be among the most discussed and seemingly credible versions of feminism.

Androgynous Idealists maintain that women will never achieve equality in the world until they have all the same rights and privileges that men currently enjoy. For example, Liberal Feminists point out that the ability to reason is the foundation for having rights, and women can reason as well as men can. In fact, say Liberal Feminists, women and men are different at all only because of social conditioning; there are no essential differences between men and women. Betty Friedan points out that boys and girls are treated differently from birth, and but for that, there would be no significant differences between men and women. Women are not intrinsically more intuitive, more emotional, more concrete or relationship-oriented than men. We are simply reared to be that way.

What about the fact that biology dictates that it is women, not men, who conceive, generate and nourish their young? Liberal Feminists consider such data irrelevant. Just as height and weight are incidental to who I am, so too are my sexual characteristics. In the ideal society that Liberal Feminists envision, there would still be physiological males and females but physiology would be incidental. To facilitate equal opportunity for all, Liberal Feminists propose free contraception, abortion on demand and 24-hour day care.

Some Radical and Socialist Feminists take a different approach in their pursuit of the androgynous ideal. These feminists acknowledge readily that the differences between men and women, both physiological and psychological, are significant and do much to determine the status of women. It is fine for the Liberal Feminists to maintain that women and men are equally rational, and to posit equal opportunity for all. But equal opportunity does not mean very much if Joe pursues his interests without ever getting pregnant or nursing his children, and Edith must pursue her interests while doing both of these things. This, say many Radical and Socialist Feminists, is not a fair race; men automatically have a head start. Thus do the Radical Feminists say that gender is the source of all forms of oppression of women; gender structures how men and women dress, eat, work, have sex and view themselves. If the problem is gender, then gender must be eliminated. Feminism's goal must be androgyny. (2) Thus, The Feminists, an i nfluential New York-based Radical Feminist group, states: "The sex roles themselves must be destroyed. If any part of these role definitions is left, the disease of oppression ...