Carol Platt Liebau: Just Not Getting It

Friday, April 27, 2007

Just Not Getting It

Linda Hirshman seems to think that even mothers with small children can be induced to stay in the workforce if the tax code is changed.

Even if forcing women to march off to work and hand over their little ones to a crowd of "child care providers" were a good idea (which it isn't), Hirshman's theory overlooks one important point: The fact that many of the women leaving the workforce to care for children actually want to do it.

After all, a young female law partner may realize that she's easily replaced -- almost anyone can draft that document or argue that case. There's only one place she's truly indispensable . . . as the mother of her own children.

Hirshman writes:

New mothers with husbands in the top 20 percent of earnings work least, the report notes. . . So they also have more freedom to leave their jobs. But why do they take the option? It’s easier in the short term, sure, but it’s easier to forgo lots of things, like going to college or having children at all. People don’t — nor should they — always do the easier thing.

This is radical feminist myth-making at its worst. Is it really easier to stay home with one's children -- and tend to the needs of others 24/7 -- than it is to put on some fashionable clothes and head out of the house to hobnob with adults all day while earning money for doing so?

Ask some stay at home moms, Linda. Perhaps they can set you straight.

2 Comments:

Blogger Wile E Coyote said...

"Work least"???

My stay-at-home wife puts in 18-hour days nurturing three children and a husband who occasionally forgets to put the toilet seat down.

To paraphrase Lincoln, Hirshman has her headquarters where her hindquarters should be.

8:31 AM  
Blogger Marshal Art said...

Carol. You have no idea what women want or need. Linda will tell you EXACTLY what you should want. And you'll like it!

11:56 AM  

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