The reality is, women HAVE gained more power in the past 50 years or so that have drastically changed the sexual and financial markets.
This guy is an idiot, but odds are women's lib can probably be partially traced to some problems in modern society. Women's lib was a massive and whole cultural shift, and people don't seem to realize that it may have had some bad outcomes here and there. When you gain something, you lose something.
Some "bad outcomes here and there" is a small price to pay. Yes, the feminist movement was a "massive and whole cultural shift" and one that was much needed. 19th century American laws regarding women were based on 19th century English laws.
1. a married woman has no legal existence whether or not she is living with her husband;
2. her property is his property;
3. she cannot make a will, the law gives what she has to her husband despite her wishes or his behavior;
4. she may not keep her earnings;
5. he may sue for restitution of conjugal rights and thus force her, as if a slave to return to his home;
6. she is not allowed to defend herself in divorce;
7. she cannot divorce him since the House of Lords in effect will not grant a divorce to her;
8. she cannot sue for libel;
9. she cannot sign a lease or transact business;
10. she cannot claim support from her husband, his only obligation is to make sure she doesn't land in the parish poorhouse if he has means;
11. she cannot bind her husband to any agreement. In short, as her husband, he has the right to all that is hers; as his wife she has no right to anything that is his. (33)
http://www.umd.umich.edu/casl/hum/eng/classes/434/geweb/PROPERTY.htm
Anecdotally, in my life time, I recall my grandmother (who never worked outside the home) and how it was her custom to do her grocery shopping on Thursdays. My grandfather was well aware of this and more often than not did not make the money regularly available to her which forced my grandmother to ask. She found this terribly humiliating to have to ask for the money when she knew he knew she would have need of it. If this type scenario played out in homes across the country, it is no wonder women began to work outside the home. I know my grandmother wished she would have.