I Am A Feminist

By Victor J. Ward

Recently, I attended an awards dinner with my wife. All the awardees were women, and the group handing out the awards was a woman's group. There were seven awardees, and each winner had to give a five minute speech. Without doubt, my wife gave the best speech. She shared a funny and vulnerable story about her early legal career.

Most of the other winners talked about the so-called war on women: Discrimination; equal pay for equal work; the fact that only 20% of the executives are women; etc.

The first speaker, a retired District Court Judge, talked about
each of these issues, and then she started talking about Feminism. She asked the crowd to applaud if they supported equality of pay and the end of discrimination. She asked the crowd to applaud if they were Feminists.

I sat silently.

When the Judge left the stage, she was given a standing ovation. I must admit that I felt a bit awkward as I remained sitting. I know that some people were staring at me, but Progressives never really know what to think of a seemingly educated Black man that doesn't fully support their agenda.

After the event, I asked my wife why these women always talk about "equal pay."

I don't want my wife to have equal pay; I want her to get paid more than her male peers because the work she does is more important to her company than the work the men do, and she does her work better than they do theirs. Why would I want her to have equal pay? That would be short-changing her.

I want discrimination. I want companies to look at my wife and discriminate based on skill and result.

What about the companies that discriminate based on gender or race? That's fine, too. My wife and I were talking about her starting her own business. She could start that business with all of the women who are really talented and who may have suffered from discrimination. I don't mean that she could theoretically find women to help start her company. I mean that we literally listed names of women that could help start a company.

Any time Company A discriminates on the basis of something other than merit and talent, that means that they have left merit and talent on the table, available for another company. Rather than close doors, racial and gender discrimination opens doors for the entrepreneur.

A true Feminist is one who believes that women can achieve more than men. And, if a woman achieves more than a man and has better results than a man, you better believe that that woman deserves more money than a man and will receive more than the man in the free market, either with her current company, a current competitor, or an entrepreneurial competitor.

Take note, Progressives: You are not the real Feminist. I am. Hear me roar.

Victor J. Ward  first came across libertarianism by reading Murray Rothbard's Ronald Reagan: An Autopsy and Walter Block's Defending the Undefendable. He holds a law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and an MBA from Santa Clara University.