Womans lib, good or bad for a country/socity?

[08087]

I say bad but not for the reasons you might think.

A woman should be able to leave the home to work, independence is key to her mental well being and ability to live without depending on a man. However I don't think both parents should work outside the home while there are newborn or young children at home.

The reasons are as follows. One parent needs to be home for the raising and educating of the children, to me it doesn't matter if it's the father or the mother.

Problem is though that now that most 2 parent families have both parents working the children must attend preschool, and after school programs because mom and dad are working. That not only waters down the family unit it contributes to higher taxes for everyone.

The more both parents work the more stress there is on the family resulting in a higher rate of separation and divorce, leading to an ever greater breakdown of the family unit and even higher taxes.

So in short while woman’s lib is/was good for the women it has been detrimental to the health of the family in another aspect, pick your poison.

[Vivo]

I take two sides. Ideal versus Real

IDEALLY, the Father must work and provide for the family. The Father has a social responsibility to the family. The Mother must stay home and take care of the kids. The Mother has a psychological responsibility to the family. A mother cannot be easily replaced because of this psychological relationship from conception until birth. Ever wonder why a child forever clings to the mother even though the mother scolds her child? The Father can easily be replaced by an Uncle, Older brother, or anyone that can represent a father figure.

However, because of the REALITIES in life, a lot have changed. Women's lib is not even the issue anymore, our whole lives, cultures, behaviors, etc. have changed.  Even doughnuts have changed!
Women work not because of womens' rights anymore. It's because they need to.

As to watering down the family unit, I don't know about Americans, but I myself find QUALITY time for my kids no matter how busy my schedule is. My wife works and she does the same. It's a matter of attitude and setting your priorities. We have 24 hours a day, 8 hours sleep, 8 hours work, 2 hours travel time a day, and several hours for other stuff. What's left for the family and kids? How do I manage time? I don't work overtime, I don't answer office calls after 6 pm, I don't (never) bring work at home, limit watching TV at home (instead we talk and play), limit internet at home (I do this in the Office  Lol!), etc. etc. etc.

There's a saying: As the water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it, so a wise man adapts himself to circumstances....

[hippiebrian]

The fact that two parents, in most cases, have to work these days has less to do with the Equal Rights movement and more to do with the fact that, adjusting for inflation, wages are down compared to 30 years ago and one person cannot afford to provide for a family anymore.  Trickle down didn't (and still doesn't) work...

[Vivo]

40 years ago, my father worked as an office manager. We had 10 cars and big house. Now... well...

[08087]

The fact that two parents, in most cases, have to work these days has less to do with the Equal Rights movement and more to do with the fact that, adjusting for inflation, wages are down compared to 30 years ago and one person cannot afford to provide for a family anymore.  Trickle down didn't (and still doesn't) work...

It didn't start or end with the Reagan era of politics. Part of it did start with the burning of bras though, women started working to help the family get ahead, then the gov made it so they had to work. Thank you again big gov.

[streido]

The fact that two parents, in most cases, have to work these days has less to do with the Equal Rights movement and more to do with the fact that, adjusting for inflation, wages are down compared to 30 years ago and one person cannot afford to provide for a family anymore.  Trickle down didn't (and still doesn't) work...

Agreed. Its the errosion of workers rights and the lowering of wages that forces many wives to work. In the past a man had one job that pid enough to provide for the family needs, not that single wage is not enough, unless your a CEO or a banker. I work full time but my wife only works 2/3 days per week, she starts after the kids leave for school and luckily our parents collect the kids 2 days a wk from school so they dont go to aftercare. Its not ideal but i would not have had kids if i knew i had to leave them at daycare to go work. When our kids where born my wife did not work at all until each started school, 5 yrs old here, simply because of the reason 08 said, we want to raise our kids.

Thats nothing to do with womans lib, just the fact that our wages today are shamefully low and will not provide. I am totally against anyone who has kids and works 2-3 jobs to provide for them. These people may provide food, a house and clothes but they have little intera tion with their kids since they are either at work or are too tired from work.

Granted we all expect more today than perhaps our parents and grandparents did but even then its still a struggle for many working families to even provide the basics on low paid, unsecure jobs. Many just live week to week with no savings or no chance of saving for the future, never mind retirement.

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The days of having a steady job or working for the same company for life have virtually gone, now they take advantage of peoples desperation to work by offering jobs with low wages, short term contracts, little rights, poor pensions and often bad conditions. Unless we all down tools and say "No i wont work for that" its not going to change really anytime soon.

[Vivo]

Overpopulation is one of the culprit.  There's just too many people out there, people without jobs! and they will accept any job even if the salary is low. Companies take advantage of this and offer small salaries. The law of supply and demand.  Every year, schools have graduates and these new graduates add to the unemployment line. We have a minimum wage law here in the Philippines but it's not really that much. It may support a single person but not a family. 

[bebo55]

I totally agree with you 08087.  The women's movement actually made life very tough on women as the response was both to work outside  the home AND take the primary role for the raising the kids.  Choices for nurturing the kids full time, by whichever parent, is the best investment parents can make.

[sentinex]

uhm, another thread I officially staying out, enjoy the discussion