Prior to the 20th century, women were essentially subjugated to men, existing only in terms of their relationship to fathers, husbands and sons, with divorce, or out of wedlock child birth leading to scandal, the convent, or the workhouse. For many educated women, it was far better to become a nun than to be married off against their will.
Outside of isolated pockets of religious fundamentalists and poor, agrarian economies, the 20th century saw social advances for women in equal opportunities for voting, education and professional work, the no fault divorce and scientific advances like birth control, freeing women to be independent of men, in line with the breaking down of barriers in Dwapara Yuga.
At the beginning of the 21st century, women are, in the US, the majority of voters, 60% of college students and 50% of professional students in law and medicine, having not simply caught up but edging ahead in terms of being better educated than men, less prone to early death, imprisonment, drug addiction and obesity with skills much more suited to modern knowledge work than defunct skills of hunting or manual labor.
With the divorce rate in the US around 50% and the majority of families requiring two wage earners, many, especially professional women are re-assessing their views on marriage and the 'dream of finding the right man' in terms of the 'dream of motherhood', independently of any potentially impermanent relationships. As of 2006 in the US, married couples are actually the minority.
It seems to the author that in correcting past wrongs, we are passing a period of over correction that will itself calm over time with generations after the hedonistic 'sex and the city' one choosing not to simultaneously pursue motherhood, girl around town and master of the universe at work and a recognition that men are not better than women, or vice versa, rather that each are different, with their own complimentary strengths.
3 comments:
All constructive comments are accepted.