Media Hawks the Mommy Wars
I've always thought the stay-at-home vs. career mommy wars to be a media-created fiction, but was too lazy to reach past my immediate experience -- some of my best friends are SAHMs! -- and actually research the subject. So I am thrilled to be able to point you to this Washington Post article that does all the hard work for me.
For instance, the mommy wars rests on the idea that once we've gone over the wall to SAHM-dom, our work visa is permanently revoked, and we can't and won't ever go back. As the article notes, that just ain't so:
When they can afford it, married women with infants take maternity leaves of a year or so, but then head steadily back to work: 75 percent of mothers with school-age children are on the job.
Happily, the war to which nobody came may have played itself out. Mommy war books sold "abysmally" in 2006. Maybe the media will finally turn its attention to the real issue: a family-unfriendly society that makes the juggle/struggle of childrearing so much tougher than any other developed country. Being a real issue, it's not nearly as sexy as moms mud-wrestling over who leads the more virtuous life. But a girl can dream, can't she?
The Mommy War Machine [Washington Post]
Comments