But if you think that there aren't those who would like all women to bear children and be the chief cook and bottle washer and no more - you need to rethink that. Especially in church circles, conservative circles, and the more fundamentalist circles.
There are far more feministas in the world like Amy Glass who think anyone who would choose such a life for themselves is dull, uneducated, enslaved, dumb, barefoot and pregnant. Those types are far more numerous, and far more dangerous, than the very few who would fit the description you claim here.
My own pastor (whom I love) told me to my face once (even though his wife is a nurse, ironic, no?) that it's his opinion that all women should be stay at home wives and mothers. He didn't say it hatefully, but even so - he's the pastor. I didn't know what to say, so I said nothing.
Perhaps you should go to his home and make sure he doesn't have any women chained up in the basement. I mean, he must, given he holds such a dangerous opinion. [/sarcasm]
I don't begrudge any woman who stays at home - I just want it to be her complete and sole decision.
In reality, it isn't any of your business. Why don't you ask them if it is or not? I'd be prepared to catch a rather lengthy diatribe from them about not questioning their life choices or their beliefs, however.
From those same conservative circles that I was talking about .... ALL the time.
I defy you to find one woman in a so-called "conservative circle" who has ever had the nerve to actually go up to a female corporate executive and ask that question. One, they have more decorum than that. Two, they don't want to catch the reverse diatribe you will get if you ever ask a stay-at-home mom such a personally invasive question.
It's on this board and has been for years. Women who do something other than stay at home are many times called selfish, trying to be a man, neglecting God-called duties, and more.
Many on this board have nothing better to do than be someone else's judge and jury. I wouldn't judge the real world by anything said on this board, by male or female. The same can be said about Facebook, LinkedIn, or any Internet based "community." People say things online they would never have the guts to say to your face. Most of what is said online is meaningless in the first place, and if you let words on a screen cause you emotional pain, you're likely being way too sensitive about what others think of you in the first place. You have only two to which you must answer: God, and yourself. If you're married, add in your spouse as #3. No one else matters.
I've said all of my adult life that women MUST stop doing this to each other. For some women - not all -it's like one group is afraid of the accomplishments of the other - or believe their accomplishments to be superior.
Again, it's irrelevant. We allow people to hold our lives in their hands by their opinions. Why? They are just that, opinions. They have no binding power, no strength by which to defeat us. Say, "Thank you for your opinion," and move on. Americans for far too long have cared what other people think, to no purpose other than letting it cause them personal anxiety.
Why is this? Men can be the great dad, father, weekend golfer, and astronaut. He gets to accomplish all in life and is never forced to choose between home and career.
Men do it to one another. You must understand, what a man does is where his identity lies. Failure in the job or in a recreational activity is a blow to the ego that rejection by a wife or a girlfriend can't begin to match. Sure, we're hurt by the women in our lives having a low opinion of us, even if it is out of temporary anger or misunderstanding. But when we fail, we reduce our value
in our own eyes, not to mention how we know our friends and co-workers see us (even if they don't). You seem to think men get off scot-free. We don't. We treat one another worse than we inadvertently, or with some of us, deliberately treat women, or than they treat us. You're focusing on one aspect of a problem that afflicts the whole human race: Others' opinions of us, and the bottom line is, they don't matter, not in the least.
I've said this many times: Men will NEVER fully "get it" until we women STOP viewing each other as the enemy.
I've got startling news for you. The vast majority of men
don't care one way or another. You may see men from the perspective of those in your life, but overall, men could care less if their wives, mothers, sisters, daughters, etc., work or stay home -- though as a dad I can say I want my daughter to be everything she can be, however she sees that work out in her life. I'm proud of my wife and her major accomplishments as a NICU nurse, mother, and servant of the Lord for all these years. But other women? Among our friends are many women who have both achieved greatly outside the home and inside the home. But I don't care one way or another. What I care about is that they are our friends, they treat my wife well, they accept me for who I am. Again, this may surprise you, but that is what
the vast majority men care about regarding women in the world around them.
But not all woman support the choices of other women and that makes me sick.
It shouldn't matter that much. Or at all. Not given that the only person it affects, that you can do anything about, is you.
I understand that. Very well.
But I've never heard it preached from a pulpit. Never.
Then you've been in the wrong churches.
