Posted on 03/13/2006 6:56:21 AM PST by conservativebabe
In The Feminine Mystique, the late Betty Friedan attributed the malaise of married women largely to traditionalist marriages in which wives ran the home and men did the bread-winning. Her book helped spark the sexual revolution of the 1970s and fueled the notion that egalitarian partnerships—where both partners have domestic responsibilities and pursue jobs—would make wives happier. Last week, two sociologists at the University of Virginia published an exhaustive study of marital happiness among women that challenges this assumption. Stay-at-home wives, according to the authors, are more content than their working counterparts. And happiness, they found, has less to do with division of labor than with the level of commitment and "emotional work" men contribute (or are perceived to contribute). But the most interesting data may be that the women who strongly identify as progressive—the 15 percent who agree most with feminist ideals—have a harder time being happy than their peers, according to an analysis that has been provided exclusively to Slate. Feminist ideals, not domestic duties, seem to be what make wives morose. Progressive married women—who should be enjoying some or all of the fruits that Freidan lobbied for—are less happy, it would appear, than women who live as if Friedan never existed.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
That was very eloquent and you are so right.
Housework has traditionally been much easier than career work, and still generally is. What made things equitable is that child bearing and child rearing are much harder.
I had time to think about it while driving my license-less 17 year old to his classes at the community college!
It's 86.9 degrees in my house with all the windows open. The a.c. repairman won't be around until tomorrow afternoon. 
My laptop is overheating, but I'm happy, dagnabbit!
I am jealous, I must say. I am freezing in my 65 degree house but I won't turn the heat up because MidAmerican Energy loves my money.
I'll split the difference with you - 75 degrees sounds perfect.
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