When have women not worked toward
something…that is when have they not courageously and/or tirelessly worked to
uphold a standard of living or lifestyle? There was the industrious housewife
of the colonial period.[1] the brave nurses and female workers and fighters
during the civil war.[2] the women who worked (or worked hard not to work) to
keep a 20-inch waist and clean hems. [3] Female slaves who risked everything to
free their families and others from the bonds of slavery.[4] Think of the women
who belonged to the Temperance and Suffrage movements of the early 1900’s.[5] All
the way to the confined middle class housewives of the 1950’s working to uphold
the “happy housewife standard” or the boycotting African American women of the
South against the Jim Crow laws who led the way for the Civil Rights
movement.[6] Of course, don’t forget the efforts of the women during the
Women’s Liberation movement of the 1960’s and early 1970’s.[7] When have women
not stayed busy with the expectations and/or injustices of their time?
The irony of the late 20th and
early 21st centuries, is that women who have more rights and
freedoms than ever before in America’s history, are still working tirelessly to
meet some new end that may never be met. Gail Collins describes the modern day
goals women have, which are to become “self-sufficient” as well as the desire
(for many but not all) to “work and then a lengthy break to raise the family,
followed by a second-stage career that would soar.” Why do women seem to reach
for the unreachable and aren’t satisfied unless they have “had the chance to
try” to make it the reality? Collins gives a great quote from a story found in Time magazine, stating: “[A]s women have
gained more freedom, more economic power, they have become less happy.” [8] The
question is…will women ever be happy?
In the late 20th century and
into the modern day, parenting has attracted “little social respect” and the
placement of the family, as a “social priority,” seems to drop lower and lower
on the list. As a whole, maybe women’s lack of happiness is influenced by this
gap between career and family (or work and love). Stephanie Coontz points out
this developing “career mystique” that not only affects women, but men as
well.[9] Jobs seem to require more and more effort and time from its employees
while the majority of men and women would rather be doing something else (like
raising a family and/or enjoying their free time). Coontz explains that most
people “would choose free time over money,” and that maybe the next step (or
true happiness) lies in the ability to embark in “shared parenting” which might
call for the true equality of the sexes sought for from the beginning.[10] Then
again, no matter how women try, expectations and goals for a better life seem
to fade into some new shortage or dilemma. As Gail Collins explains, “if the
sky is the limit, most people would feel they had fallen short,” and therefore
happiness (in regards to the ideal life) may not be a realistic goal.[11]
This proclamation was made by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the family in the mid-1990's stating just what the family means to those of the mormon faith. As the role of women has changed so drastically throughout history, this document is used as a standard to help LDS members define the woman's role and the importance of family. Thought it might be interesting to post. Click Here
1. Gail
Collins, America’s Women: 400 Years of
Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines, (Harper Perennial, New York, 2003),
49.
2. Collins,
197-203.
3.
Collins, America’s
Women, 122.
4.
Collins,
America’s Women, 157.
5.
Collins, America’s
Women, 314-322.
6.
Collins, America’s
Women, 400, 414.
7.
Gail Collins, When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women From
1960 to the Present, (Back Bay
Books, New York, 2009), 178-181.
8.
Collins, When
Everything Changed, 409.
9.
Stephanie Coontz, A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the
Dawn of the 1960’s, (Basic Books, New York, 2011), 183.
10. Coontz,
A Strange Stirring, 186.
11. Gail
Collins, When Everything Changed: The
Amazing Journey of American Women From 1960 to the Present, (Back Bay Books, New York, 2009), 409.
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