In a moment of distraction this weekend while attending the generally enjoyable Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College, I wondered about sexual or gender equity. My question is this: if society were to truly value and honor some positions that are intrinsic to women, namely mother and wife, would women (some of the complainers anyway)be less clamoring to become say, priests or police officers, or any position typically seen as "man's work." Yes, one could argue everything in the past was seen as man's work, that isn't what I mean. I'm thinking of positions TODAY that when thought of one almost always conceives a man performing the position. Just a question.
During breakfast today I was reading an excerpt from a play in The New York Times Magazine (I know, I was a day behind and read Saturday's edition yesterday) entitled Rust . The play, written by a professor at Grand Valley State University, here in Michigan, is a nonfiction drama about the closing of a GM plant in Wyoming, MI. The play itself sounds interesting and I enjoyed the excerpt, but what caught my eye was something a character said. The character is "Academic" and plays a historian and guide to the playwright, also a character. He is explaining the rise of the automobile factories and the effect of the car on American culture. He says, "Women became independent, they go from producers of food and clothing to consumers of food and clothing." This was meant as an earnest, praiseworthy point. I would counter with "How far we've fallen." To say that a woman (or a man) is independent because she has m...
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