You'd be depressed or unhappy, too, if choosing what you wanted to do (staying home with your kids and making a home) was treated with derision and scorn by society, including women who go around mouthing off about "choice".
At least in the first instance (going against what society expects), you could do what you wanted, even if it was difficult. Versus so many women and families stuck in the economic trap of the woman having to work to keep the (often broken) family afloat.
Proof of this is that the Women's Movement, which wants to socialize anything and everything, has not lifted a single finger to help stay-at-home-mothers find investment opportunities or to save toward retirement. There are no 401Ks for stay-at-home moms, for example.
It's never about women who choose to stay home; never about women's health issues unrelated to abortion (finding ways to insure SAHM, for example); never about women's economic issues unrelated to working outside the home; never about women's education or edification unless it is tied to working outside the home.
The Women's Movement may have started out as a way to empower women to be able to achieve in any sphere, but quickly became a way to boost women who work on the backs of those who choose to stay home.
So many women in their 20's see this and refuse to call themselves "feminists", because it conjures up such nasty images. This should cause those at the forefront of feminism to pause and reconsider, but it doesn't. They simply blame those women who refuse to get on board and call them "brainwashed", then go about their business as usual.
“It was about replacing “having” to work at home to “having” to work outside the home”
Yes and look what has happened. The economy is now DEPENDANT on the 2 income household.
Women that WANT to stay home and Raise a healthy family CAN’T without MAJOR Sacrifices.
WOW talk about a bait and switch...and women fell for it.
One dirty secret in all this is that for all the talk of ‘balance’ that working mothers peddle, the fact remains that the most important person in their life is their boss.
They will much sooner tell their husband or boyfriend to take a backseat than they would their boss.
They will not ‘balance’ work and child responsibilities. The children invariably take a secondary role. Much like they would expect their mate to take a backseat to work concerns, they will do the same with their children.
I’ve supervised many people and while a man will tell me ‘no’ now and then, a woman almost never defies me. As to why, I can’t say. I just know it’s true. That’s one reason bosses like women working for them, though they present distinct downsides, too.
I work outside the home; I always have. But it was my choice. However, I didn't try to have it all. Working my way to the top would have meant not taking the kids to soccer practice and Little League; I would have missed the school concerts and missed being Cub Scout Den mother. I'm happy with what I've done -- both in raising kids and at work. If my daughter chooses to be a stay-at-home mom, that's great. If she wants to work in the outside world, that's great too.
“The Women’s Movement should have been about choice, but it wasn’t. It was about replacing “having” to work at home to “having” to work outside the home. It replaced one kind of paternalism ... [with] another ...”
Very well stated. Right now, the saddest part of this is that the women who are doing the most important work for mankind, taking care of our children, are criticized with that most important of opportunities.