Midge Decter was a writer and one of the founders of the neoconservative movement in the 1960s.
- Died: May 9, 2022 (Who else died on May 9?)
- Details of death: Died at her home in Manhattan at the age of 94.
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The birth of neoconservatism
Decter began her political life as a liberal, but in the 1960s, she was one of a group of liberals who turned away from their former leanings to begin the neoconservative movement. While hawkish, pro-war beliefs were a cornerstone of the beginnings of neoconservatism, Decter focused more on anti-feminism and anti-communism in those early days. She believed that women are destined by biology to be wives and mothers, and that women should remain chaste outside of marriage. Decter wrote books including “The Liberated Woman and Other Americans” and “The New Chastity and Other Arguments Against Women’s Liberation,” and she became the executive editor of Harper’s magazine. She was the founder of the Committee for the Free World, established during the Cold War to push President Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) to increase military spending. Honored by President George W. Bush with the National Humanities Medal, Decter was the matriarch of a prominent conservative family. Her husband was neoconservative political commentator Norman Podhoretz, and her children included conservative columnists John Podhoretz and Ruthie Blum.
Notable quote
“Women’s Liberation calls it enslavement but the real truth about the sexual revolution is that it has made of sex an almost chaotically limitless and therefore unmanageable realm in the life of women.” —from “The New Chastity and Other Arguments Against Women’s Liberation”
Tributes to Midge Decter
Full obituary: The New York Times
