When the Headline Gets It Wrong: Feminism Isn't the Problem--Patriarchy Is (trigger warning)
(and the PATRIARCHAL, MISOGYNIST, CHRISTOFASCIST, THEOCRATIC WAR ON WOMEN continues apace!!!)
When the Headline Gets It Wrong: Feminism Isn’t the Problem—Patriarchy Is (trigger warning)
PUBLISHED 11/8/2025 by Jodi Bondi Norgaard | UPDATED 11/13/2025 at 9:49 A.M. PT
A march on International Women’s Day, March 8, 2025, in New York City. (Robert Nickelsberg / Getty Images)
When I saw the headline “Did Women Ruin the Workplace? And if so, can conservative feminism fix it?” in The New York Times Opinion section, my heart sank. It felt like a headline torn from another era—a provocation that had no place in 2025. After predictable backlash online, the headline was softened to “Did Liberal Feminism Ruin the Workplace?” and then “Have ‘Feminine Vices’ Taken Over the Workplace?” The wording changed, but the message didn’t.
Curious—and frustrated—I listened to the accompanying podcast, Interesting Times. What I heard wasn’t analysis; it was a polished repackaging of old patriarchal ideas dressed up as intellectual debate. The podcast opens with the statement, “Men and women are different,” calling this “the core premise of conservatism in the age of Trump.” The host goes on to say that liberalism and feminism “have come to grief by pretending that the sexes are the same.” No one—least of all feminists—is pretending men and women are “the same.” According to Merriam-Webster, feminism is “the belief in and advocacy of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.” Equality does not mean sameness, it means fairness: the right to opportunity, autonomy and dignity regardless of gender.
By suggesting feminism “pretends” the sexes are identical, the host misrepresents a movement that has always sought to expand human possibility, not erase difference. He then poses the question: Should the right “roll back the feminist era” or is there a “conservative feminism” that corrects liberalism’s mistakes? There is no such thing as conservative feminism. The phrase exists because patriarchy has learned to speak the language of empowerment. It borrows feminist words—“choice,” “agency,” “strength”—but drains them of their radical meaning, using them to defend inequality. It’s liberation without justice. It’s empowerment without equality.
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The writer’s podcast claims to explore “the big questions of our era.” But when those questions ask whether feminism has “ruined” the workplace, the format becomes less conversation than provocation—a way to make misogyny sound like intellectual inquiry. The Times’ decision to amplify these voices is disappointing. Women are not the problem. Feminism is not the problem. The problem is a culture still too comfortable questioning women’s legitimacy, ambition and anger.The message from the writers is clear: Women should know their place. But women already do—it’s everywhere decisions are made, everywhere power is exercised, everywhere the future is being built. We’re not staying in our lane. We made the road. And we’re not going anywhere.
https://msmagazine.com/2025/11/08/conservative-feminism-new-york-times-headline-liberal-feminism-ruin-workplace/