I didn't mean to say that the glass ceiling doesn't exist. I know it does. I know that most women doesn't get paid as much as their male colleagues. I know they that they are passed over for promotion or even fired, or simply not hired because they might just get pregnant and sit at home on the boss' money. Thank you Ivonne for pointing this out.
What I meant to say in my post the other day, is that the glass ceiling is not measured by looking at the number of women who have a career and comparing that to the number of men who have a similar career. The above mentioned things are correct ways of measuring the glass ceiling; salaries of male and female colleagues, promotion of male and female colleagues, that kind of stuff.
On the other hand, when a woman chooses to work less or quit her job because she wants to spend time with her children, that has nothing to do with the glass ceiling. That does not say she isn't a feminist. It simply says she wants to have a family.
I read an article once about a feminist who claimed that if you're an intelligent woman it is your duty to society to make a career for yourself, because there are not enough women in high places and this country is not emancipated enough. Duty to society? Whoa there! I know I can be unreasonable, but I just want to have children with my husband and make enough money to take enough care of them. I'm not allowed to do that because I have half a brain? I think this feminist got it the wrong way around.
That's really what I have against feminism. I know quite a few women who want what I want; half a job so that they have time for their family. Time to spend with the children and the husband. I want to cook my husband dinner, and then let him take care of our finances, because he is better at the latter and I'm better at the first. I want to work in order to live, and not the other way around. And that would make me unemancipated?
1 comment:
I do agree with you here. Feminism is not about duty of whatever.( I realy dislike feminists who think that way just as much as traditionalists who think it is the womans duty to take care of the children..)
Feminism is about equality between men and women, both at work and at home. That you have the CHOICE to have a carreer, wheter you are male or female. That you have the choice to stay at home and take care of the kids, or combine children with a carreer, or whatever, wether you are male or female.
As long as those choices are not free, as the examples I gave show, feminims is still needed, also here in the Netherlands.
If you prefer to spend more time with your family, cook, and let your husband do the financial stuf..that is fine! As long as it is your choice, freely made.
That is, in my humble opinion what feminism is all about. The freedom of choice, for men and women.
Post a Comment