Feel better?
Okay fine. It's my blog and I'll preach if I want to. (Insert smiley with tongue stuck out here, as I'm too lazy to go find the gif).
Greetings,
I'm glad to see my article sparked such a lively response. Though I feel I might have been misunderstood on a few points, I'll write that off to my own poor explanation of my thoughts.
One idea I would like to clarify is on a point you made in your first paragrapgh. You wrote:
"Though you should probably understand that I've already read both Glamour and Cosmo for next month, I'm currently sporting a french manicure and I happen to be wearing a sweater and floral skirt and strappy spike heels, as it's a Friday casual day.
Oh yeah, and I'm a lawyer."
My closet is also lined with floral skirts, strappy shoes, and more dresses than I can wear all year.
In my article, I am not trying to say that women can't be beautiful or shouldn't wear dresses; my point is that it is troublesome when we see young women more concerned about their strappy shoes than their IQ. It's not that women can't have both, many sucessful women do, as it seems you do. But it's probably not your shoes or skirts that make you a good laywer, it's your intelligence. That is what I'm trying to stress when I wrote, "Then the suit became more important than the career."
Again, with the mother staying at home, I have no problem with women being stay-at-home moms, but I believe it is troublesome when it become a trend. It brings into question why women don't feel they can work in the workplace and at home, just like men. And as a sidenote, I feel exactly the same way about stay at home dads as I do about stay at home moms. I believe that we have all been given the ability to contribute both inside and outside our homes.
As for your statistics, you quote an increase from 1983. My very point is that in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s, we were seeing a rise, but since the mid-90s, we have seen these number begin to plateau.
I will give you that the number of women in business has been steadily increasing, and I think this is excellent.
There is still something troublesome though when we see a 4:1 ratio of men to women and engineering and can't seem to move about that mark. I'm not saying engineering is better than business, I'm just saying we need to explore why women aren't entering math and science fields as quickly as they are other field.
I feel very grateful that my piece encouraged this discussion. You seem like a very intelligent woman, and though we may disagree on some points, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your critiques and thinking about some of the many valid points you bring up.
Best regards,
Sasha Kemmet
Sasha -
Thanks for your commentary, it's rare to get anything more than an "oh, yeah?" on any given post.
That said, while I agree that "we have all been given the ability to contribute both inside and outside our homes." I don't necessarily agree that it should be a moral obligation to do so, which I feel your argument implies. I don't have kids myself, but I do know that they can be a full time job in and of themselves.
As a matter of fact, the reason I don't have kids is that I simply do not have the time to devote to them. In a prior incarnation as representative of the state in juvenile court, I ran across too many kids who simply had insufficient parental supervision. They weren't bad kids per se, they just didn't have anyone watching out for them.
In one case, I actually had two perfectly intelligent, capable parents request to make their child a ward of the court because she kept ditching school. When I made a few suggestions about personally escorting her to the school and/or activities, they said they didn't have the time because they both worked. My question: worked for what?? If you can't take the time to fulfill your minimal obligations as a parent, why have kids?
I do agree that women are still not where they should be in the workplace. But to me, the message should be clear that working with children is work and is valid as such. Tearing down one lifestyle to build up another seems counter-productive.
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