Role of men and women

Discussion in 'Culture' started by lisap, Nov 11, 2007.

  1. Lorelai

    Lorelai Member

    Getting back to the original topic, gender roles of men and women:

    Perhaps you've heard American feminists describe Czech gender roles as "backward." I'd like to defend the Czechs in this area. Fifty years ago, American women fought for "equality" but ended up trying to juggle work, children, and housework. My mother believed that she should stay home and raise children, and neither my two siblings nor I were ever placed in daycare. We never returned from school and pulled out a key to let ourselves into an empty house. My mother attended every school performance and athletic event. She knew when I was upset immediately; she knew us better than other kids' parents seemed to know their children. She taught us the benefits of money management and healthy lifestyles. She taught us to act like adults, not to ask government to pay our bills.

    My sister has a Ph. D. and has decided to stay home with her children as well. It is obvious that she would give her life for her children. She was appalled at a recent party when she heard a woman with a premature infant say that she felt the doctor was pressuring her to breastfeed her child. Is it possible we've lost the concept of what it means to be a mother?

    Many American women today are making the same choices Czech women are, if given the option to stay home with their children. I believe the feminist movement has put a wedge between women and their children by making it difficult for women to prioritize their families before their careers. The result is that some children are so abandoned that they don't even speak a language by the time they enter kindergarten, and the problems mount as they grow.
     
  2. Ctyri koruny

    Ctyri koruny Well-Known Member

    None of what you described is feminism or has anything to do with it. Feminism is about equal rights and choice.
    Of course it is wonderful if a parent stays home to raise the child, a feminist is not against this he or she is against the woman feeling obligated to give up work, many fathers are now making this choice and are doing just as good a job raising their children as their wives would have.
    I think I would prefer to stay home with my children if I had any, at least until they started school.. then get a part time job or go back to college. That is my choice, it doesn't mean I'm not sympathetic with feminism.
    The fact is that some women feel that they would be ostracized if they chose to work after having a child, not just in the Czech republic... and as you said that woman felt that she had to breast feed, as if the doctor has some rights and some say about intimate matters between her and her child! As if women are cows and their bodies belong to their milking calves and the calves themselves belong to the farmer! Some people have psychological issues that would make breast feeding emotionally draining for them, or physical issues that make it painful, and some people just prefer not to. This does not make them any less of a mother. Of course there are benefits to breast feeding, but no one should feel pressured into it.

    That word choice is key here! I don't feel that the choice is equal yet. Even now a mother who works and leaves her child in a crèche is criticized, while no one bats an eyelid when a father does the same. This idea that fathers cannot raise their children or should not raise children is insulting to both genders. We should choose our own roles in life and not feel social pressure to go in one direction or another. These idiotic roles stop a couple from feeling comfortable when the wife earns more money than her husband (of course this situation is less likely in the Czech Republic), they stop a husband from giving up his job to mind the children even though his wife makes twice as much as him, somehow she should be the one to give up her job and they should struggle forward with half the money!
    Gender roles are a ridiculous concept in this day and age, there are only people.

    Nonsense! Any time anyone has a difficulty doing that it is not because of feminism it is because of economy, if you want your child to have a bicycle and toys and clothes and dance classes and skiing lessons and a good playschool and food etc. etc. you often need 2 incomes. In the oldern days in Ireland when only one parent was allowed to work the workforce was halved, there was less of everything and people were worried only about putting food on the table, children were starving all over the place and their mothers weren't ALLOWED to work, some mothers would try to lie to get a job so they could feed their children, but if they were caught they'd be fired. This is the other extreme, this is where there is no choice. This is what you are encouraging by frowning at someone who chooses not to breast feed or saying that mothers going to work has resulted in stupid children who can't even speak.
    Let everyone choose their own path and don't be so narrow minded!
    That is all feminist aimed for! A few nuts gave it a bad name.

    This is nonsense, all of my friends with children work or study in college and all of their children can speak well, 2 of them started speaking quite early as well, and one of them is fluent in 2 languages (English and Czech) at only 4 years old, that's with a mother who works full time.
    Many of my friends were raised by single mothers who of course had to work throughout their childhoods, and they are all well balanced highly educated and successful people. Not "asking the government to pay their bills" as you so rudely suggested.
    Your way of life is not the only way of life.
     
  3. Yerusalyim

    Yerusalyim Well-Known Member

    And we see the bias with the intial question...which I didn't notice before...A woman can be "independent" and be a homemaker at the same time.
     
  4. Ctyri koruny

    Ctyri koruny Well-Known Member

    That's very true! Hear hear!
     
  5. pedro1974

    pedro1974 Well-Known Member

    back to the original question, why only in prague?
    is there something new going on? a prague republic soon declared independent?

    and the second request... :shock:

    at least its assumed people in czech rep live/work under a roof
     

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