There is no institution more attacked and endangered these days than that of the traditional family.
And one of the greatest factors in its demise was the shift in the role of women that came about as the feminist movement claimed to “empower” us and better our lives.
But modern women are more stressed out than ever before — so where’s the “freedom” they promised all those decades ago?
With the exception of the war years of the 1940s, women overwhelmingly stayed at home while their husbands went to work.
Our job was to raise our children and keep the household going – the most important job that any woman can hold.
But there were some who felt they were being held back. They wanted more. They wanted to be “equal” to men.
Feminists like Gloria Steinem promised that women in the future would be able to leave their lives of “drudgery” and build a Utopian society.
The scary thing is, everything Steinem described in her vision of a Utopia back in the 1960s is coming to pass – and it’s everything that’s wrong with the American family today.
Steinem foresaw traditional marriage as becoming a thing of the past as alternative lifestyles became more commonplace. Check.
She dreamed that women would limit the number of children they had so they wouldn’t be “burdened” by their care. She dreamed that homosexual couples would be able to freely marry. Check, and check.
And finally, Steinem envisioned a time in which women would have the same “power” as men. They would go to work, didn’t have to get married, and if they were “inconvenienced” by a pregnancy, abortion would be legal.
This is our reality now, and it has not only destroyed the family, but the true power and purpose of a woman’s role in that family.
Now, couples are faced with tough decisions when it comes to growing their family.
The modern economic structure makes it virtually impossible to have one parent stay home.
Women have to plan out when and if they will have children, and then have to turn them over to someone else’s care to go back to work in a matter of weeks after birth.
Some couples make things work on one income to do what’s best for their children in those early years. Some have no choice but to work multiple jobs to make ends meet.
Sure, we are out there in the workforce now, building our careers and becoming successful by society’s standards, but what have we sacrificed in return?
Stress, exhaustion, and feelings of being overwhelmed, anxious, and depressed are our constant companions.
Even now, women still do the majority of household chores and childcare, often in addition to working a full-time job. And many of us continue to do more with the children and in the home because we feel an instinct to do so.
Traditional families are now mocked, our values pushed aside in favor of the new normal that Gloria Steinem dreamed about.
Women are now looked upon as not meeting their full potential if “all” they ever do is be a stay-at-home wife and mother.
It’s tragic, and most of us are sick and tired of the balancing act.
It will be interesting to see the outcome of more couples working from home during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Will more women see what they are missing as they now must spend every day with their children?
Will we begin to regret the “freedom and equality” the feminist movement gave us as we learn how much happier we are being at home with our families?
Will we have second thoughts about the necessity of that second paycheck, one that is often handed over in childcare costs because we thought we had to have a career to make a difference?
It’s an interesting time we’re going through right now. Families are spending more time together at home due to health concerns.
But it may be a wake-up call for women. We’re burning the candle at both ends at all hours of the day.
And most of us are miserable trying to keep everything afloat.
While Steinem’s Utopia has become a reality, more and more women envision their Utopia as going back to a time before radical feminism.
The freedoms they promised us have become more of a burden, taking away the only experiences that matters the most – being wives and mothers.