I am not a proponent of feminism, or any other "ism", for that matter. What I feel we need instead is true balance, and hence, equality in all things. We do not seek equality in feminism, or racism, or any other “ism”, for that matter. What we truly seek in pursuing these things is control over others, and in seeking control over one thing, we are losing control over another. Thus, Humanism is the only true "ism", and anything else will always somehow degenerate into a power struggle. In the current power struggle, brought about largely by the tenets of feminism, quite often the ones who suffer are our children.
While Feminism, and other social and environmental circumstances in recent times, have brought women to a more equal footing with men, which is a good thing, there are other areas where it has hurt humanity as a whole.The most important of these areas would be the raising of our children. There are cultures where you don't see this as much; where families are very close knit, but usually in such cultures, women are less likely to want to work outside the home. In these instances, this seems to be by choice, and not because it is not allowed. Does this mean that women must make a choice between work and being a mother. In a way, I think it does, but not in the manner you might think.
Upon reading the report, Future of Feminism, I believe the most poignant statement in the entire work is found in the introduction itself, where it is stated that, "...some young feminists assert that child rearing should be respected work." (Glazer, 1) Native American tribes, such as the Hopi, are fond of saying that, not women, but mothers are not doing their jobs today. A mother’s job is to teach and care for her children. With the possible exception of mothers who home school, which is not completely the form of teaching we are referring to here, mothers not longer do this. Mothers are far too busy working to teach their children much of anything, even with regard to giving them a firm moral foundation to build upon. Care and teaching of children are often left to others, sometimes with disastrous results. If we want our children to grow into responsible people, we must take more responsibility for them upon ourselves. Granted, this is often easier said than done these days, and I wish I’d seen this while raising my own children as a single parent. However, I feel it is not just mothers who are being left out of children’s lives, but fathers as well.
The reasons for this are many. Work, divorce, lack of a sense of responsibility, itself brought on perhaps by generational parental disassociation, have all contributed to fathers lacking involvement in their children’s lives as well. Not only are mothers not doing their “jobs” with regard to their children, father’s aren’t either. This leaves our children virtually at the mercy of society, and its many systems in general, and society as a whole can be a merciless, or even a totally unresponsive parent. Thus, there are obvious issues on both sides of the parenting matrix, and both sets of issues would appear to be brought about by social norms that result from movements such as feminism.
With regard to divorce or other types of separation of the parents, and the lack of responsibility for children, sadly, much of this has been brought on by feminism itself. As Kay Ebeling argues in The Failure of Feminism, "Feminism made women disposable. So today a lot of females are around 40 and single with a couple of kids to raise on their own. Child support might pay for a few pairs of shoes, but in general, feminism gave men all the financial and personal advantages over women." (Munger, 170) In many instances, this is very true, but I believe this avoidance of responsibility has happened with regard to some women as well. It is not just work or divorce induced, either. There has been a chain reaction set in motion, that in some cases makes women put many other things in front of their children’s needs as well. Thus, in seeking equality, we have forgotten that equality means balance, and that balance is important in the lives of our children.
With regard to the job front, there will always be jobs for which men are better suited, and those for which women are better suited. It has been this way since ancient times, when men predominately had the job of hunting and protecting, and women predominately had the job of gathering and child-rearing. A better solution, in this modern world, were, in a manner of speaking both could be said to be hunting, gathering, protecting, and sometimes even caring for the children, might be for jobs to pay better, or on a more equal footing in general.
There must also be a means found for people with children to have more time for those children. Not only should more allowances be made for women with children with regard to work, but for the men who are their fathers as well. In this manner, women would be more capable of being mothers, and men would be more capable of being fathers. If such a thing could be implemented, then both could have jobs, if they so desired, or if financial concerns made it necessary, and both could be equally involved in the lives of their children. This, to me, would be a true sign of both balance and equality.
Works Cited :
Blair, Anita K. “Shattering the Myth of the Glass Ceiling.” 80 Readings for Composition. Ed. David Munger. New York: Pearson. 2006. 163-165. Print.
Ebeling, Kay. “The Failure of Feminism.” 80 Readings for Composition. Ed. David Munger. New York: Pearson. 2006. 169-171. Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment