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Originally Posted by GGG
The question that I think is unanswered is do the societal structures as they currently exist surpress Women's involvement in the work place.
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My sense is they're somewhat still suppressed, but we're pretty close to the differences being a matter of free choice. Just look at doctors. Women who complete medical school are unlikely to be browbeaten servants to patriarchal values. They're among the most competent, disciplined, and ambitious people we have. But it turns out that once they have kids, a great many dial back their work commitments substantially, even though they could easily afford child care. And they're leaving a lot of money on the table to do so. That's about as close as you can get to a case study of what women choose to do when not compelled by financial necessity or traditional expectations.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Azure
I agree that work or working more should not be the end goal, but I think that the idea of the 'dad' in the family working and primarily providing for the family financially and the 'mom' staying at home and being the primary caregiver can and DOES create a stronger family structure and better kids.
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I don't agree with that. I think it's best if children are raised by two parents, and not great if both of them are highly career-focused. And if you're a highly career-focused person, you have a choice: a spouse who is also highly career-focused, or a child-centered family life. You can't have all three.
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don't think the career-focused person has to be the father. I think a career-focused mom and a dad who has more time to focus on family is a perfectly legitimate family model. However, I do think that if we remove cultural expectations and barriers to women, we'll still have a society where more women are family-focused than men. Or to put it another way, where most of the people who sacrifice everything else in their life for money and status are men. At the population level, some degree of gender difference there is innate.
The broader solution, as Pepsi remarked, is to dial back our expectations around high-status professional work. It's not good for families and not healthy for society to expect 60+ hours work weeks and 24/7 communication availability from professionals. If we reduce those expectations and encourage flexible hours, more mothers will find pursuing a career attractive, and dads will be more available for their families.