No legacy is so rich as honesty - William Shakespeare

Monday, March 14, 2005

It’s a bad day to be a radical feminist.

They are the generation of women who grew up expecting to have it all. No longer forced to choose between children and a career, they were set to embrace superwomanhood by doing both - while holding down a perfect relationship and keeping a spotless home in their spare time.

But modern woman has taken a reality check. The average 29-year-old now hankers for a return to the lifestyle of a 1950s housewife. The daughters of the “Cosmo” generation of feminists want nothing more than a happy marriage and domestic bliss in the countryside, according to a survey.

Research into the attitudes of 1,500 women with an average age of 29 found that 61 per cent believe “domestic goddess” role models who juggle top jobs with motherhood and jet-set social lives are “unhelpful” and “irritating”. More than two-thirds agree that the man should be the main provider in a family, while 70 per cent do not want to work as hard as their mother’s generation. On average, the women questioned want to “settle down” with their partner by 30 and have their first child a year later.

Vicki Shotbolt, deputy chief executive of the National Family and Parenting Institute, said: “This is the generation of young women who have seen the ‘have it all’ ethos up close and personal, and they have realised that it doesn’t work.

“Their own mothers may have tried to juggle motherhood and careers, and it may have been the children who feel they lost out ... I think women really are coming of age now, and are accepting that it is virtually impossible to have it all.”

And after decades of soaring divorce rates and a rise in births outside marriage, it appears the next generation of mothers is reverting to more traditional social mores.

Nine out of 10 young women would rather be married when they have children, while 75 per cent believe that modern couples do not make enough effort to stay together.

A quarter of those questioned intend to give up work and be a full-time mother when they start a family, with just 1 per cent saying their career will remain a “top priority” once they have children.

Women are finally starting to realize what men have kn own for years: “having it all” is an illusion and always has been.  Men who are corporate CEOs and in other executive positions have to make huge sacrifices on the home front.  They don’t get to spend as much time with their children as they might if they worked a regular 9-5 job.  My father worked in the oil business, and he was gone for months at a time.  He would have much rather been home with his wife and sons, coaching little league and teaching us how to fish.  But there were certain sacrifices that needed to be made in order to put a roof over our heads and he was prepared to make them.  Women, who have been told since birth that they can “have it all” are starting to realize just how utterly fallacious this idea is.

Feminists heads are exploding.  I remember seeing a report along these lines on 60 Minutes a few months ago, about educated professional women who were choosing families over careers, and some shrill feminist harpy was wailing about how these women were selling out the ideals that their predecessors had worked so hard for.  Being a woman, apparently, doesn’t mean that you have a choice in how you want to live your life, you have to battle against the fascist patriarchy.

Dumbasses.  Perhaps these women staying home will produce a better generation of kids.  We can only hope.