It seems as though it’s come down to what it’s always been — it’s a luxury for a family to afford a wife who can stay at home with the kids. It used to be a luxury that only the middle class and upper classes could afford; now that line has been defined upward so it’s really only the upper classes who can afford it (comfortably). Having a wife who doesn’t work is becoming a sort of status symbol. Like having families with 5 kids — “look, I can afford a large family”. How wierd is that?

Today’s young men and women (according to that article, anyway) don’t seem to have a realization of how much they’re capitulating to society’s pressure, the anti-female backlash that’s trying to make us all into 1950s-model housewives again.

Women have to stop capitulating.

They also have to stop telling guys they’re doing it wrong (parenting, housework, whatever) and let them just get the job done in their own way, as long as it gets done. But that’s part of another ongoing discussion…

Sorry, slightly less coherent than I intended.

Ultimately, I’m a choice feminist, even if it doesn’t perfectly address every single feminist issue. Some people really, truly are fulfilled being home 24/7 with their children. I do think that some of the women who choose to stay at home do it out of family pressure, which is sad. However, in the past few years I’ve known of several men who wanted to be the stay-at-home parent. While this is anecdotal evidence, I think it’s still important. Men and women alike will be able to make more informed choices if this trend continues and becomes more normative. Women outnumber men in colleges today, and yet we’re not seeing women filling leadership roles because many are opting out of the workforce. Society suffers due to this opting out. We as a society give lip service to how important the family is, but we expect only one gender to take care of the next generation, rather than enabling men and women both to be better parents and create work–family-life balance.

I worry about today’s SAHMs — what happens if hubby decides to trade them in for a newer model (play on words intended) when the kids are grown? That happened to a lot of women a generation ago; and alimony isn’t as common as it was then.

We need to work. We need the workplace to be more family-friendly. And we’re not going to be able to get this unless women (and their husbands) demand it. Don’t let the media divide and distract us.

Bravo and well-written. Kudos, my friend, I couldn’t agree more!