Have you seen Obianuju Ekeocha's open letter to Melinda Gates? If not, go read it now. It's a powerful example of the fact that what women in developing countries actually want is not always the same thing as what wealthy women from first-world countries think they might want. An excerpt:

And of course there are bound to be inconsistencies and failures in the use of these drugs and devices, so health complications could result; one of which is unintended abortion. Add also other health risks such as cancer, blood clots, etc. Where Europe and America have their well-oiled health care system, a woman in Africa with a contraception-induced blood clot does not have access to 911 or an...READ MORE

The other day I got an email from a woman whom I'll call "Jane." She wrote to me with a heartbreaking story: After her second child was born, Jane was delighted by her growing family and looked forward to having more babies. Her husband, however, decided that their family was complete. He was worried about the expense and work involved with raising any more children, and wasn't interesting in taking the time to learn natural family planning methods. Against her wishes he had a vasectomy, and also refused to discuss the possibility of adoption. 

Jane is one of many women who has reached out to me in recent years to talk about this kind of situation, and she added something that I've...READ MORE

Helen Gurley Brown passed away at age 90 yesterday, and modern feminism is left to ponder her legacy.

She is sometimes held up by secular culture as a pioneer and a role model, yet feminists could never quite get comfortable with her. She championed women in the workplace and encouraged no-strings-attached sex, which earned her much praise, yet her feminist sisters often rejected her for her intense focus on attracting the attention of men. Brown said in her famous book Sex and the Single Girl that "if you aren't meeting any men through your job, you are in the wrong job." She advocated for sleeping with married men, and she summed up her thoughts on the impact it might have on wives by...READ MORE

I finally got a chance to watch that Barbara Marx Hubbard video that everyone's been buzzing about, and...wow. (If you haven't seen it yet, Fr. Z has it here.) After double-checking the ingredient list on the bottle of wine I'd just opened to make sure it didn't contain any hallucinogens, I watched the video again and realized that Ms. Hubbard really did use all those words I thought I'd heard.

Like many others who watched the clip, I shook my head, wondering why Catholic nuns would want a keynote speaker who adheres to an odd and belief system that is not in line with Christian teaching (Thomas L. McDonald described it as "a combination of X-Men comics, techno-fetishizing, narcissism,...READ MORE

The other day I was rooting around in a seldom-used drawer, and I came across some old documents from back in my early 20s. There were work papers, notes from college classes, as well as some jumbled receipts and bills. I glanced at each item to see if it was worth keeping, and paused when I came across a familiar notebook. It was a pocket-sized, with a faux leather black cover, and on the first page was a list of things I wanted to do before I died. I didn't know this term at the time, but it was a "bucket list."

I spent a lot of time putting that thing together. I thought hard about what activities I found most interesting, what kinds of places I thought I would most enjoy. When I...READ MORE

I remember the first time I found out that one of my friends had an arranged marriage. I was at a work function and struck up a conversation with a coworker in which I asked him how he and his wife met. When they told me that their marriage had been arranged by their parents, I was stunned. I had spoken to them many times before, and always noticed how much they seemed to enjoy one another's company. In fact, if someone had asked me to name the married couples I knew who seemed most in love, they would have been near the top of the list.

Over time, I would eventually discover that quite a few of my friends had marriages that were mostly arranged by their families. They did have input...READ MORE

For years I've been trying to figure out how to reap the benefits of new technology without having texting and internet use become black holes that suck in too much time and attention. I'm far from having it all figured out (and am occasionally reminded of that fact, like when the kids were clamoring to do something last week, and I said "Yeah, yeah, whatever" because I was texting with a friend, and found out a few minutes later that they had been asking if they could open the jumbo box of popsicles in the living room). However, I have tried taking all sorts of steps to find balance in this area of life, and have stumbled across a few that have actually led to lasting, positive changes....READ MORE