Erick Erickson: Fox News Contributor Fears Rise in Female Breadwinners

To any women currently reading this, I urge you to stop. Close the computer, quit your job and pick up a spatula. For the safety of American society and human nature, please replace your business suit with an apron. An enlightening panel hosted by Fox News’s Lou Dobbs decried the progress of the American woman and cited some alarming statistics. In four out of 10 families, the woman is the primary breadwinner. I was thrilled by this news, until I was shown the light by additional commentators Erick Erickson of the conservative blog RedState and Fox News analysts Juan Williams and Doug Schoen. These harbingers of the dissolution of American society, have analyzed this data in a completely novel (some might even say false) way and concluded that the astronomical rise of the female breadwinners is, as Dobbs so eloquently put it, “something going terribly wrong in American society.”

So, the onus falls again on the man to remind women of their responsibility and goals in life. It is vaguely reminiscent of the congregation of predominantly men in the government who attempt to pass judgment on issues that affect women, such as: abortion and taking birth control. The study that strikes fear in the heart of crotchety old men everywhere was released on May 29 by PewResearch. It goes on to elucidate how the 40% of all households with a mother as the sole or primary provided has been steadily increasing since 1960 when it was just 11%. Most of the mothers in this bracket are single mothers. While the male breadwinner may still be the majority, this panel clearly is. A different Pew study found that 79% of Americans reject the idea that women should return to their traditional roles.

In watching this amazing discussion, some analysts took a more focused approach. Instead of considering the animal kingdom, they looked at the microcosm of Fox News. The Atlantic Wire reported that all of their shows are co-hosted by at least one woman and 29% of their evening guests are females as well. Fox News would essentially stagnate if all of their women employees and guests left the moneymaking up to their husbands.

On another distressing note: Congratulations ladies, you are all against science. Erick Erickson proclaimed that their claims could be undeniably backed by irrefutable claim that, since in the natural world, the male typical plays the dominant role, the same should hold true for the human one. If that’s true than we probably shouldn’t be upright and should relinquish the use of opposable thumbs. Let’s take another look at the biology. What is the main goal of all animals in nature? Short term all actions are taken for survival, long term the animal aims for procreation. Animals and humans alike have an instinctual drive to protect their progeny and give them the best chance at success for the continuation of their genes. I’m pretty sure the economically successful female is doing just that. Giving her children the best chance of success, exactly as biology intended.

Besides, I’d rather emphasize how we’ve evolved and celebrate the accomplishments of our enlarged cerebral cortexes. Like committing them to overcoming sexism, for example.