Sweetney feels for the little people in her role as a white, educated, stay-at-home mom:

But all of this “progress” for women has had little impact on the vast majority of poor women and women of color. If anything, class lines have become more rigid and harder to cross, race relations are reaching new lows, and — as the New York Times constantly informs us — the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer. The uplift of white middle-class working ladies may be notable, but somehow I can’t completely take achieving Assistant Slavemaster status as a real, unqualified win for our team.

And of course I say all of this as an educated, white middle-class woman. As such, the benefits I’ve derived from Feminism are legion. But increasingly I feel more than a little queasy about those privileges, seeing that they don’t extend much beyond other women exactly like me. And, well, that sucks. And its wrong. And I don’t want to be a part of a movement that supports and reinforces these hierarchies and divisions.

I want something better.

Here’s a newsflash! Perhaps some of the women living in poverty or who are “of color” don’t give a rat’s ass about your ideology. Perhaps they don’t want your white brand of feminism. Perhaps they are more worried about putting food on the table and discouraging their children from joining gangs or being caught in violent cross-fire or drugs than they are about having same sex bathrooms and having the same job as the average, upper-class, volvo driving, WSJ reading, green lawn obsessing dad.

I think before we put these tell these women what they want/need and inevitably set them up for your brand of equality which just might land them on the front lines, we should ask them if that is really what they want or if it is simply the desire of some middle class white women who think they know what’s best for “women of color”? How about we address the real problems of poverty and minorities instead of imposing whiny, self-absorbed, boo-hooing that can only result in tears in your Zinfandel over an imaginary injustice of being passed over as the new CEO of Microsoft. No fair! I’ve been changing diapers and allowing my children to explore their environment naturally while respecting their identity and gently guiding them to make their own decisions, how on earth can I be passed up!?!

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