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Yes, I do think that women should be guaranteed enough time off to physically recover from birth. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that the US provide 6 weeks paid leave for all new mothers so they can recover, establish breastfeeding and bond with their new babies. I think that would be a good place to start.
For me personally, I was lucky and had an excellent employer who gave me 14 weeks off unpaid with each baby. I was also lucky enough to be in a financial position to be able to make it without my salary for 1/3 of the year each time. Nationally, most women do not have this option. I know teachers who had to go back days after giving birth because they were in districts that did not do contracts longer than a school year, and other women who could not afford to take more than a couple weeks off. That's a travesty.
The fact that this is considered unusually generous and lucky by American standards is pretty sad, when considering that 6+ months of paid parental leave is the law in almost every other country other than Papua New Guinea.
Well, if those who threw that as an insult had their way, there'd be absolutely no public social safety net. Meaning that you'd best be a multimillionaire if you want to ensure that you can pay for any worst case scenario situation that could come up.
So in their ideal world, almost no one should be having kids. And then how would women live up to their "purpose"?
A long tedious thread was created that suggests that women are less happy as a result of feminism.
While women may be less happy for a number of reasons, I doubt the suggestion that their level of "happiness" is due to some evolutionary need to be subservient and wonder if women would turn back the clock, if possible.
I've included both "male" and "female" choices because it might be amusing.
I was hoping you would define the term "feminism" to make the poll more accurate.
Keep in mind that some radical feminists define feminism as who supports vs. opposes abortion on demand. Aside from the various nuances regarding this one subject, many members of NOW and all members of NARAL believe abortion is the single most important aspect of the term. Thus you cannot be a feminist if you oppose abortion.
I would never use the term feminist to describe myself, because it has been co-opted by the radicals, in much the same way the term gay has been co-opted by the homos.
As a hetero male, I think of myself as being for women's equality, and a defender of women against male aggression and sexual harassment. However I cannot use the term feminist, because of how the radicals have helped to besmirch the meaning of the term.
The women who fought the good fight like the suffragettes hardly have anything in common with radical lesbians and leftist women who only care about abortion and sexual "freedom" of today.
Being female and of an age (63) where I saw firsthand some of the indignities and inequalities of the pre-feminist era, I would never turn back the clock. I would, however, have liked to turn the clock forward, so that I did not have to grow up in that extremely confusing in-between time.
It was very difficult coming out of a sexually repressed time and suddenly being told, "Go for it!" I didn't really want to "go for it" but I felt as pressured by popular media, etc. to go be sexually free as family members only 10 or so years older than I had felt pressured by family and church to be untouched prior to marriage. And although we were told we were equal to men and should have equal rights and pay, those ideals did not play out in the world around us, so it was frustrating.
I think that perhaps some younger people these days (boy, I am old, aren't I--get off my lawn!), especially women, do not understand fully what it was like to want to take a Shop class in high school just once instead of Home Ec and not be allowed to do so because Shop was only for boys, or to not be able to participate in sports because prior to Title 9 there was never money in the school budget for girls' athletics. Or to have a prospective male boss say, "Stand up, Honey, and turn around," because he wants to see the rear view before he decides whether he wants to hire you. Or, like my mom, to know that if you get pregnant (even though you are married and do a great job) you will have no job after you start to show, because it's office policy to fire pregnant women.
The feminist movement wasn't perfect, but it was sorely needed. Seriously, turn it back? That must be something some men dream of, but for a woman, it would be a nightmare.
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