Since completing my project at work and being 18 work hours away from leaving my job, I've got a little extra time on my hands. I took a gander at Arts and Letters daily and found an interesting article on the cost to society of having women in the work force.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1143931814950&call_pageid=1105528093962&col=1105528093790
What I found striking in this article was its focus on what society lost by, in some sense, allowing women to go into the work force. A breakdown in the existing order... That society depends on women being the glue, running the charities, doling out the compassion in addition to having the next generation of children. The big whole I find in this argument is that it seems to assume that women should be the glue. Why is that? Why are men exempt? Why must we provide the free labor at the expense of the pursuit of our interests?
Women entering the work force has fundamentally changed society, no doubt about it. However, I think that the problems created by that change should be addressed so that women still have the options available to them. State sponsored childcare would promote working women to have children. Value, not just lip-service, on education would also be beneficial. A larger tax credit for children would be good too.
Telling women that society's ills are our fault and to get back in the kitchen is old.
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