Women's Progress: A Simple Solution

[Southpaw Bookworm]

From the Chronicle of Higher Education:

The confirmation hearings of John G. Roberts Jr. certainly raised their share of contentious issues, from privacy rights to the limits of executive-branch powers. When the subject turned to the rights of working women, however, the conversation harked predictably back to a bygone era.

In response to questions from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Roberts defended his record of supporting working women. He proudly told Feinstein that he often gave woman lawyers on his staff flexible hours and time off to care for children and handle household needs. But like so many men in senior executive positions, Roberts just doesn't get it. In proclaiming how pro-working-woman he is, Roberts rattled off the best practices of the 80s. He acted as if he were doing women a favor by giving them time off from their job to raise the next generation or handle the daily chores necessary in every household. It was clear Roberts believes domestic duties remain a woman's job, and that enlightened men can help by giving women time off to do their jobs at home. "Giving" women time for child care and household needs is nice, but rests on the assumption that all such work is women's work. Roberts missed the chance to encourage men on his staff to share equally in those tasks, thereby creating a more level playing field both at work and at home.

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It doesn't take another task force to figure out the solution. What it will take, however, is men's strength and personal integrity, to deal with an issue that most of them would rather avoid. It's called equal partnership, and it starts at home. How's that for family values?

American men spend no more time on housework today than they did in 1985, and only four more hours of housework per week than they did 40 years ago, according to a 2002 report from the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

When men "help" by doing only a fraction of the work at home, they send a powerful message to women and their daughters: Your paycheck is welcome, but your status as equals is not. Why do we continue to accept this injustice when society so desperately needs the intellectual abilities, values, and leadership that women provide? As men, we should be asking what each of us can do personally to confront this problem.

Continued at: http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i07/07b01601.htm