Posted on 10/06/2016 11:44:08 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Yesterday, Republican nominee for POTUS Donald Trump released a campaign video about his plan for paid maternity leave. In it, his daughter Ivanka, who has become Donald’s stand-in for “women,” explains the plan for him. Unsurprisingly, the very first thing out of her mouth is kind of a problem: “The most important job any woman can have is being a mother.”
Using “any woman” here is just a nicer way of saying “all women.” What that sentence really means is that Ivanka — and by extension, her father, whose platform the video was created to advertise — thinks that all women should have children, because it’s “the most important job for them.” Of course, this line of thinking isn’t exactly reflective of American women’s lived experience: More women today are either putting off having children or choosing to not have them at all. Saying that women’s most important job in life is motherhood suggests that women without children are lacking not just children, but a true calling in life.
By declaring motherhood the most “important” job, we’re also forcing women to organize priceless parts of their lives by value. First Lady Michelle Obama has famously said that raising her daughters is her proudest achievement during her time in the White House, and that makes sense: Creating two people out of thin air isn’t easy, and it’s right to feel extremely proud when you don’t, as she said, “mess up your kids.”
But the reality is that we rarely ask men to rank their jobs in life: Is being a father more important to Keith Richards than being in the Rolling Stones? I have no idea; I didn’t even know he had children until three months ago. The question itself is an impossible test for women who have children: Which do you value more, your kids or your job? The trick is that there’s no right answer, so no matter what your response is you’re wrong.
Of course, being a mother can definitely feel like a job sometimes. It is, in base terms, labor. There is extra laundry and cooking and cleaning up. The hours are longer than anything even my forefathers saw in the mines. But many of the people who tout motherhood as their most important job aren’t single mothers juggling a kid and an actual paying gig: They’re not people who worry about the cost of day care or health insurance. In short, they’re people like Ivanka Trump.
Still, if Ivanka wants to say that motherhood is a job, I’m happy to agree with her. Because if it is, then I assume Trump’s maternity plan comes with the bare minimum of benefits for its workforce: universal pre-K, affordable and high-quality child care, and health insurance. Throw in a salary and a retirement plan and I’ll change my business cards to “Mother” right away.
Clearly, the writer of this article needs to stop what she’s doing and get back to making some sandwiches for us Freepers!!
I remember vividly the day he said, “You may kiss your Bride.”
I looked at her and The Universe opened up into a yawning chasm of responsibility that I only previously imagined I could comprehend. That was some pretty thin air. No question. I was, and still am, overwhelmed. 43 years later and I am still struggling to regain my balance.
Dear “Ms.” June,
I hate to break it to you but men and woman are different and their roles differ both in society and in the family. This difference is not because of the oppression of women or some artificial stereotypes created by society but from the direct will of God and is written into our human nature. For 40 years Feminists have been trying deny what is self-evidently true. If you do not wish to fulfill the proper role of women, fine, but stop telling everyone else that they must think as you do.
The problem is the government getting in the middle of the relationship between employer and employee...
the late 1960s called... they want their bra burner back.
She (?) looks more manly than Pajamaboy.
SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.Socialism is a war on society. As part of that war, socialists wage war on the very word “society.” As Paine indicates above, the effort is to prevent people from being able to even think about society without thinking of government.Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil . . . - Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776)
Society consists of babies in various states of development from in utero fetuses to the aged. Destroy motherhood in a society, and that society is doomed.
This is someone who has way too much time to think. Maybe she should look at all the Hillary ads with the children.
“I remember vividly the day he said, “You may kiss your Bride.””
If you had kids I’d say they were lucky, but you didn’t say.
I'd be curious. She's a writer. Does she put her kids in day care?
“Faith - Family - Culture”
Current slogan and motto of my Choctaw tribe. When considered, these things are in the right order. Sorry for the author’s problems, but you will notice “job” and “career” are not mentioned in this motto, neither as innately good or bad.
Oldplayer
Motherhood the most “important” job, is just the simple truth and has been since our Creator invented sex.
We had two. Grown and gone. I do believe they feel lucky now. When they were teens they had days they did not think so. LOL.
And sammich makin’!
I’m sensing an open marriage situation.
Can’t be a good mom and a wife at the same time? Glad I’m still single!
I worked extra hard so my wife could be there for and educate our children. I hope I am allowed to feel that is my most important job.
One of the interesting reactions I have seen is how folks react to the following:
Man can do every single task that needs to be done in society, (in most cases better) but one:
Bear children and be a mother to them.
Kind of puts it all in perspective. Unless women have children and raise them to fit in that culture, the society ends in a generation.
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