I had to watch this twice. I could have sworn I'd stumbled into something published by The Onion. And yes I have a reply for these....well, we'll call them men although we use the term loosely.
If you actually read the report, the women who are primary breadwinners are largely supporting a family in which there is no man present. She isn't just bringing home the bacon. She's cooking it, serving it, doing the dishes afterward, and changing the diapers when it comes out the other end. And we won't even start to talk about finding a good daycare situation for your child when your household income is somewhere near the $23,000 median that represents income for households headed by women. So don't cry about how the economy has left men unable to remain in the role of Supreme Breadwinner. It's the men, not the economy in most cases, that left the women in the precarious role of primary breadwinner. A quote from the report, "These “breadwinner moms” are made up of two very different groups: 5.1 million (37%) are married mothers who have a higher income than their husbands, and 8.6 million (63%) are single mothers." A woman can find herself in the single mother role by death, divorce, or desertion but she is still trapped in the economic realities we, her society, choose to create for her. Our structure does not support women who choose to stay home and care for their children once the man is removed from the picture. And then they wonder why women feel the need to secure a job that pays well. Read the report.
Yes, the closing of manufacturing jobs may have curtailed a man's ability to provide for his family minus a college education. And the report also mentions men believe that it is better for young children to have their mother at home in larger proportions than do women. But the haunting words of the ABA President keep coming to mind when I think about well educated, skilled women who opt to stay home with their children but then find themselves in need of employment in the future. No one will hire them! No wonder women feel a need to work at least part time after their babies are born. It's the only viable way to actually care for your child if your marriage becomes one of those divorce or death statistics. "About three-quarters of adults (74%) say the increasing number of women working for pay has made it harder for parents to raise children, and half say that it has made marriages harder to succeed."
Just read the report: like these men should have done before babbling their heads off in a national venue. If you want the structure where mom stays at home with the kids - you'd better create the structure to support that family when Dad can't or won't stick around. Saying you want the stay at home mom structure while keeping child support to a bare minimum, keeping death benefits to a bare minimum, removing medical insurance options from the family when dad dies or divorces, creating the myth that a woman's skill are "rusty" and unusable 6 months after she has quit to stay at home, and discriminating against older women when they attempt to reenter the workforce are not the actions to take that would support a woman staying at home to care for her children even when that is the desire of her heart.
Read the report.
If you actually read the report, the women who are primary breadwinners are largely supporting a family in which there is no man present. She isn't just bringing home the bacon. She's cooking it, serving it, doing the dishes afterward, and changing the diapers when it comes out the other end. And we won't even start to talk about finding a good daycare situation for your child when your household income is somewhere near the $23,000 median that represents income for households headed by women. So don't cry about how the economy has left men unable to remain in the role of Supreme Breadwinner. It's the men, not the economy in most cases, that left the women in the precarious role of primary breadwinner. A quote from the report, "These “breadwinner moms” are made up of two very different groups: 5.1 million (37%) are married mothers who have a higher income than their husbands, and 8.6 million (63%) are single mothers." A woman can find herself in the single mother role by death, divorce, or desertion but she is still trapped in the economic realities we, her society, choose to create for her. Our structure does not support women who choose to stay home and care for their children once the man is removed from the picture. And then they wonder why women feel the need to secure a job that pays well. Read the report.
Yes, the closing of manufacturing jobs may have curtailed a man's ability to provide for his family minus a college education. And the report also mentions men believe that it is better for young children to have their mother at home in larger proportions than do women. But the haunting words of the ABA President keep coming to mind when I think about well educated, skilled women who opt to stay home with their children but then find themselves in need of employment in the future. No one will hire them! No wonder women feel a need to work at least part time after their babies are born. It's the only viable way to actually care for your child if your marriage becomes one of those divorce or death statistics. "About three-quarters of adults (74%) say the increasing number of women working for pay has made it harder for parents to raise children, and half say that it has made marriages harder to succeed."
Just read the report: like these men should have done before babbling their heads off in a national venue. If you want the structure where mom stays at home with the kids - you'd better create the structure to support that family when Dad can't or won't stick around. Saying you want the stay at home mom structure while keeping child support to a bare minimum, keeping death benefits to a bare minimum, removing medical insurance options from the family when dad dies or divorces, creating the myth that a woman's skill are "rusty" and unusable 6 months after she has quit to stay at home, and discriminating against older women when they attempt to reenter the workforce are not the actions to take that would support a woman staying at home to care for her children even when that is the desire of her heart.
Read the report.
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