TH:  Good evening, and welcome to The Thinking Housewife. My guest tonight is the eminently fictitious Ellie Forthnaught, founder and sole proprietor of an interesting new venture in education, the New Wave Academy for Women. Welcome, Mrs. Forthnaught. Mrs. F:  Thank you. Thrilled to be here. TH:  Mrs. Forthnaught, –  may we call you Ellie? [...]

  “The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news.”                                                                                          Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen Such is the bygone world of Austen’s Mrs. Bennet, mother of the legendary Elizabeth Bennet, who ultimately lands the most grumpy and charming man in all English literature. It is rare, if not unknown, for [...]

  The discussion over my article Why We Must Discriminate continues. I am accused of “utter nonsense” in saying that the work lives of women interfere with family life and the stability of marriage. By the way, if you find the text of these pages too small to read, go to View in the task bar and then [...]

  Psychologists have worked hard to prove sadness is pathological. They have redefined the black mood and demonized melancholy. They have packaged pessimism as depression and intensity as disorder. The attempt to rid the world of sadness is totalitarian in nature. There is no happiness, no humanity even, without sorrow and despair. Every human being finds a satisfactory [...]

  In an interview in the New York Times today, the photographer Lillian Bassman makes an interesting, politically-incorrect admission. When Bassman was young and newly married, she did not want children. Her husband did. So Bassman went to a psychotherapist. Within six weeks, her desire for children was awakened. She had a son and daughter. An unmarried woman who chooses [...]