Linda Hirshman again…
is full of pearls like these:
FARABEE: What about those who say raising children is the most important job a person can do?
HIRSHMAN: I have no idea what they mean by that. If, in fact, it were the most important thing a human being could do, then why are no men doing it? They’d rather make war, make foreign policy, invent nuclear weapons, decode DNA, paint The Last Supper, put the dome on St. Peter’s Cathedral; they’d prefer to do all those things that are much less important than raising babies?
I love these sayings, because they’re so stupid. I’ll tell you what I think is actually going on: People think that women’s lives aren’t important enough to merit a real analysis. We get aphorisms in place of analysis. Why do we say stuff like that instead of actually trying to figure out what’s going on here when it’s women whose lives are at stake? If you can make an argument for why childrearing — especially in the context that they are at school from the age of around five on for most of their waking hours — why that is the most important job, I’d like to hear that.
though this interview is the usual clapatrap that one expects from Ms. Hirshman and her ilk; I found some fun reading in the comments, some of them are quite good!
alisaterry said,
September 5, 2006 @ 7:20 pm
My husband can take over the day he starts lactating.
Vicky said,
September 6, 2006 @ 10:49 am
Yes, our culture _doesn’t_ put much value on child-rearing - because it’s what women do. It’s the same reason that teachers and nurses get paid peanuts. Instead of deeming motherhood unimportant or unfeminist, why not empower women by recognizing the inportance of women’s work and traditionally female careers? (although of course we shouldn’t limit people to gender roles if they don’t want to fill them.)
Melissa77 said,
September 6, 2006 @ 12:18 pm
So we should stop raising our children and start making war, that would be an improvement for te human race