by Chris R.W.

Created on: October 27, 2009

Women still do not have a choice between work and family, because society still attaches the family to the multitude of duties a woman must be responsible for. A woman in today's society can choose between having a family and working while still being expected to do a majority of childcare duties, or they can choose a career and no family at all. While American society has been making great strides since the 60's, when before then women had no legitimate economic opportunities to insure independence, but women still are not able to have a family and choose to work instead of childcare responsibilities because of the societal connection that associates childcare and housework primarily with women.

Suggesting that women had decent economic opportunity in relative to men prior to the 1960's is absolutely shameful. Only a person completely devoid of any knowledge of the history of American society could ever even dream of making such an absurd statement that women had even the opportunity for a career that a man could have. Women had no opportunities for any positions that had any responsibility or controls as a duty of the job, and none that could insure women an independent place in society without a husband. Period. Women were restricted to menial, low wage work and always, always, always were placed under men in the workplace. It is outrageous to suggest that because living standards have been raised that this is the reason woman must work and cannot remain at the home full time talking care of their children because of financial circumstances, and even more absurd to suggest that anytime before the 1960's women could legitimately choose between a family and work.

Fortunately, legal protections now enable a woman to have a career just as any man could and have a sustainable place in society as an independent individual. But if a working woman chooses to have a family, undoubtedly the woman will be expected to do more than half of the childcare and housework chores. The good news is this is only a societal structure that remains from an oppressive and sexist past, which means individuals, can rise above the expectations placed on them and operate as equals within their household. But these people today remain an exception to the societal norm of women doing more housework then men, and are not representatives of most American families.

The only way in which women can have a true choice between working and familial duties is in a society in which men and women

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