Reply #96: We're human beings, not human doings.

[Toucano]

Defining ourselves by what we "do" is pathetic.

The question for me is much larger than stay-at-home-mom, gender roles, and stereotyping.

It's about what we VALUE.

Your acquaintance is saying that participation in the world of commerce is more valuable than human development.

To say that commerce is more valuable than people is an obscenity that belies a great contradiction of contemporary society that has lead to a plethora of problems.

When you believe that commerce is more valuable than people:

1. You are willing to spend tons of money on bombs and guns while schools crumble and teachers are demonized.



2. You are willing to invade other countries and kill people to take their resources.



3. The low cost of consumer goods is more important than the cost of the suffering and exploitation required to produce the low cost.



4. Closing a profitable facility and putting an entire town out of work makes perfect sense if it produces 2% more revenue.



5. The value of everything is monetized. A tree has more value at the saw mill than it does in the forest because a stick of lumber is monetized immediately; clean air can't be monetized until the future.



6. Robbing investors is acceptable because their money is the commodity that endures. Their lives are transient.

In regard to the role of women, the goal was to free women of restraints and limitations imposed on them, not to impose different restraints and limitations.

Your acquaintance doesn't VALUE the contributions a homemaker makes. It's really that simple.

As long as women can expect to leave their homes every morning and bring home 80 cents on the dollar, I'm surprised anyone tolerates the necessity of both partners working outside the home.