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J.McKenzieSelf
Mrs.Scaife
Composition18:00
20November2015

DomesticFeminism

Whether you are talking about women in the workforce or abortion, womens rights has
become a household topic in our country today. Women have slowly moved from gaining the
right to vote to working outside of the home to getting
somewhat equally paying jobs. Because
women have moved from the homefronttotheworkforce,thecontroversyofdomesticfeminism
has become extremely popular and one in which I take a stand on being a firm believer that
women are not the only ones responsible for making the household run smoothly, especially
whenshehasacareerofherown.
Domestic feminism is defined as
apoliticalmovementthatbeguninthelate19thcentury
in order to campaign against women's suffrage in the United States. Domestic feminists
advocated that women should work only in the home. Starting in 1960, many more women
started to work outside of the home. These changes have resulted in womenworkingoncareers
on top of caring for their household and rearing children. Why are women the only ones tofeel
that responsibility? Why do men feel as if they are not responsible for taking care of the
homefront?DonaldMiller,authorof
DonaldMillersMemoirofGrowingUpwithoutaDad,
has been aiming to raise awareness to the public about the significant dangers of growing up
without a father present in a childs life. Miller says in his memoir, Iamconvincedthatwithin
twenty years, we can shut downprisonsbecausewehaveprovidedpositivemalerolemodelsfor

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kids who would otherwise be headed for trouble, Research has shown that children who grow
up with an active father in their life teaches them discipline, helps them stay out of juvenile or
jail, and enhances the childsintellectualdevelopment.Theytendtoscorehigher on measuresof
verbal and mathematical ability and also demonstrate greater problemsolving and social skills.
(TFFA) That research alsoshowshavingbothparentsinvolvedinthechildslifealsopromotesa
healthy gender identity in a child. They learn howtoliveandbecomfortablewithbothsexes,in
and outside ofthehome.Sinceweseethis positiveaspectofhavingmenactivelyinvolvedinthe
rearing of their children, do they actually partake in raising the child(ren)s life?Accordingtoa
1999

University of

Maryland
parents

study,
were asked

about certain roles that

should be taken on by
which

individual

parent. The results are

shown in
Figure 1
.
Based on the opinions
from the mothers and fathers that participated in the study, mothers are more involved in every
aspect of the childs life. With this evidence men should start to stand up and become more
involvedintheirhomelife.Theresponsibilityofthehomeisnotsolelyreliantonthemother.
Today, women are encouraged to gotocollegeandstartcareersoftheirown,butwomen
are still not getting equal treatment in the workforce because therestillis apaygap.Womenare

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getting paid 78 cents to every dollar made by men. There has beenagreatcontroversyoverthis
here recently. Women feel as if they shouldreceivethesamepayasmen,buttheydonotrealize
that they are not receiving the same pay because their workdiffersdrastically.Womenaremore
susceptible toworkingintemporary
positions or as secretaries, as you
can see in
Figure 2
. (Womens
Bureau) These positions are not
long termanddonotrequirealotof
strenuouswork,sotheyare nothigh
paying jobs. Research shows that
women tendtoworklesshoursthan
men, resulting in a pay cut. Career women, who are also mothers, do this because of their high
demand of responsibility at home. Their careers have to suffer because of their choice to be a
caregiver, as well as a breadwinner. This is where men should pick up the slack. They should
help outathomemoresotheir wivescanspendmoretimeworkingandnotworrysomuchabout
what needs to be taken care of on the homefront. Gender roles can also play into this argument
quite a bit. Women have more of a nurturing and caregiving nature, so more women lean
towards humanity type interestssuch as teaching or becoming nurseswhich are lower paying
jobs. (Womens Bureau) While men are trying to satisfy the breadwinning pride and go for
higherpayingjobsthatarealotlesspersonableandcompassionatelawyersandITspecialists.
Gender roles have a lot to do with the way our society thinks things shouldbedone,not
just describing our career personalities. Anne Marie Slaughter talked in a TED Talk about how

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gender equality is a must.Hertalk,called
Canweallhaveitall?
,discussedhow,asasociety,
we can change our values and belief systems for caregiving and breadwinning. Slaughter stated
in her talk,
Real equality means recognizing that the work that women havetraditionallydone
is just as important as the work that men have traditionally done nomatterwhodoesit,
We
need to show equality in our relationships, so our children have a good example for healthy
relationships because there
is evidence of children
being happier and healthier
(Figure

3).

Slaughter

emphasized that in order

for our society to change,
we need to socially accept
women in the workforce,
with the Paycheck Fairness
Act, but also men who want to stay at home. Why do we criticize men who want to do a
womans job. Why do we have labels on what awomansjobisandwhatamansjobis?Our
society needs to stop labeling those duties. Breadwinning and caregiving should be equal jobs
amongst mothers and fathers. Men should be as actively involved in rearing children aswomen
andwomenshouldbeasactivelyintheworkforceasmen.
My stance on domestic feminism is obviously negative. I believe women should not
solely work in the home and not solely responsible for making sure the home and children are
taken care of. They should have the choice and freedom to have a career and men should have

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more of an active role in making the household run smoothly. Many people are domestic
feminists, and believe that women should only be responsible for running the household and
child rearing, while men are the breadwinners. Studies shown that career moms children have
higher IQs and intelligence development. (Miller) The study was done across 25 countries, 69
percent of women with a working mother were employed, and 22 percent were supervisors,
compared with 66percentand18percentofthosewhosemothersstayedhome.Thedaughtersof
these women earned six percent more than daughters of women who were stay at home moms.
The sons of these women also benefitedbecausetheyspentonehouraweekmoretakingcareof
family members than those who were notrearedbycareermoms.Thisgoestoshowthatthereis
more of an incentive for children who are reared by two workingparentsandwhymorewomen
shouldbeintheworkforce by creatingwellroundedchildrenthattakeonpartsof societythatare
notconsideredthenormfortheirgenderroles.
Domestic feminism needs to die off, to put it bluntly. Women should not be confinedto
their homes just to rear children and take care of household chores. Women have fought over a
century, and are still fighting today, for the freedoms of doing whatever they want with their
lives. Women are not solely responsible for the upkeep of their home and the rearing of their
children. Children thrive when they have an active father in their life and reared by two loving,
working parents. There are so many benefits to men being activeinhome lifeandwomenbeing
active in the workforce. It creates a better society for all of us to live in. Lets get rid of labels
andchangeourwayofthinkingasasociety.

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WorksCited

CanWeAllHaveItAll?
AnneMarieSlaughter:
Web.21Nov.2015.
<https://www.ted.com/talks/anne_marie_slaughter_can_we_all_have_it_all>
HowInvolvedAreFathersInRaisingChildren?
HowInvolvedAreFathersinRaising
Children?
Web.19Nov.2015.
<http://www.prb.org/publications/articles/2000/howinvolvedarefathersinraisingchildren.as
px>
Miller,ClaireCain.MountingEvidenceOfAdvantagesforChildrenofWorkingMothers.
The
NewYorkTimes
.TheNewYorkTimes,2015.Web.21Nov.2015.
<
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/upshot/mountingevidenceofsomeadvantagesfor
childrenofworkingmothers.html?_r=1
>
Moore,KristinA.,AndreaKinghorn,andTawanaBandy."ChildTrendsResearchBrief:
ParentalRelationshipQualityandChildOutcomesAcrossSubgroups."
PsycEXTRA
Dataset
(2011):n.pag.Web.
TwentyReasonsWhyaChildNeedsAnActiveFather.
TheTexasFosterFamilyAssociation
.
N.p.,2014.Web.19Nov.2015.
<http://www.tffa.org/2014/01/21/20reasonswhyachildneedsanactivefather/>
Vagianos,Alanna.AnneMarieSlaughter:'CanWe<Em>All</Em>HaveItAll?'.
The
HuffingtonPost
.TheHuffingtonPost.com,n.d.Web.21Nov.2015.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/17/annemarieslaughtertedtalk_n_4978628.ht
ml>
Women'sBureauQuickStatsOnWomenWorkers,2010.
Women'sBureauQuickStatson

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WomenWorkers,2010
.Web.20Nov.2015.
<http://www.dol.gov/wb/factsheets/qswomenwork2010.htm>