Witnessing my wife experience pregnancy, birth, and the early stages of motherhood up close for the first time has reinforced an obvious truth: I cannot and will not ever understand what it is like to be a woman. Likewise, I will never fully understand some of the tensions and struggles women face, for which feminism claims to provide a solution. Thus, while I do not think that this disqualifies me from talking or teaching about feminism, this truth should remind all men to be slow to speak and quick to listen.
Feminism Against Progress provides an intriguing voice that is worth hearing. Mary Harrington is a woman and a mother, and feminism heavily influenced her for years as she looked to resolve her own internal dilemmas. She only escaped from feminism’s grasp after personally experiencing some of its devastating consequences. Additionally, she is not a Christian, so she does not base her critique of feminism on biblical doctrines. Christian readers should expect to encounter different angles than some of the perspectives we are more familiar with and would anticipate in a work like this.
However, this book does not focus on her personal experiences. Rather, she sets out to demonstrate through history, logic, and the experiences of multitudes of women that Progress Theology, the basic foundation on which she sees the prevailing form of feminism in the Western world as based, is fatally flawed. As a result, feminism is also flawed and detrimental to the majority of women, men, and society. Harrington defines Progress Theory as the belief that mankind is always getting better but nevertheless needs to keep fighting for more freedom and progress until it reaches “some undefined goal of absolute human perfection” (12). The prevailing feminism she critiques is that which seeks to ignore and eliminate every natural difference between a man and a woman under the banners of freedom, autonomy, and progress.
The book is divided into three sections which focus primarily on the causes, the effects, and a path forward. The first section walks through the history of the feminist movement, highlighting how the emergence of the Industrial Revolution and the effectiveness of birth control drastically disrupted centuries of familial and societal norms and set feminism on its current course. The second section demonstrates how the “progress” of feminism has been extremely harmful to many women by distorting relationships between men and women, devaluing motherhood, and proliferating the lie of the separation of body and self. In the third section, Harrington tentatively offers her advice in combating the prevailing version of feminism with a reactionary feminism that promotes the real interests of women.
Feminism Against Progress is both insightful and thought-provoking. Harrington lays out the history of the feminist movement in the most concise, yet comprehensive, way I have encountered, and her historical analysis is full of profound perceptions. She demonstrates clearly that the feminist movement has been shaped by economic shifts, market interests, and new technologies, all of which have kept changing societal paradigms and adding new tensions and pressures for women–especially mothers or those contemplating motherhood. Here is one example of her exceptional perception: “This so-called ‘sexual revolution’ was less a moral change than a technological one, with ramifications as far-reaching as those of the industrial factory technologies of preceding centuries” (75). In other words, Harrington insists that while birth control removed the most obvious, tangible, and life-altering consequences of extramarital sex, it did not eliminate the consequences altogether. Emotional and relational realities that stem from the sexual union persist. Harrington argues that this technological change, then, altered the Western world’s approach to relationships for the worse.
Her further exploration of the economically-fueled marketization of women’s sexuality is equally enlightening and heart-breaking. Harrington adeptly articulates many of the internal and societal pressures women face today. Moreover, Harrington does a remarkable job pinpointing how the prevailing feminism is filtered through the worldview of Progress Theology, an “imperfectly secularized offshoot of Christianity” (12). Her point seems to be that Progress Theology maintains some of Christianity’s beliefs (a perfect existence at some point in the future) and ideals (freedom and equality), but without Christ or any concrete, biblical definitions of these ideals.
As a result, she doesn’t hesitate to call Progress Theology a false religion and regularly uses religious terminology when describing aspects of feminism. The most provocative of those labels is also the one she uses most often: “Meat Lego Gnosticism.” Transgender surgeries are the obvious example of this belief that humans are comprised of interchangeable physical parts. As Harrington sees it, this really comes from a modern form of Gnosticism, which asserts that humanness exists in the mind alone and “the physical world is evil and arbitrary.” Unlike ancient Gnosticism, however, today such tendencies find a solution in technology rather than in spirituality (141). Christian readers will note the perennial danger of ideas like these and be reminded of the importance of foundational doctrines as creation, the incarnation of the Son of God, and the resurrection of the body.
Harrington also uses this religious context to explain how feminist adherents can hold seemingly contradictory beliefs. I have wondered how a feminist can reconcile being pro-choice and accept the murder of unborn females. As Harrington elucidates, the pro-choice stance is so deeply connected to Progress Theology’s doctrine of ever-increasing autonomy and freedom that to question access to abortion is to question everything on which the religion stands (44).
Thus, as she demonstrates throughout her book, Harrington maintains that the best apologetic approach when confronting feminist stances is to attack the underlying assumptions of the worldview by providing evidence of a lack of progress. I personally find much to admire and emulate in her approach, and anyone looking for more factual evidence of the consequences and failures of feminism, as well as straightforward reasoning, will find an abundance in this book.
Nevertheless, Harrington falls short of offering any substantial hope. Although she properly recognizes that Progress Theology is a false religion, she doesn’t try to replace it. Although she refutes feminism, she offers no solution to longings for perfection, the struggles to balance and find value in one’s vocations, or the unchosen arbitrariness of one’s gender. She simply acknowledges these challenges as reality and then encourages her readers to accept and try to make the most of it, promising that doing so really can make things better. Her insights about the world still leave an empty hole that can only be filled by a loving Creator, an incarnate Redeemer, and the resurrection of the body to life everlasting.
In this way, she ends up doing the same thing that she accuses other feminist historians of doing: failing to thoroughly retrace history. Although the Industrial Revolution may have caused and worsened certain tensions and problems for women, problems already existed. Thus, making attempts to return to some pre-industrial societal norms may provide some solutions, but it will also unwittingly present other struggles. Any analysis that doesn’t go all the way back to the Garden of Eden to explain the cause of women’s (and men’s) struggles is going to miss the incurable seriousness of the situation, as well as the hope offered in the gospel promise of Christ.
She also sounds similar to feminist opponents, proclaiming that her readers can make positive progress for women if they fight for the right things and warning of a dystopian future if they do not. Though we would agree with many aspects of her reactionary feminism, it is still all about women’s and men’s own reactions to the evil of this world, rather than a reaction to Christ’s love and forgiveness.
Although I gathered much from this book, I would be unlikely to recommend it to a member unless coupled with discussion. For those who already recognize the evils of feminism, my concern is that this book does not inform or encourage a Christian response to it. For those who do not already recognize the evils of feminism, my concern is that this book points people to themselves rather than to Christ and his Word for the answers. Nevertheless, I would strongly recommend this book to any pastor looking to better understand the feminist movement, think deeply about the underlying beliefs present in much of our current culture and the accompanying pressures they put on women, and love and serve the women and men in their families, congregations, and communities.