Choices

I tend to be a little slow when it comes to responding to some current events.  I need to take time to mull them over, digest them, and make my thoughts coherent.  I generally know, intrinsically, what I think and feel about a subject, it just takes me time to find the words to somewhat eloquently state it.

Which brings me to the big brouhaha that occurred when Hilary Rosen stated Ann Romney had no clue to economic matters since “she never worked a day in her life.”  I think anyone that reads this blog most likely agrees that raising five children and running a home pretty much qualifies as work.  And, as for economics of it all, Ms. Rosen apparently doesn’t know much about the start of the Romneys’ marriage.  They didn’t always have much money.  In fact, they had very little.  So Mrs. Romney’s economic reality was she had to be able to do much with very little.

It seems our society at large as gotten to the point that having a job, working, and employment are deemed to be the end-all-be-all goals for today’s “modern” woman.  Why? 

Some women didn’t get married until later in life or at all, so a job was an economic necessity.  Some  live in areas in which a single salary might not cover even the basic essentials, so once again, a job is an economic reality.  Others find fulfillment and purpose in what they do as employment. 

I somewhat envy the last of these women.  To me, my job is a means to an end.  We need a place to live.  We need food to eat and clothes to wear.  That takes money.  Defining computer systems and business processes does not fulfill me.  Do I want to do well at it?  Yes.  I take pride in a job done well.  Do I care about it?  Only to the extent that it helps the company that employs me do well.   Does it give me joy?  Heck no!

What is the point of ridiculing a woman who has chosen to stay home and raise her family?  Isn’t the feminist movement all about choice?  Oh, that’s right, the only choice they care about is killing their babies, not deciding how to care for them once they are born. 

 

I see so many women who would gladly walk away from money, careers, education if given the opportunity to raise a family or run a household.  My guess is that the ones ridiculing those that would do this have one of two issues.  They are overly confident about their importance or they wish they had the guts to do the same. 

Now get back to work!

“A good man’s work is effected by doing what he does, a woman’s by being what she is.”

- GK Chesterton in Robert Browning 

AMDG