Women in Wealthier Lands
IN EUROPE and America, during the last century, most men seemed to agree with Charles Darwin that women were inferior, and their freedoms were thus limited. Women received only a limited education and were not allowed to vote. Once they were married, their husbands controlled any wealth they possessed, and most trades and professions were barred to them (although poor women worked long hours in factories, for a smaller wage than men). Morally, they were expected to be innocent and pure—although this was not always expected of their menfolk.
Then women rebelled. After years of struggle, they were finally allowed to vote. Following that, other barriers crumbled. They were given additional educational opportunities and were accepted into professions and trades that formerly were for men only. Today, women are politicians, judges, doctors, lawyers, mechanics, athletes, scientists, company presidents, soldiers and policewomen. The permissive society also allows them to be as “impure” as men, if they wish.
However, some professions are still hard for women to penetrate, while the wages of women remain, on an average, only two thirds those of men. Some women, too, still suffer from the cruelty of men. They are abandoned by their husbands to bring up the children alone. Or they have to work hard to hold the home together, while the husband spends his time drinking, gambling or in other vices. Countless women, too, are raped, and countless wives are severely beaten. Hence, proponents of women’s liberation and others continue to struggle for further changes.
Despite the ongoing struggle, it is undeniable that women now have a lot of opportunities in what used to be a “man’s world.” This is partly because, for the first time in history, married women can control to some extent the size of their families. Hence, they can even choose not to have children, but to devote their lives to a career.
Many appreciate these greater freedoms. But these freedoms have also brought new problems for the 20th-century woman.
How Can You Know . . . ?
A girl who is a freshman at Princeton University said: “Motherhood is important to me. A career is important too. It’s not a pleasant choice.” Another girl put it this way: “It’s almost harder now because you do have a choice. You want to do the right thing. You want to be happy. But how do you know what makes you happy?”—New York Times.
How do women solve this problem? Many sacrifice their careers, stay at home and rear families. One said: “My children are still my first priority. I have put off advancing a career because they are, in my view, the most important contributions I can make to society.” However, some who have made this choice report feeling unhappy at being viewed as “only a housewife.”
Others go the other way. They feel that the career they have in mind is worthwhile, and they sacrifice having a family. Others, again, try both—a family and a career. How is that possible? A woman president of a public relations firm answers: “You can have it all, but be prepared to be always tired.”
The choice is not easy. But even if a woman opts for an interesting career, her problems do not stop there.
They Pay a Price
Dr. Ruth Moulton, a psychoanalyst, said: “Several of my patients have peptic ulcers, something which was formerly mostly confined to males. More of them complain about migraines. And I’ve seen a big increase in allergies, particularly the asthmatic and bronchial kind where the coughing and wheezing are aggravated by anxiety.”
Dr. Hans Selye, an endocrinologist, said that the more women assume jobs formerly delegated to men, “the more women are subject to so-called male diseases, such as cardiac infarctions, gastric ulcers and hypertension. They get the same satisfactions, but at a price.”—Sunday News Magazine (New York).
Thus, as women share men’s prospects, they share his diseases too.
Is This Really Freedom?
The new freedoms also victimize women in hidden ways. The permissive society encourages them to abandon “old-fashioned” morality and be more lax. Modern methods of contraception have removed (to an extent) the threat of unwanted pregnancies, while modern medicine can handle venereal disease (to a degree). Yet young women have found other problems with immorality. There is an emotional toll too.
A woman columnist commented perceptively: “I don’t think it is suited to women to sleep around when they are young because I think that young women are nice, idealistic, warm-hearted creatures who should be developed as people, and not exploited.” She goes on: “Women need to feel valued for themselves and not just for their sexuality . . . Promiscuity, in the end, makes women feel nothing.”—Sunday Telegraph (London).
Sexual harassment is another hazard faced by women as they move into the work force. In the United States, “50 percent or slightly more of the women [in one government department] . . . reported incidents of sexual harassment,” ranging from a leer to rape.—New York Times.
And here are two more problems. The first: when a successful woman comes to earn more money than her husband, the husband is likely to feel challenged and insecure—which can cause severe strains on the marriage. One woman agreed to give up a successful career in real estate because of this.
The second? “Women continue to bear the brunt of domestic and child care responsibilities, even when they are in full time employment and, despite rhetoric to the contrary, there is little difference among social classes. It can in fact be suggested that women have less freedom now than 40 years ago.”—The Guardian (London).
Many women would probably prefer to stay at home. But if they have to help with paying household expenses and then do all the housework, too, they have a heavy burden.
Who Is to Blame?
Hence, while from some points of view the situation of women is better than it used to be, problems remain. Why is that?
Men, of course, share much of the blame. It is men manifesting the “works of the flesh” who harass girls at work or violently rape them. (Galatians 5:19) It is husbands who are “lovers of themselves . . . having no natural affection” who selfishly take advantage of their wives or beat them. (2 Timothy 3:2, 3) Other men are thoughtless, perhaps not realizing that housework is hard, physical labor and that a wife would often welcome some help.
However, tradition and culture are often to blame too. There is a traditional idea that some jobs are “men’s work” and others “women’s work.” Hence, many men are too embarrassed to help out in the home or to do some of the “women’s work” in the fields, for fear of being laughed at.
Additionally, the modern world has to take its share of the blame. It is the modern world that produces the pressures that cause businesswomen (and men) to get ulcers. The modern world produced the “sexual freedom” that victimizes those young girls who are afraid to say No, and winks its eye at harassment on the job. And the modern world produces the situation where a woman has to choose between two very strong desires.
Is there any help with these problems? Yes, there is. Let us introduce you to some women who are able to handle them successfully.