Mothers, Motherhood Quotes
There was a movement to pay married women who were housewives to compensate them for the time they spend in, if nothing else, educating and bringing up male children who were educated. It was they who transmitted the values and many experts agree have more to do with a child’s education than the schools do. So this important and critical societal task was not remunerated as were all others. At the time, even many of the feminists held the view that society would be better off if women were homemakers and brought up the children. However, without any pay (and at the time few or no rights to a husbands earnings of assets) she was bound to be a second class citizen. That idea of housewife compensation obtained almost no support, and the only way for women to gain some kind of position and equality was to work outside the home—the condition that became the norm about 30 years after this was written.
The issue of women working or homemaking has been in controversy for the last century. This quotation illustrates the classic view that was held not only by Mormons but other denominations and even some secular advocates of the importance of a full time homemaker for the upbringing of children. Nonetheless, the economic pressure, together with changing notions of gender equality, have a larger and larger proportion of women working outside the home. Historically, this has been more common in poorer families but currently is common in middle and upper class families.
Mrs. Roosevelt made issues national by the use of her daily column which was a type of blog with newspapers. Here she focused on a major health problem. At the time, Mrs. Roosevelt saw this as a women’s issue which of course it was. Government spent large sums of money to minimize or prevent death of men in war, but almost nothing on the problem of women’s death in childbirth despite the fact that many more women were killed than men. Unfortunately, while not to the same degree or proportion, the problem is still with us. With our wonderful modern medicine, we have increased the lifespan of most Americans markedly, but there are still many women who receive no prenatal care or counseling with the negative consequence.
Most modern feminists would not agree with this quotation by one of the great early femonists.
