I have a real treat for you today, gentlemen.
While writing a recent post, Feminism is Responsible for the Depression Epidemic, I was researching the data point that Dutch women are both (1) The least likely to prioritize career advancement over family, and (2) The happiest in the Western world. I came across an old Maclean’s article from 2011, How Dutch Women Got To Be The Happiest In The World:
“In 2001, nearly 60 per cent of working Dutch women were employed part-time, compared to just 20 per cent of Canadian women. Today, the number is even higher, hovering around 75 per cent. Some, like Van Haeren, view this as progress, evidence of personal freedom and a commitment to a balanced lifestyle.
…Dutch women appear deaf to the siren call of the workplace. Asked whether they’d like to increase their hours, just four per cent said yes, compared to 25 per cent of French women. And while across the Channel, British media are heralding the resurgence of feminism—last weekend, some 500 women crowded into a feminist training camp, UK Feminista, to be trained in direct action and activism—in Holland, women like Van Haeren baldly proclaim no further need for the movement. “Feminism wasn’t necessary anymore by the time I grew up,” she says. “In my eyes, it was a thing of the past.”
The relationship between personal lifestyle choices and the socio-economic standing of women has been under the microscope in Holland ever since the publication of Dutch Women Don’t Get Depressed in 2008. Ellen de Bruin, who patterned her book after Mireille Guiliano’s bestseller French Women Don’t Get Fat, began by defining the stereotypical Dutch woman: naturally beautiful with a no-fuss sense of style, she rides her bike to fetch the groceries, has ample time with her kids and husband, takes art classes in the middle of the week, and spends leisurely afternoons drinking coffee with her friends. She loves to work part-time and does not earn as much as her husband, but she’s fine with that—he takes care of the bills. The book went on to note that Dutch women rank consistently low, compared to those in other Western countries, in terms of representation in top positions in business and government—and rank consistently near the top in terms of happiness and well-being. In fact, just about everyone in Holland seems pleased with the status quo; in 2009, the Netherlands ranked highest of all OECD countries in terms of overall well-being.”
What a nice little scientific – excuse me, ♥♥♥ scientific ♥♥♥ – confirmation of the Red Pill world view! But of course, not everyone is happy about Dutch women’s cheery good fortune. From the same article:
“Others, however, view it as an alarming signal that women are no longer seeking equality in the workplace. Writer and economist Heleen Mees, for example, argues that the stereotypical Dutch woman has become complacent. “Even at the University of Amsterdam—the most progressive university we have—I had a 22-year-old student say, ‘Why is it your business if my wife wants to bake cookies?’ and the female students agreed with him! I was like, what’s happening here?”
Mees runs an organization called Women on Top that strives to push more Dutch women into ambitious career paths. Its slogan is “Out with the part-time feminism!” and it points to part-time work as a major factor in a lingering pay gap. Then there’s the matter of principle. “I think highly educated women have a moral obligation to take top positions, to set an example by their choices,” says Mees. “When women just stay at home or work part-time, they don’t reach the top, and they set bad examples for their daughters and daughters’ daughters.”
Understandably, the notion that there’s a correlation between women’s relative powerlessness and their happiness rubs people like Heleen Mees the wrong way. Yet others frame the correlation differently, arguing that Dutch women have smashed the vicious circle of guilt that traps other Western women, to embrace a progressive form of work-life balance.”
Helen Mees… does that name sound familiar? It should.
Apparently a certain Willem Buiter, chief economist of Citigroup, lost interest in Ms. Mees after she hit a patch of ice and skidded headfirst into The Wall. Buiter’s rejection catalyzed a core meltdown in Helen Mees’ Hamster Wheel reactor core. This was no mere Three Mile Island, but rather a full containment breach that will result in abnormally high concentrations of solipsism and circular reasoning in babies born within a hundred-kilometre radius of Manhattan for centuries:
“The Dutch economist [Mees] was arrested July 1 after allegedly sending more than 1,000 e-mails to Buiter over a two-year time period…
He’s had a past history of disconnecting Ms. Mees and then reconnecting with her…
“What can I do to make it right? Shall I lick your b–s?” she said in one X-rated epistle…
In another, she told him: “Hope your plane falls out of the sky.”
Her angry rants allegedly included Buiter’s wife and children.
Prosecutors say she targeted his family even after she was told to stop…
Buiter received a snapshot of Mees pleasuring herself and another creepily depicting dead birds, according to court papers…
Mees is looking for new jobs after she was shunned from NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service because of this case.”
Now I know that ROK readers trust me to ask the hard-hitting questions. As a journalist, I go right for the six W’s: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and WYB?
Pictured below, the forty-six year old Helen Mees:
Her photographer certainly knows when to call in the industrial grade 1000-Watt floodlights, but as 45-year women go, she’s a perfectly reasonable specimen. For the sake of novelty, and unlocking the ‘Mrs. Robinson’ achievement, my verdict is:
(Ms. Mees, if you’re reading, I trust this great honour will make up for your otherwise difficult summer.)
Now, what does her future hold? As a professional economist, Helen Mees has achieved (very nice!) great success. However, as a role model, mentor, and source of relationship and life advice to young single women – I suggest to Ms. Mees, that perhaps her comparative advantage lays elsewhere.
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