Comment 3 by QuestioningKat :

Why have there been so many attacks on women's rights within the last couple of years? What is the trend going? People who suggest such ludicrous ideas should have their faces all over the internet to shame them. Names...people need to be held accountable.

I have a hypothesis about this.

Imagine that you were watching the early stages of a push-back against a diminution of the position of men in Western society. Why now? Because ultimately, people notice stuff when it hits their pockets. And the last recession has disproportionately affected men.

Trying to take away women's rights is a stupid response to this. It makes as much sense as the French bombing German roads instead of building better French ones. But the early stages of social pressure are often pretty stupid, and it is only in retrospect that there is any consensus about the underlying causes.