From: utzoo!decvax!sultan!dag Newsgroups: net.women Title: What is wrong with a woman staying at home? Article-I.D.: sultan.141 Posted: Thu Feb 10 00:58:18 1983 Received: Sat Feb 12 03:19:43 1983 References: tekid.796 >From reading the entries in this newsgroup, I've found that the majority of submitters seem to veiw a woman who chooses to stay at home and be a full-time housewife to be under-privoleged. In the human race, the mother being the primary raiser of children would appear to be as much biological as it is cultural. Many woman don't want a career, or would prefer to forgo a career until their children are raised. This manner of doing things has worked for thousands of years, and I see no reason to attack a man just because he worked at a job outside the home while his wife stayed at home and raised the children. I am sure that he has a hand in raising the children. I do not condemn the woman who has children and chooses to work, but I do comdemn the active discouragement of the more traditional form that seems to be common right now. It is important in the development of a child that the parents take an active role in the raising of the child. Both parents. Recent studies have shown that at very early stages of an infants development, the mothers presence is needed for the infant to develop normally. This is not cultural but biological/psychological. Both the child and the mother react to this situation in a way that is not dictated by culture. I'm going to get flamed for this, I know, but I'm sick of people being closed-minded about the choices that a woman must make for herself. The man who said that his wife and he decided that she should stay at home is not oppressing his wife, no matter how much you say he is. This would appear to have been her choice. I'm single, and if I get married, if my wife and I decide to have children, we will decide what to do then. I won't force her to work, nor will I force her to stay at home. I doubt that I will have the choice, and from what I've seen, I think that for at least the first year, if one of us stays at home, the infant requires a form of mothering that men are not equipped for so the mother will stay. This has been a ramble, and I'll stop it here. I fully expect letters to the effect of: "With attitudes like that, it's no wonder you're single..." or "Spelling like you do shows a genetic disorder that makes you unfit to father an ant let-alone a human child..." or "You sexist &^&*%*$**(()&^%..." I am not considered to have bad attitudes by most of the people who know me, I am known for my open attitudes and my tolerence for other peoples beliefs, but many of the people out on the net don't seem to be. If you must flame me on this, do it via mail. Daniel Glasser (Male) ...!decvax!sultan!dag