Thanks Jennifer Weiss-Wolf for these thought provoking columns. I think you’re correct in saying that GOP men and women are starting to embrace traditional gender roles more often now than in the past. That is ok as long as both sides are ok with it but for others, how would you go about defining a traditional gender role? Not everyone would agree with that concept that we call “traditional”. Gen Z girls and women compared to their male counterparts are more likely to be college educated in the workplace as you said. Many of these women have degrees in STEM related fields and also advanced medical degrees in medicine, pharmacy, pharmaceutical research and physical therapy and some still manage to have families while others do not. Not everyone can or should have children if that is not their desire to do so. Just because someone has a uterus doesn’t automatically make them an ideal parent. Those who are more traditional in their desire for a family and who are good or better than ideal parents and spouses get my utmost respect but anyone who denigrates others just because they aren’t traditional in their desire to have a family won’t be my friend. Being respectful of other people and their choices is what I value in a relationship with others. There’s a place for everyone.
Some of us have good reasons (personal) not to have children. Marriages don't always work or even happen. All women need to be able to support themselves and their families.
Your thoughts led me to go back to the article to retrieve the following because your ideas are, I think, an example of Ms. Weiss-Wolf’s point: “it brings Chelsea Clinton’s words to life: that refusal to accept the status quo— and that doing so by creating community and embodying optimism—is a most powerful form of resistance.” You express optimism for different life paths and choices while you respect the status quo of traditional roles. Thank you.
Thank you. I need this message and needed it before the madness we now confront. My lifetime spans all the advancements you describe for women. I was a teen in the 1970s. My mother worked outside the home when that was not the norm. I later had opportunities that women before me didn’t, but men were almost always in charge. The boys club seemed to become particularly robust as my colleagues and I got older and the men in power looked out for other men they liked to work with. So I was discouraged before the age of Trump. Yet I am also aware of the days when women had to make change happen for themselves. We still had a long way to go before Trump. Do we have a longer way to go now? Your message is relevant and hopeful regardless.
Regarding people embracing traditional roles, can they afford those roles in a weak economy and without government supports and services. This is something for them to consider when they are next in the voting both.
Thanks Jennifer Weiss-Wolf for these thought provoking columns. I think you’re correct in saying that GOP men and women are starting to embrace traditional gender roles more often now than in the past. That is ok as long as both sides are ok with it but for others, how would you go about defining a traditional gender role? Not everyone would agree with that concept that we call “traditional”. Gen Z girls and women compared to their male counterparts are more likely to be college educated in the workplace as you said. Many of these women have degrees in STEM related fields and also advanced medical degrees in medicine, pharmacy, pharmaceutical research and physical therapy and some still manage to have families while others do not. Not everyone can or should have children if that is not their desire to do so. Just because someone has a uterus doesn’t automatically make them an ideal parent. Those who are more traditional in their desire for a family and who are good or better than ideal parents and spouses get my utmost respect but anyone who denigrates others just because they aren’t traditional in their desire to have a family won’t be my friend. Being respectful of other people and their choices is what I value in a relationship with others. There’s a place for everyone.
Some of us have good reasons (personal) not to have children. Marriages don't always work or even happen. All women need to be able to support themselves and their families.
Your thoughts led me to go back to the article to retrieve the following because your ideas are, I think, an example of Ms. Weiss-Wolf’s point: “it brings Chelsea Clinton’s words to life: that refusal to accept the status quo— and that doing so by creating community and embodying optimism—is a most powerful form of resistance.” You express optimism for different life paths and choices while you respect the status quo of traditional roles. Thank you.
Good, we needed this.
Thank you. I need this message and needed it before the madness we now confront. My lifetime spans all the advancements you describe for women. I was a teen in the 1970s. My mother worked outside the home when that was not the norm. I later had opportunities that women before me didn’t, but men were almost always in charge. The boys club seemed to become particularly robust as my colleagues and I got older and the men in power looked out for other men they liked to work with. So I was discouraged before the age of Trump. Yet I am also aware of the days when women had to make change happen for themselves. We still had a long way to go before Trump. Do we have a longer way to go now? Your message is relevant and hopeful regardless.
Regarding people embracing traditional roles, can they afford those roles in a weak economy and without government supports and services. This is something for them to consider when they are next in the voting both.
Are you effing kidding me? Women are under attack right now and have been losing rights rapidly. What’s optimistic about that?
As long as women are their own worst enemies, nothing will change.