Working and Women

Last week an article appeared in The New York Times that really caught my attention. The article, by Frank Bruni, was called ‘Working and Women’, it was written in response to the comment Hilary Rosen made about Mitt Romney’s wife recently and hits on what seems to be the view many people, including myself, currently have about stay-at-home moms.

I’ve always considered myself a feminist at heart but after reading this article I realized my views were way off. Bruni writes about his childhood growing up with a stay-at-home mom. Although his father was the one financially supporting the family his mother was really the one who was running things. She made all the major decisions and took care of the bills as well as the house and kids. He also mentioned how his mother was often criticized by women who did work for wasting her college degree “performing [such a] servile or trivial task”. Her response? “I haven’t turned my back on my education, I use it daily to make my home the center of learning it should be”.

What she said really struck a nerve with me. She, after all, was right. I’ve always thought women can and should do whichever career they choose. Well, what if this career is running an entire household? If a woman chooses to stay home and raise a family we shouldn’t look at it as turning her back on her education or copping out as so many do. She is choosing to be the CEO of her own family business in a sense except what she is choosing is a job where there is no 9 to 5, or vacation days, or pay for that matter. This is a 24/7 and often thankless job yet many women go into it whole heartedly and I think they deserve a lot more praise than just a card on Mother’s Day.