December 29, 1998

Typeface changed: September 30, 2003.

by

My personal views about women are very very simple: they are entitled to every legal and ethical consideration given to any male and they are mistreated by the laws of this great country and they are legally treated as second class citizens. That is the most important wrong in this country that has to be corrected.

What have I done to enforce my beliefs? Some answers to my self imposed question:

(1) My wife owns 50 percent of every asset we have including property, housing, securities, household furnishings, automobiles and all our antiques. It is all on the record and is a matter of record. She has her own Custodian for her securities and her own security statement in her name.

(2) No money of any consequence is ever spent without joint approval.

(3) No monetary decisions of any consequence are ever made unless it is a joint decision.

(4) No family decisions are ever made without joint approval and discussion.

(5) Neither one of us has ever had an affair with the opposite sex or the same sex.

(6) Anything and everything involving the other is openly discussed and no decisions are ever made without joint approval.

Why, as a male in a male chauvinist world, do I live with this approach easily and willingly?

(1) My mother was the strength of the household and if it had not been for my mother only the Lord knows what would have happened to me! My mother taught me that women are every bit as strong, as smart, as any man.

(2) My wives' mother was equal to my mother although her husband was around throughout the depression years.

(3) My wife is every bit as smart as I may be and has been every bit as right as I have ever been.

(4) I know and recognize the truth that many of the incredibly good decisions I made in my life were the result of her advice and comments.

(5) We made a ton of money in life and have retired with a ton. Each and every penny we ever made were just as much a result of her brains as I may claim!

(6) When I did not have the guts to do the right thing, she did.

(7) BESIDES WHICH, WHENEVER SHE DID WORK FOR ME IN REGARD TO MY BUSINESS SHE DEMANDED SHE GET PAID AND I PAID HER GLADLY!

IN BRIEF, I RESPECT AND ADMIRE MY WIFE FOR THE FABULOUS WOMAN SHE IS (she can also be a pain in the neck). THE PROOF IS THAT WE JUST CELEBRATED OUR 50TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY AND I REMEMBER IT AS IF IT WAS YESTERDAY!

Why have I bothered to write all this about our personal life? For the very simple reason that when you read the following you are not reading the writings of a male chauvinist but the writings of a man who thinks that the so-called womens movement is and has been a disaster since it has achieved very little to the benefit of women! Let's take issue after issue.

AND LETS FACE IT:IF THE INDIVIDUAL WOMEN DO NOT STAND UP AND FIGHT ON THEIR OWN. NO ONE,NO ONE BUT NO ONE, IS GOING TO DO IT FOR THEM! IN ORDER FOR WOMEN TO ULTIMATELY OBTAIN EQUAL TREATMENT WITH MEN IT HAS TO BE DONE AT THE GRASS ROOTS LEVEL. THE WOMENS ORGANIZATIONS ARE PHONIES OF THE FIRST ORDER. JUST LOOK AT THEIR ATTITUDE ABOUT ONE BILL CLINTON AND NOTE THEIR SILENCE OR LISTEN TO WHAT GERALDINE FERRARO SAID IN HER PHONE CALLS TO ENLIST SUPPORT FOR THE PRESIDENT:

"MEN WILL BE MEN, WILL BE MEN, WILL BE MEN"

quoted in the NYTimes, no less!

And so my advice to women is twofold:

• Don't marry anyone that will not guarantee you equal treatment with him.
• If you are married and your husband is unwilling to assure you of equal treatment in the future think twice about remaining married to him.

This is NOT repeat, NOT, The world I grew up in nor the world in which my lovely wife grew up. It is a totally and completely different world in which marriage vows have become meaningless and something to be said (GENERALLY IN GREAT FANFARE) but not enforced.

If I were a young woman and I had met someone whom I loved and whom looked promising I would demand an extensive marriage agreement from him and he should demand one from you.

Sounds crazy? But does it and is it? I remind you that in the ENTIRE CIVILIZED HISTORY OF HUMAN BEINGS the way to go was marriage agreements!

When Ida and I got married she had a dowry and we had a marriage agreement of 3 points each. Hers were different from mine but both of us have lived up to the three points our entire marriage. One of the points EACH OF US HAD was "no fooling around............................or else!"

I assume that:

• the odds of divorce are high,
• that the courts will favor the male totally against the female and she will get the short end of the stick,
• that the welfare agencies will participate in the divorce proceedings where children are involved (yes, they do),
• that the former husband will get almost unlimited visiting rights where there are children and that,
• the husband will effectively hide most of his assets and that,
• the divorce will be both vengeful and dirty as can be,
• the cost of a divorce will be scandalous and that,
• the wife will get taken to the cleaner (financially and agreement wise) by her own lawyer.

In order for the woman to protect herself she has to consider demanding the following in a pre-nuptial agreement:

1. All assets will be jointly owned including but not limited to checking accounts, housing, vehicles, securities, pensions, insurance, savings accounts, retirement funds and medical care.
2. All income earned by either party will be jointly owned.
3. If the wife has a career and is forced to give up her career in order to raise the children fathered by the husband she shall be considered to have contributed 50 percent of all the income to the household.
4. For each and every year in which there is a joint tax return the wife shall be considered to have earned 50 percent of the taxable earned income filed in the tax return.
5. In the event of a divorce all monies deposited to the account of the children prior to their majority will be deposited with a recognized bank trustee.
6. In the event that the opposite spouse shall commit adultery then all the assets of the marriage shall become the sole ownership of the non-adulterous spouse.
7. The children from the marriage will come under the guardianship of the wife in the event of a divorce unless the divorce is caused (cause doesn't mean initiation) by the female spouse.
8. The children shall remain the financial obligation of the husband through and including a college education, or equivalent.
9. The grandparents of each of the spouses shall have limited but authorized visitation rights with the children.
10. All divorce costs will be paid out of joint assets on a pari passu basis.

I know and you know that the conditions I have written out above will not be easy to come by with any intended husband. But I have not written them for that purpose.

I have written them to force you to think and to force you to stand up and fight!

I have seen one woman after another taken to the cleaners after 20/30 years of marriage and to get nothing or close to nothing for all that. Some 21 year old buxom cutie comes along and the husband has hots for her and walks out on his wife and his children.

It is too easy and too painless for the men to do that and you have to think 20/30 years down the road so that you won't get cast aside as if you are a used unwashed rag. In this world of the United States (to say nothing of all the other countries) men get the preference and women get the left-overs.

Isn't it better to stand up and fight for your rights now ( before you get married or are new to marriage) rather than to wait for 20/30 years for now when you will end up with nothing to show for your marriage except grief, pain and misery? And probably penniless to boot!

And think of it this way: If you propose a marriage contract to a fiancé and he balks maybe he will be showing his true colors! DITTO FOR A HUSBAND!

GO FOR IT! WOMEN ARE ENTITLED AND THE TIME HAS COME FOR EQUALITY!

"20th-Century Developments
Although revolutionary and socialist governments in other parts of the world supported sexual equality, the movement grew more slowly in Britain and the United States. There, the number of working women increased substantially, but they generally worked in low-paying, female-dominated occupations. Advocates of birth control agitated for decades before women's right to family planning was recognized.

In the 1960s, however, changing demographic, economic, and social patterns encouraged a resurgence of feminism. Now laws entitled women to equality in education, employment, and legal rights. In 1964 the Civil Rights Act was extended to include women. In 1972 the Supreme Court of the United States declared that abortion was legal, and an Equal Rights Amendment was passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. Opposed by a strong conservative faction, the Equal Rights Amendment had not been ratified by the required 38 states at its 1982 deadline and was defeated.

During the late 20th century the objectives of the women's movement have included equal pay for equal work, federal support for day-care centers, recognition of lesbian rights, and continued legalization of abortion, as well as the focus of serious attention on the problems of rape, wife and child abuse, and discrimination against older and minority women. Women have made many gains, although complete political, economic, and social equality with men remains a goal of contemporary women's rights supporters."The Encarta® 99 Desk Encyclopedia Copyright © & ? 1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Footnote to the footnote: This statement is sheer nonsense since all the governments were trying to do was to obtain more workers. As someone who has Doctorate in Soviet Economics and Soviet History I assure you that equality for women was and is a farce in so-called socialist governments. It was in name only and designed to force women into labor and too frequently into hard labor at that!

"Dowry, property that a wife or wife's family gives to the husband upon marriage. In certain societies the dowry formed a part of an exchange of wealth between intermarrying families; it was often accompanied by some payment made by the groom to the bride's family, called the bride-price. This social and economic arrangement is still a fundamental part of certain African cultures. The dowry may serve as insurance against bad treatment of the wife by the husband; it must be forfeited to the wife or wife's family in case of divorce."The Encarta® 99 Desk Encyclopedia Copyright © & ? 1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.