24 October 2010

Working Mothers... Working Fathers?

In order to keep up with the goings-on of my country, I subscribed to the White House emails... the most recent, from Valerie Jarrett particularly annoyed me. How can a country who is supposedly the superpower in the world, who pioneers equal rights, women's rights, and civil rights--How can it imply such a sexist idea: "Even when our economy is strong, it is difficult for women to juggle the demands of a career and a family."

5o years ago, 30 years ago even, it was normal for a man to go to work and the woman of the house to stay at home and create the atmosphere in the family.

My peeve is that our society STILL believes that it's only the woman's job to create this atmosphere. Yes, the email is full of statistics showing how society still undervalues the work of women in the workplace, but it doesn't even mention men in the home.

Our society used to be full of ideas of men being the King of his Castle and the Woman of the House and whatnot, but what it lacks is metaphors, cliches and analogies of men and women working together to create families. Too often men undercut their role in the family, assuming being a bread winner is enough of a role. The most irritating thing is that society buys this. Families need men to be strong not just in how much money they bring in, but in their character and presence in the home.

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