I believe that as a result of those years of radical social change that women, men, families, and all of society have been harmed by the abandonment of the traditional division of labor model of family economics. The forces of Business that harnessed this fresh flood of new (cheaper) labor (meat) in the job market,, that was partially due to the 'Women's Lib' movement. Think about it. Businesses could and did (and still do) pay women a fraction of the wages they would pay a man. Supply and demand being what it is, the economic pressure of lower wages for women led to the consequence of lower wages for men. It is a vicious cycle, especially when you throw in the consumerism that has left so many of us in credit card shackles, and there you have it - today's society, filled with commuters, day care children, drive through meals and bags of clothes going to the dry cleaner that you could actually wash and iron at home - if you were ever there. But you aren't, you are trying to hold on to your job, trying to cover all of your kids' activities, and squeeze as many chores into an always too short weekend (1:00 pm on Sunday was always the saddest moment of the week for me when I was working; it was the moment I realized how close Monday loomed).
This is not how women used to have to work. Every woman who works for income knows that the "Second Shift," a well-documented examination of the 30 extra 24 hour days a woman puts in at home doing work is no joke. Before women entered the market place for income we had: more money, more time, more enduring marriages, happier and healthier children, more time for volunteering, and more stable lives, including the strong relationships we built with our children that made them grateful to care for us in our old age. Now we earn income and our young children go to daycare where they get to have the experience of being abandoned every day. We eat crap food that costs more to buy than to cook at home, resulting in fatter us and thinner wallets. We commute, adding pollution to our environment. We spend money on transportation and clothing that would not be necessary if we did not work to earn income. We pay taxes on our wages, which are already substantially lower than men with comparable jobs and responsibilities; when we worked in our homes 100% of our work effort devolved unto only our families, now we support a government that is as fat as our children. And our relationships with our children? Well, who would you rather have looking after you in your old age? Strangers or family? Right. I'm sure that is how our children feel every day when they are abandoned to 'do their time' in the kid dump.
We are trapped, and we need to make a conscious decision to find and make a way out of this terrible existence which has come with the advent of the double-income family.
