Actually, the backlash is nothing new (check out Susan Faludi's book of that very name). It's been going on since women became a competitive force in economics and politics, spheres of influence one considered exclusively male.
But with a bad economy and a generally angry populace alienated from a political process that has clearly broken down at almost every level, the desire to "other" whole components of society and scapegoat them for the loss of what was an illusory security at best, has become more obvious.
Hate is on the rise, and women are clearly one target of it. I really appreciate Fathernature's reference to radio-demagogue Charles Coughlin. Poorly educated as most Americans are these days, especially as regards their own history, they are largely unaware that hate-mongers like Rush Limbaugh are nothing new. Coughlin had plenty of company. There were also Gerald L.K. Smith, Westbrook Pegler and a hoard of lesser names blaming the very people being blamed now for all the ills of society, sometimes in an even more blatantly sexist, racist, anti-semitic way. History eventually washed out that particular sewer, but it wasn't quick or easy, and clearly it wasn't permanent.
One thing I don't get about this country and never will is why its citizens blame the victims for hard times instead of the perpetrators. If half the rage the teabaggers devote to gay people and immigrants were directed toward banks, they might actually be acting in their own class interests instead of thugging for The Man.
As for the new wave of hostility toward feminism, I'd look again to the underrated Ms. Faludi's prescient book "Stiffed," which describes in harrowing and compassionate detail the various failed coping strategies by which men have attempted to adapt to a society in which the old definitions of masculinity have largely unraveled and no new ones have arisen as yet to take their place. It's not the job of feminism to fix that, but feminism is certainly one of the targets of the rage and frustration it's generated among men who, once again, chooose to blame their fellow victims for a situation in which both suffer.
But then, I'm one of those old-fashioned big-H Humanists who still believes that regular folks of every type have more in common with one another than they do with the overlords of the system that exploits their differences.
I may get shot at here for saying this, but I'm old enough to believe that, yes, there really is a patriarchy, and a way of thinking that it imposes on everybody, but that in reality it consists of a couple of hundred old dudes who own everything in the world and dictate their ideas to everyone else. The biggest of all big lies they've managed to sell to men is that any man could have a place at that table if it weren't for all the women and minorities crowding them out. Fat chance, unless your last name has been in the Social Register for about five generations.
So how many women and minorities are there on the boards of directors of The Fortune Five Hundred corps? Last time I checked, it was around 4% of the total number.
But it's those feminists and affirmative action cases that have robbed The Angry White Man of his shot at the brass ring.
That's what thirty years of systematically dumbing down the educational system and ranting against public sector attempts to level the playing field have brought us.