Citizens take to the highways in record numbers, flags unfurl, politicians make patriotic speeches, barbecues are stoked, libations poured in abundance, and fireworks light the sky. All well and good for July 4, but the celebration of independence should also prompt some reflection on the concept as advanced by feminists.

July 4 hoopla would indicate that independence is a good thing, so that seems to be settled. But independence from what?

America celebrates 227 years of independence from Britain, for which it served as colony. In this arrangement, America was governed from afar, hardly a satisfactory deal in the days before instant communication. The English king and his advisors were fond of extracting goods from the colonies, and also of imposing taxes. The purpose of colonies, in their thinking, was to enrich the motherland. The colonials did not have much say in the matter and raised the cry of “taxation without representation.”

The locals decided they could run their own affairs better than any distant king and his toadies. The colonial power didn’t want to let go, however, so Americans had to fight. Freedom, as they say, is not free. They prevailed—America became an independent nation. With a democratic political system and a market economy, the nation flourished, abolished slavery, and granted universal franchise. American women enjoyed freedom and prosperity on a scale unequalled in history. But some didn’t see it that way.

About half way through the last century, feminists began charging that American women were oppressed. The oppressors included capitalism, which had supposedly smothered everyone in false consciousness, and which only a vanguard of militant feminists had the enlightenment to see. That vanguard, Betty Friedan and the like, admired the arrangements under socialism, as practiced in the former USSR and its colonies.

Marriage was another oppressor, held by the feminist vanguard to be a virtual prison. As long as women remained in this institution, the politically correct line went, they would never achieve independence. Those making these charges claimed to be representing not feminism but women, as in NOW. The leaders became celebrities but the real problem with their views was they got much less attention.

They may have disliked men but the feminist vanguard positively swooned over big government and its centralized control. They wanted paid day-care, expanded welfare and other benefits. These require administering bureaucracies, funded by taxes. Unlike those who fought for American independence, the feminist vanguard thought that confiscatory taxes were a great thing. They believed government could manage the economy better than consumers acting through the marketplace, and showed incredible blindness to all evidence to the contrary.

In short, feminism, while championing rights to privacy, supported continued government colonization of private life, with the attendant high taxation that requires. A measure before the California legislature that would allow cities and counties to impose income taxes brought not a peep of protest from feminist groups.

They also oppose any privatization of social security, striving to keep women dependent on the government. The feminist vanguard supports government race and gender quotas, which include the notion that women are somehow helpless without them.

Women dependent on government will never be truly independent and achieve their full potential. The current need is to roll back government colonization of private life.

As for the other alleged oppressor, governments and courts look with increasing favor on marriage among gays. If marriage were oppressive, one would expect that the feminist vanguard would oppose gay marriage. No such thing has happened. Maybe it is just marriage between men and women that is oppressive.

The feminist vanguard will have to sort this out but their opposition to the free market and support for big government is well established. Instead of “You’ve come a long way,” a better slogan for this group might be “master knows best.”

Sally Pipes is President and CEO at the California-based Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy. She can be reached via email at spipes@pacificresearch.org.