mrs-annie-odair asked: Why shouldn't women strive to do anything they want, though, including things that traditionally have been done by men? I mean, just because something has been traditionally done by a man doesn't mean that it's wrong for a woman to try to do it. If that were true, then it would be wrong for women to go to college, get a job, or do anything other than being a stay-at-home mom. Patriarchy is traditional in this country, yes, but that doesn't mean that it's wrong to try to dismantle it.
Hannah, thanks for the followup. I’m not sure what more to say here, however. I feel like you may have misread me. I don’t think I would really disagree with anything you said. I also feel like I said much of the same in my original response to you.
Just to be clear, I’ll elaborate a bit. I absolutely feel like women should be able to strive to do anything they want. That’s part of equality, right? As I said in my original response, I believe women should have the same opportunities as men. Though I feel some traditions are helpful, I don’t think tradition needs to or should play a role in determining what men and women pursue in their lives. I don’t believe I ever mentioned tradition in my original post, mainly for that exact reason.
In my post I was merely pointing out that I believe men and women are absolutely equal in worth and personhood but we’re different in many ways, the way we think and the way our bodies are built being only two. As such, there’s going to be things women are more suited to and men are more suited to. That doesn’t mean that we don’t all still have the opportunity, that just means we’re different. I was only making the point to show that equality doesn’t mean sameness.
I only want to touch on two things you said in closing. First, though I’m not saying that you meant it this way, I just want to make clear that I view a mother’s choice to be a homemaker as something to be praised. I feel that choice is too often looked down upon in our culture now and I think that’s a shame. Anyone that says that’s a lowly or worthless pursuit or one that requires no skill needs to give it a shot for a while. That’s an amazing undertaking and incredibly hard job.
Second, I would want to be careful with the use of the term patriarchy. I definitely don’t agree with a patriarchal society structure but I don’t think it’s fair to say that we have one in this country. A true patriarchy would mean that men would be the only authorities, with father’s having authority over women, children and property and men having rule and privilege. Legally and in practice none of that is true of our country. There might be men that think they’re better than women but that doesn’t mean we have a patriarchy, that just means we have men that are idiots.
