Consequences. Those are what are liberal social engineering friends rarely worry about when making plans to re-form society in their image. Of course, no one considered how abortion and lower birth rates could rack the social security system which assumes ever-increasing birthrates to support retirees. Allison Wolf, a professor at King’s College in London has an article in Prospect that’s worth reading.
Ms. Wolf focuses on the fact that there are negative consequences of women’s increasing role in the work force. While acknowledging that this move has created great opportunities and benefits, Wolf says there are some consequences that are less discussed:
Three consequences get far less attention than they deserve. The first is the death of sisterhood: an end to the millennia during which women of all classes shared the same major life experiences to a far greater degree than did their men. The second is the erosion of “female altruism,” the service ethos which has been profoundly important to modern industrial societies—particularly in the education of their young, and the care of their old and sick. The third is the impact of employment change on childbearing. We are familiar with the prospect of demographic decline, yet we ignore, sometimes wilfully, the extent to which educated women face disincentives to bear children.
Now, the first issue speaks for itself. The second point is something the Professor goes into later in the article, but women used to spend a lot of time volunteering, because they had free time between while the husband was at work and the kids were at school, or they had jobs which could be left at a moment’s notice if a crisis arrived (like the volunteer force of women in vital support roles in the World Wars.)
She writes a little more about this in regards to education and health care:
Schools have been the big losers. Among girls born in Britain in 1970, about one in ten of those scoring in the top academic decile chose teaching as a career. By the early 1990s, American girls in this top 10 per cent were less than one fifth as likely to become teachers as their 1964 counterparts had been. In health, the pattern is more complex. Many of the ambitious women who once became ward sisters and hospital matrons now look elsewhere, but offsetting this are the growing number of women doctors and specialists.
Does any of this matter? The first century of professional paid work for women saw traditional female concerns move into the public sphere. If the able women of 70 or 100 years ago entered classrooms and hospital wards merely because nothing else was available, they would have brought little commitment to their work, and greater choice would clearly have benefited them and society alike. But this is not how it was. These women mostly saw their jobs as a vocation. Many of them lived in a world which took for granted such duty and service to others. They shared an openly expressed idealism, and a belief that their jobs mattered—especially to the future of other women.
The relative decline of these values and the number of such service-oriented women is sometimes cited as a reason for the perceived deterioration in health and education services, despite the far greater sums of money being spent on them (see “A Public Realm” by Nicholas Timmins and Barry Cox, Prospect, July 2001). The apparent decline of a specifically female public service ethos is impossible to measure but is surely connected to the retreat of religious belief.
Wow, a fascinating point, here. When everything becomes about money and grabbing the brass ring, it becomes a problem. In the past, we had a lot of citizens who were helping carry the load, women. What’s happened to is that a lot of this compassion work gets shoved on the state, or you have classrooms full of people who could care less. Its a pretty bad situation.
The birth rate thing issue is interesting, because native Britainers aren’t even reproducing at a replacement birth rate which is why they’re being overwhelmed by immigrants.
The question is what to do about it. Clearly Professor King is not an advocate of Chuavanism. She’s got around 30 years of experience as a College Professor. You can’t force people to be full-time stay at home moms. Its simply not the job of government or anyone else to force people to be stay at home mothers or to change their career patterns.
There are some things, I see that society can minimally do:
1) Education
I think education is key in this. When you talk about having a “career day” or something like that, I’d suggest inviting a Stay at Home mom. My wife when she went to school felt a lot of pressure to get into a career, even though she felt no inclination towards a full-time career. I also think it should be viewed as legitimate if the guy stays home, if that’s the dynamics of the relationship.
I think you need to be in the busines of giving people options. It could also be helpful to give people education on a variety of life choices, good, bad, and indifferent. Let girls see the positives and negatives of not having kids, working full time with kids, working part time with kids, and staying at home. Then, if you want girls to be truly empowered, let them make their own decision.
2) Financial Intelligence
The UPI Story where I found this article referenced, included this fact:
A recent survey found that only 6 percent of working mothers actually want to work full time. The rising cost of living, with soaring energy, taxes and mortgages, has forced many women to work.
The Cost of Living soars in many cases because we choose to live way above our means. We need to get some common sense back into our financial management. We spend without thinking, build up obligations that require both people to work full-time, and then deal with the consequences later.
A little more Financial Intelligence and those women who are being forced to work full-time wouldn’t have to.
3) Bring Back the Family Wage. Henry Ford introduced the concept of the Family Wage at his auto plant, with this reasoning:
Ford announced that he was raising the minimum rate paid to many of his workers from $2.80 per day to $5 per day. Qualifying employees were “all married men living with and taking good care of their families,” single men age 23 and over with “proven thrifty habits,” and men under age 23 and women “who are the sole support of some next-of-kin as blood relative.” Ford said, “The man does the work in the shop, but his wife does the work in the home. The shop must pay them both.” Ford Motor Company’s hiring practices excluded married women, reasoning that if its wages allowed a man to provide for his wife and children, it made no sense to hire those dependents.
Except for the last part, the policy a lot of sense in modern day America. I think it falls upon conscientous shareholder to band together and to get such policies implemented, with the obvious understanding that if a woman is working and the husband’s staying at home, than the same thing should apply.
Retention is a huge problem for employers, it also becomes a bone of contention with things like daycare. How many times does an employer have someone not show up because there was a problem at day care. Companies that implement this type of thing will see retention rise which is always a challenge.
If you can create a culture like this, where a Family Wage is as much an expected part of a good job as a 401(k) or Health Insurance, you’ll have really taken a big step forward to giving people choice as to whether they stay home. Its not something government should do, but I believe we, the shareholders of America’s corporations should demand it. Its going to be good for families, its going to be good for people, and the end, its going to be good for business.
4) Reform our Culture
Lets admit it, we’re an incredibly selfish culture. We value things more than people. Comfort more than God, and ourselves above all. Its not that women are incredibly selfish winches or irresponsible. We’re all to blame.
We need attitude adjustments, to once again realize the importance of great principles. Idealism and an understanding of the things that matter most must be renewed, or all other reforms will be merely cosmetic.
Linked to Blue Star Chronicles, Stuck on Stupid
