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https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1507874-women-role-in-society.
Today, women share the same political and civil rights as men. They can vote and they can even be elected and appointed in public office. They can own property, they can practice profession and in all aspects of the law, they are considered as equal. Discrimination is even punished. As such, women now are no longer expected to just stay at home and rear their children. They can now pursue any career that they like. They are free to endeavor on anything. Although it still is challenging for them, we see women executives and politicians.
And society actually looks up at successful, career-oriented women. However, being a woman, the demands of motherhood is still present. Despite having a career, mothers still have the responsibility to take care of their children. As such, the problem of women now has a different face. It is no longer discrimination or oppression. Now, their problem involve, them being torn between pursuing a career and the demands of child rearing. Personally, I would like my wife to remain at home to take care of me and the kids.
But I know that way of thinking will be frowned upon. Society now dictates that the modern woman be career-oriented. Being a housewife is considered old-fashioned and pass. I don't want my wife to be called old-fashioned. And I don't want to be scorned as I will be depriving my wife of her opportunity to pursue a career. However, I find the essay of Danielle Crittenden very interesting. My impression of her is that she was born in the time civil and political rights was already equal between men and women.
As such, she does not share the same sentiments as Stanton, Adams, Wollstonecraft and Wolfe. She does not have that extremely strong drive to prove herself as capable and worthy as any man. Because at the time that she was born, equality between men and women has already been established. As such, Crittenden was not ashamed to admit that motherhood is equally important to women. That it is also hard for mothers to leave their children while they work away from home. That while society demands that the modern woman be career-oriented, a mother cannot easily brush off the longing to personally take care of her child at home.
In my opinion, women now face a different kind of pressure. Because of the work of a lot of female activists to grant women the equal status that they enjoy today, modern women feels compelled, that it is their responsibility to keep it that way. To voluntarily submit and be limited to housework would be throwing away all the years of advocacy for equal opportunity that women like Stanton worked hard to achieve. As such, women feel ashamed to fall back into the old-fashioned state of women. They feel that they should do more than just stay home and take care of the household.
That they could do better than just become a housewife. I do not agree with this line of thinking. Being a housewife is not an easy task. It may not be as glamorous but it is difficult just the same. The house doesn't clean by itself. The clothes don't wash themselves either. And the babies, they can't feed on their own, they can't change their own diapers. That's why I don't understand why they get less respect from society. They do hard work
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