I saw this article a few days ago and found it interesting
because it was a woman who made the statement against Ann Romney. I find this
issue to be a pervasive one in a culture of woman who are struggling with the
private and public decisions involved with raising children and having a
career.
Democratic
consultant Hilary Rosen made a comment about Ann Romney having “never worked a
day in her life” is a comment I find that is often found in the public sphere,
interestingly enough, mainly by women against other women. There is a sense
that women themselves struggle with the decision and make comments one way or
the other rather than men discrediting the decision to be a stay-at-home mother
and raise children. Here lies an interesting paradigm, because instead of
trying to change gender roles and suppose that a man might stay at home and
raise children, politicians and particularly women in positions of political
clout, are lashing out at other woman for personal decisions.
This is an interesting argument and
one that I would be eager to discuss in class. This also reminded me of the
Carla Rice article, just because there seems to be a multitude of things that
women are supposed to be, as
projected upon them by pop culture, by men, and by themselves. This includes being
beautiful, attractive, intelligent, and with those comes both the idea of being
a female worker and the idea of being a mother. These two ideas are in contrast
sometimes, and it is women themselves who bear the brunt of such projections by
their peers and fellow women.
On the day I read Rosen's comments, I had a conversation with a friend who is struggling to decide whether/how much to work outside the home. After giving birth in September, she worked out a gradual return to her job as a cardio-pulmonary nurse. She's now working three days a week, which seems to be a good balance but as her husband is seasonally employed might be returning to full time in order to financially support the family until he returns to work.
ReplyDeleteWhat struck me in our conversation was how she's changed since having the baby. Prior to giving birth, she assumed it would be easy to return to work. But now she says that it's much harder than she imagined and that she loves spending time with her daughter even though the 'stay at home' mom routine is harder than she thought.
I think it's unfair and condescending for those of us who don't have children to assume that just because a woman isn't earning a wage that she's not working. Additionally, I think statements like Rosen's reinforce the negative stereotypes of feminists that the political right thrives on.
I completely agree that the work at home is hard work and that women don't need to participate in the public spheres to receive recognition for all the unpaid work they do in the private spheres. They should receive not only recognition, but there must be alternatives so that they are not the only ones with the load of raising children and managing a house. Working mothers, in many countries, have to deal with a double burden of house work (unpaid) and their paid jobs. This is unfair and unequal treatment. I think that women and men that decide to be stay home parents have opinions, and should be heard, and should actively engage in political participation. However, in this particular case, what interest me the most is how the media can weave and tangle different issues. I do not agree with politicians, especially politicians that can occupy such an important position as president of the U.S., to receive financial and economic advice mainly from persons who are not immersed in the dynamics of local and world economics, research, and academia. No matter if they are men or women. The fact that the conservative politicians are now using feminist arguments in this specific case is paradoxical, especially because these feminist arguments are not applied to other women's issues like family planning and access to health and sexual education.
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