In honor of my own Work-From-Home Week, I am devoting my usual Wordless Wednesday spot to someone else’s words.
When I originally saw this interview on the Colbert Report, I agreed with much of what Linda Hirshman had to say, but I also found her all-or-nothing proposition irritating.
I want to be valued for the work I do — ALL of it. But the reality of my life is that many of my responsibilities, the ones involving child-rearing in particular, will never garner a paycheck. That doesn’t mean I want to farm them out to someone else unless I absolutely have to do so.
Working from home is my best response to the issues raised in this video.
What’s your response?
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Linda Hirshman | ||||
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Like you, I agree with her to a point, but the language that she uses – like “the wrong choice” starts distracting me from her overall message and forces me to become defensive.
I get where she’s coming from but I’m not sure I DO agree with her method. Instead of saying ‘family and raising children is important but you still need to be in the public sector to work so you can be valued and get social security’ how about working on a shift in society’s thinking that actually VALUES the stay at home mom and honors her?
chocolate or vanilla……..choose. If you are able to make a choice that’s great, if the choice is made for you by circumstances- so be it.
To say one is right and the other wrong- is simply Wrong! and arrogant.
A nurturing stay at home mother is natural …I can’t think of anything more powerful and fulfilling. It never can be replaced, no matter what the job is. HOWEVER,If a mother chooses to or must work for financial reasons, the children are as equally nurtured. One shouldn’t be judged negatively for whichever direction is chosen. Make your own personal decision. It will never be wrong.
Ok, I calmed down enough to write. I was raised by a stay-at-home-mom-feminist. I consider myself one. First off, most mothers have periods in their lives where they home and times when they work. Some women are able or need to stay home, and that doesn’t make it a wrong choice, nor is it a wrong choice to want or need to work outside the home. The more we fight over who is right and who is wrong, we women lose out on securing important issues, like good, affordable daycare system; good, afforable healthcare; better maternity leave; appreciation for all mothers no matter if they work in or out of the home because really this motherhood thing is harder than it looks. Then let’s not forget the issue of hiring someone to take care of children, which are usually women, which often are poorer women. This feminist stinks of radical, white, priviledge feminism that makes the rest of us look uncaring or not wanting to understand others.
This video is AWESOME! I’m going to have to Tweet it.
there are no easy answers for women. maybe for men either.
every family crafts their own solution to the issue of how best
to nurture and grow a family.
nowhere is it written that women are more suited to be at home and men in the workplace, this is all an artifact of culture and society. in our culture it is very difficult to both nurture children and make a good living for them and for ourselves.
the mommy track is always less profitable. women still earn around 70% of what men do. this after almost 40 years of feminist effort.