How Contraception Became Proxy for Women's Freedom

"Contra Justice Ginsburg, the Hobby Lobby decision is no cause for alarm," writes Helen Alvaré. She argues that even though Ginsburg's voice doesn't represent many women, "her arguments still have power" (particularly in the marketplace of male-female relationships), and they can't go unchallenged.

For significant and entrenched reasons, birth control has become a proxy for “women’s freedom” in the minds of many women, even if they’re not actually touched by the Hobby Lobby decision.

A significant number of women have good reasons to be anxious about the possibility of becoming pregnant when they are not fully willing and prepared. This is largely due to the situation in the “marketplace” of male-female relationships and the lack of policies helping mothers manage work outside the home.

First, regarding this marketplace, today it fosters non-marital sex, cohabitation, later marriage, abortion, and single parenthood (and thus female poverty). These phenomena are disadvantageous to women, and in the minds of many, can be mitigated or avoided by contraception. The mechanisms by which these results are produced are brilliantly summarized by leading economists.

A New Wave of Happy Housewives

"For the first time since the downturn of 2008, the percentage of stay-at-home mothers rose between 2010 and 2011, and some of the biggest increases have been among younger mothers, aged 25 to 35," writes the Daily Mail in Rise of the Happy Housewife.

One year ago, Kelly Makino, 33, quit her job running a program for at-risk children to stay home full time, because, she says, women are better at that job than men.

The mother-of-two and self-described 'flaming liberal' and feminist, told New York magazine: 'The feminist revolution started in the workplace, and now it’s happening at home.'

Mrs Makino, who has a Masters of Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania, and struggled to balance long hours with caring for her children 'properly,' said that no amount of professional success could compare to her happiness knowing her two children, Connor, five, and Lillie, four, were being looked after by her - not a nanny.

Her sacrifice of a salary pays her family back in ways Mrs Makino believes are priceless, and she is not alone. A new breed of young, educated, and married mothers are finding themselves untouched by the notion of 'having it all.'