[shrinkermd]

This is a long article, but very comprehensive. It surely discusses class differences in women working as well as a host of other issues. I only excerpted it because of its length.

[longtermmemmory]

Polygamy by paycheck. Essentially the career woman picks the second wife as a housekeeper and someone else to raise her children.

[KantianBurke]

Partially sums up as to why today's "women" are deserving of contempt and not of a wedding ring. Not only do they care little about maintaining a stable family environment, in their quest of selfishness they're aiding and abetting our illegal immigrant problem!

[TheSpottedOwl]

That was worth the read. Hehe, poor oppressed Betty Friedan had a cleaning lady? They're all hypocrites!

[68skylark]

I have read enough long, tedious article in the Atlantic for one lifetime. If this article makes any good points, can someone summarize them?

[Tax-chick]

Fascinating. I used to have some coworkers with live-in nannies ... the whole concept boggled my mind, especially when they complained that only economic necessity forced them to work. Once I asked someone, "What do you mean you 'have' to work? Your housekeeper earns as much as I do!" (I was entry-level then ...)

Obviously there's a real class divide of some sort here, because I don't know any stay-at-home mothers who don't do their own housework and child-rearing, no matter how much money they have.

[Montfort]

"Mason writes, The dramatic shift from a manufacturing to a service economy, which occurred in the seventies, rendered the concept of a "family wage," earned by a relatively well-paid union member father, an anachronism. Their husbands' lower wages were driving mothers into the labor market in unprecedented numbers."

In addition, a lot of young couples insist on owning 3000 sf+ sf vinyl houses in nice, suburban neighborhoods, as well as huge, over-priced SUVs, when their own parents raised them in 2000 sf houses and drove Buick Centuries and similarly average cars. (The parents went on to own larger houses, perhaps, but after many more years of waiting).

Also, the availabilty of highly educated women in many fields nust have kept salaries down, too, by adding supply.

[John O]

The more I read this feminist drivel the more I worry about the damge their kids will do to society.

God has blessed me with a wife who knows that her career is to be a wife and mother. She will probably return to work (part time) when the little ones start school (Christian) but she'll be home when they get home.

Childhood is too short to waste on nannies

[squarebarb]

Well, as usual, for a well-off liberal, she leaves out the important things.

---- people are overtaxed, forcing women to work.

---- no amount of Social Security or other government transfer payments will solve people's problems.

----- urban life and schools have completely deteriorated leaving children and women at risk.

----- women's work has changed from production to consumption (women used to raise hens, can food, make clothing, etc.) which had to be more satisfying than rushing around shopping. In fact, homes a hundred or more years ago were like little woman-run factories. Women lost this when they beame 'liberated'.

---- Solution: 1.) abolish IRS and go to a flat tax. 2.) Women should once again aquire a dowry before marriage --- a large chunk of money they can invest or hold until children are older and then use to to re-enter work force. Dowry never to be a part of community property.

-----3.) abolish no-fault divorce.


Thank you, thank you (bows to thunderous applause)

[lady lawyer]

I had 6 children and spent 20 years at home -- without household help, which we could never have afforded on my husband's salary. I sewed and baked and refinished salvaged furniture to make ends meet. But I was able to teach my own values to my children, instead of having them pick up their lessons about life from some minimum wage worker who didn't love them. I didn't have to worry that someone was being unkind to them when they were too tiny and vulnerable to protest.

I went to law school when my youngest started school. I have been very lucky in my work, which has been rewarding in every way that a job can be rewarding. But I can say without any hesitation that nothing I will ever do in my career will matter as much as those children. I'm dismayed that this author seems to minimize the value of a secure childhood spent with a loving mother, instead of day care.

My four daughters and two sons are all married I'm so delighted that all of the moms with small children are staying home with them, and am keeping my fingers crossed that it can continue. If any of them goes to work, it will only be because of economic necessity. But so far, they're all managing.

[JmyBryan]

I see no problem with families hiring nannies.

[Lorianne]

Of course. The primary reason I became an architect was widen the gap between rich and poor and of course to destroy my child's life. Now I see it.

Flanagan is such a dope.

[A. Pole]

What few will admit—because it is painful, because it reveals the unpleasant truth that life presents a series of choices, each of which precludes a host of other attractive possibilities—is that when a mother works, something is lost. Children crave their mothers. They always have and they always will.

Good and depressing article(this quote is from the full version at Atlantic Monthly).