Women are riding out the recession more easily than men, with a lower unemployment rate and a higher percentage attaining high school diplomas and Bachelor and Master degrees. Yet President Obama and Congress, responding to fierce feminist lobbying, propose to expand preferences for women in both education and hiring. Whereas original feminists portrayed women as equal to men, the 21st century feminist message is that women cannot succeed without affirmative action. Not only does this harm men by reducing their opportunities, but it hurts women by invalidating any legitimate credentials gained without the benefit of gender preferences.

The great irony is that women succeed in everyday America, but are doomed to failure in the distorted lens of radical feminists. A woman who chooses a job with a flexible schedule in order to have time both for her family and her career thinks of herself as successful. But to feminists, she is a failure because she has chosen a lower earnings path rather than the CEO track.

Diana Furchtgott-Roth is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, where she directs the Center for Employment Policy. Prior to joining Hudson, Ms. Furchtgott-Roth was chief economist of the U.S. Department of Labor and chief of staff of the President's Council of Economic Advisers. Ms. Furchtgott-Roth is the editor of Overcoming Barriers to Entrepreneurship in the United States (Rowman and Littlefield, 2008) and the coauthor of The Feminist Dilemma: When Success Is Not Enough (AEI Press, 2001) and Women's Figures: An Illustrated Guide to the Economics of Women in America (AEI Press, 1999). Ms. Furchtgott-Roth is a contributing editor for RealClearMarkets.com.