If you want a surreal experience, do this:
Photo credit: Corbis images
Then find one of these:
photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/people/42444189@N04/
Then sit down and watch this Fox panel on how women earning more money than men is destroying America…
I know this aired a few days ago, but I’m still thinking about it because really? What rock have those guys been under?
Women have been successful in the work place for a long time. Welcome to the show.
But also?
Women still make less than men for the same responsibilities and job titles.
We still do the majority of the household chores, and most of us manage the household finances as well.
We still do the majority of child-rearing duties, particularly in the early years.
When there’s a school play or other event that requires a parent to be present, it’s usually the mom that appears.
We manage the majority of all holidays, gift-giving, social calendars, family vacations, correspondence, and taking care of the sick and elderly in our families.
It’s also suggested that we look like Victoria’s Secret models, cook like Rachel Ray, and entertain like Martha Stewart all while being sexually insatiable.
Could it be possible that the All-American family is suffering a little bit because women are exhausted from straddling the fence between 1950 and 2013?
Our gender roles have been painfully under construction for the last 60 years. Does it really make sense to blame mothers who earn more than fathers for the destruction of marriage, family, and ultimately the demise of our entire nation?
Likewise, who gets to declare all that gloom and doom is even happening? Isn’t it possible that marriage, family, and our nation are just evolving, and it’s not the end of the world?
Society has been changing since the beginning of time, and will continue to change until the end of it. In my opinion, there are only two ways to handle that: fear and blame, or embrace and celebrate.
I choose to embrace and celebrate.
I’m glad I have a career that allows me to be independent. I’m glad my gay friends can get married in some states and I hope our whole nation follows. I’m glad my family is blended but not broken. And even though it’s not always easy, I’m glad I have the dual role of breadwinner and mom. I’m thankful to have the opportunity to strive for the best of both worlds.
Regardless of what each family looks like on the outside, or who earns more than whom, it’s still a family, and that means you’re on the same side.
I hope that never changes.
Related articles
- Will The Rise In Female Breadwinners Spark Women’s Entrepreneurship? (forbes.com)
- Fox News Dudes Think Lady Breadwinners are ‘Anti-Science’ Freaks (jezebel.com)
- Mom’s the ‘Breadwinner’ for 40% of US Families (newser.com)
- The Downside of Being the Breadwinner (newyorker.com)
