do you think that women's liberation benefited society or enslaved both men and women?

Question

i remember my liberated galfriend dragging me along to the new women's rap group back in the 1970s. i was a working mother then. i remember women in the group moaning and complaining over being stay-at-home workers, their husbands, and their periods.

i want to know what this forum thinks because most of you are younger than i am. my viewpoint is that once women entered the workplace en masse that men's wages got lower, forcing both spouses to work to keep up with the joneses, & then later, as it stands now, just to plain, outright survive.

both mom & dad arrive home exhausted. i don't think they do not love their kids; i think that they are too tired to read to them, to do homework with them, to bathe them, and to share much quality time with them.

do you think that men and women both became enslaved by the women's lib movement? do you think that a woman looks stupid if she stays home? do you think having a lot of toys is more important than family? why not change it all?

Answer 1

"We … created the women’s movement, and we promote it. And it’s not about equal opportunity. It’s designed to get both parents out of the home and into the workforce, where they will pay taxes. And then we can decide how the children will be raised and educated."

-Unnamed Rockefeller

Answer 2

I tend towards agreement that the women's lib movement did our society a lot of harm. I also believe that prices were leveraged up so that more money could be made for goods and services. The idea of the wife being at home does appeal to me for both the benefit of the children, her, and for the husband. That said, after a day with the kids, when he gets home from work he needs to realize that she needs adult interaction as much as he wants some down time from the stress of work.
I believe that it can all change IF the families want it to change. It would not be easy, and the idea of keeping up with the jones's is a concept that needs a quick and sure burial. Kids need time with their parents, not things to take their place.
I feel that a woman doing what she feels is important is what is best for her. For others who might ridicule her for staying at home, I'd have to wonder if they are just jealous, or if their idea is that things will take her place in the life of her children. I wouldn't mind seeing a study done on such women where their husbands, or significant other is replaced by a plastic doll. How long would they last before they wanted the person, and not the artificial substitute. If they can't go the time period of the trial, what makes them think that children can do any better.

Answer 3

Parents should have the choice of whether or not they want to stay home and raise their own children. The governments should recognize this as important and subsidize the people, by paying them some sort of money. I don't think either parent should appear stupid to do this part in making their childrens lives richer. Feminism has brought to light the vast inequality that existed and continues to be perpetuated in the job market.
You talk about dual parent families but even back in the late sixties when second wave feminism was gathering momentum there were a great deal of single parent families headed by women who were unable to make a decent living because men were seen as being the only breadwinners. In North Amercica 85 percent of those who live in poverty are women and children and this only proves that feminism needs to take the place of the present system which penalizes women for not having husbands.

Answer 4

I went to those rallies too. What I believed in was equality where people get to do what they do best and no work is insignificant, so equal appreciation of job well done, but that doesn't exist and never will. The women's rights movement enslaved both the men and the women into competing in the work environment. Anymore, women that stay home to be with their children are ridiculed and shamed. Equality where I can do anything better than you should not be, what should be is I can do better at what I like doing than you. In fact, some husbands stay at home with the children while the wife works. They are doing what they like. That is what should be, not the competing in the working world if they don't excel in the working world. If it were up to me, I'd change it all, but alas this is the way it is now-we created it now we get to live with it. I don't know if it will totally change, I hope it will.

Answer 5

men and women enslaved by the women's lib movement? it depends on what feminist movement one upholds. the common ground of feminists movement is to liberate women, to make the society realize that men and women are more similar than different. and different feminists perspectives have different end goals. the familiar ones are the radical fem,liberal fem, Marxist fem and socialist fem. radical fem calls for the eradication of men (I'm exaggerating but its something close to this. read: man haters), the liberal ones are those who want to have the freedom to do what men do. Marxists feels oppressed because they are economically oppressed and nothing else while the socialist ones believes that a woman is oppressed in different aspects and the society can only be liberated ones there is no demarcation between masculine and feminine qualities. basically socialist perspective believes that a man can do the job of a woman and vice versa minus the stigma.

a woman would not look stupid. it depends if that is her choice. i would feel sad if she would prefer to stay home because it was what was dictated by the society. if it she allows the society to put chains upon her life just because she is a female, she should think twice.

Answer 6

To Pat, Because a single father is a rarity, so a great guy that would actually do that would be LESS likely to beat his kids, since most guys are not single fathers. Their kids are either taken in divorce or they abandon their kids, rarely do guys get the kids (UNFORTUNATELY), unless he is practically a saint, and the mother practically a demon. Single mothers are often from poor socio-economic communities, which have more abuse. Police aren't going to help you out, so you have to fend for yourself. To the OP, Because people think women are too pathetic to cause real damage (misogyny), whereas men are too violent period (misandry).

Answer 7

I think women's liberation movements may have set society back a bit.

I was a stay at home mom, by personal choice, and often found myself defensive to women who did not understand my desire to stay with my children.

I chose to return to work, but not for money. In fact, my husband is now a stay at home dad who drives the kids to sports events and attends the PTA (the only male in the group).

People treat him the same way they treated me as a stay at home parent, with shock and disappointment or in some cases active jealousy.

I like that I can work when I choose to or stay home if I choose to. I like that it is my choice. I do not like that my husband is not held to those same choices and is ridiculed by both men and women for his decision.

We have changed it all, and are vilified for it.

Answer 8

I think it's sad that when women's lib started, women felt they had to act like men to receive respect and equality. The changes it brought can be seen as positive - battered women's shelters, rape laws, colition politics, title IX and VII . . .but in the meantime, when women were acting like the little boys that needed a good spanking, our children suffered.

Stay at home mom's rock and should have been respected all along, by both men and women.

Answer 9

I think women enslaved them selves by the women's movement, but not that much as men are also enslaved. American culture today, still see women as the care taker of homes, as least in most of people's mind they still have that expectation.
I was a career woman before I had my son, now I'm confined to both roles, I'm working and I still have to pick up after my family. In my husband's mind, an ideal woman can do both roles; woman as a care taker, from the pass generation and a modern woman with a career.
From other people's attitude towards a homemaker ( I was one for a short period of time, after my son was born) it does seem like that they look down on them, but when a career women, concentrating on their jobs, she also gets criticism from the older generation. It's a double jeopardy.

Answer 10

womerns lib wasn't thought out properly. OK I noticed women becoming shop managers, good for them but then they found they had to turn out at night to sort out problems, they have to clean up after customers "accidents" and they are expected to leap in if a custommer gets stroppy. My job was to turn out at unsocial hours and found young ladies having to get through town late at night where I had to be alert. On one occasion I waited with a heavily pregnant girl until a taxi arrived to take her home. Her husband was in bed sleeping....