Are Men tired of Career Women?

Female Nude killed from behind by Eugéne Delacroix

The debate over the Role of Women in society is on.  

In the United States, the Republican Presidential Candidate, Rick Santorum, suggested that women pursuing careers outside their home are worse mothers than those who do not. Such statement caused quite a fuss as if Mr. Santorum didn’t have the right to express his personal opinion on the matter (regardless of its absurdity).

In Portugal, the recently appointed Cardinal Don Manuel Monteiro de Castro said that the main role of women is to bring up their children and, for that reason, they should spend more time at home. Again, this statement caused some Catholics to frown at the Cardinal and accuse him of wanting to decrease women’s status.

This discussion has been hot a bit all over the world. So, what is going on: are men tired of career women? 

Women have many roles: procreation, education, orientation, mediation, organisation, distraction, entertainment; planning, implementing, controlling, training, guiding, combating, cooking, teaching; spirituality etc etc. Women have many talents and it is a pity when certain societies do not take advantage of their willingness to use their potential for the common good (it has been proven that societies where women’s status is enhanced are the most developed ones, in all levels). But I digress...

Are men fatigued of career women? I don’t think they are, no. The problem lies in the fact that the constant increase of women in the work force, although extremely positive, has been detrimental to family values and, mainly, to the emotional stability of children. Some studies suggest that children whose mother/grandmother/aunt is at home with them are more academically successful, and less violent, than those who do not benefit from such presence in the household. This is not an attack to Feminism (nor to the Empowerment of Women), it is simply evidence supported by the behavioural decay in today’s society. 

Now, people could say that this is a conservative or religious view (I am yet to explore why people immediately assume that being conservative automatically means being religious and vice-versa) subject to bias; but one could flag certain views as tendentious as well. For example, a NYU sociologist (Paula England) suggests that “Educated mothers are much more likely to work outside the home and to return to work within a year after the birth of a child. They also tend to have fewer children than their less educated counterparts” when this is simply not universal:

1. Many educated mothers, due to the amount of information acquired, are likely to decide to stay at home until their kids are between 10 and 14, before going back to work outside the home
2. It is not uncommon, in the US, to see educated women with more than 3 children
3. In Jewish communities (around the world, but specially in Israel) it is quite common for educated women to have more than 7 children; whereas less educated mothers (because many of them work a lot, in precarious conditions) tend to only have between 1 and 3 children. 

So, who’s the target audience of Ms England? 

The Role of Women, in the 21st century, is as complex a field as the feminine mind. It can’t be linearly addressed and it can’t be discussed over a cocktail of negative emotions. However, of one thing we can be certain: Women’s Role, in free societies, is mainly a question of personal choice.