It’s curious that Thomas Sowell should claim that there was no feminist movement prior to the 1960s. In fact, there was a whole cycle of very radical feminism from the 1850s up to the 1940s.
Our complaint against feminists shouldn’t be that they wrongly take credit for women leaving the family to be financially autonomous, but that the goal of women leaving the family to achieve financial autonomy is itself wrong.

Uh-huh. And where on Earth did you come up with a chauvinist, patriarchal idea like that? Is the woman’s “place” in the home? Do women HAVE a “place?” And how EXACTLY is financial autonomy for women wrong? That’s absolutely ridiculous.

how could thomas sowell claim that there was no feminist movement before the 1960’s? did he miss the entire suffragist movement, or just forget that women had to fight for the right to vote? how idiotic.

Owen wrote: “Uh-huh. And where on Earth did you come up with a chauvinist, patriarchal idea like that? Is the woman’s ‘place’ in the home? Do women HAVE a ‘place?’ And how EXACTLY is financial autonomy for women wrong? That’s absolutely ridiculous.”

Women have a very well-defined natural role to fulfill just as men do. They are the bearers and nurturers of children. That is an extremely exalted role, and in fact is higher in many ways than the man’s role, which is to labor to provide for the woman and the children. To recognize and acknowledge this is to be as far from “ridiculous” as it is possible to be. The ridiculous one, in fact, is the willfully blind person who tries to ignore the biological evidence that demonstrates that nature and nature’s God have ordained men and women to particular, and different, stations.

Owen, let me take a stab at answering your question specifically.

When women leave the family to achieve financial autonomy: the birthrate falls to below repacement levels threatening the future existence of a particular community; children don’t receive the secure attachment of mother love necessary for their emotional and spiritual well-being; the protective instinct binding men to women is weakened leaving marriages less secure; and the most self-disciplined, best educated women find it hard to follow their instinct to “marry up” since they have competed too well with young men.

The ultimate reason, as Bubba expressed so well, is that our higher nature as men is shaped around our role as protectors and providers for our families and communities, whilst that of women is shaped around intensely personal and emotional family relationships. Our higher nature has nowhere to go when women reject family life to pursue financial autonomy.