Torch24601
What upsets me is that I'm frowned on because when I grow up I actually want to get married and take several years off of work to have a family. Several of my feminist friends really disrepect me because of that. They think I'm wasting all of my talent and brains. "Why do you even bother going to college if you just want to get married?" One asked. I was so upset. I don't just want to get married. I want to go to college, go on a mission, and be a playwriter and director- is it wrong that I would want to put my family before all of that?
I don't think that's wrong at all. Part of what many feminists fail to acknowledge is that for all our talk of equality, which I hold as one of the most valuable principles to a society, women are different than men. Biologically speaking, they have to be different in many ways for humans to have survived for so long. Babies have an attachment from birth to their mother that they never have with their father. At least not inherently. In the vast majority (I'm not going to say all, because there are many examples to the contrary) of the animal kingdom, the female is the one that teaches the kids, or brings them food, or whatever. Female mammals have breasts for a reason.
Also, the formation of a family unit (i.e., getting married and having kids) requires someone to take care of the child/children, especially at a young age. It would be ridiculous to tell someone she shouldn't have kids (unless she's 14 or is in a bad financial situation), and it would be equally ridiculous to tell her that if she does have kids, she shouldn't be a stay-at-home mom. The only other options are to all but neglect them by putting them in daycare while both parents are at work all day or to have the husband quit his job to take care of the kids while the mother tries to get a job. (I make the basic assumption that the guy has a job because A) the mother wants to stay at home and B) kids require money.) Not to mention that the woman can easily take care of the kids for the first however many years, and then decide to get a job herself when they're old enough to take care of themselves. Being a housewife and being a working woman are not mutually exclusive; you just can't do them at the same time. Being a housewife does not equal throwing your life away.
