...the man...you know...the guys who somehow squeeze more and more wealth from the poor and resources from the earth every year.
I have become appalled at the level of devaluation of mothering in this country, especially as I am a feminist, and I have seen how the types of feminism that have become mainstream have worked to exasperate this devaluation. Women’s equality has been linked to women's ability to sidestep responsibilities of care of family and home. Unfortunately men have not stepped in enough and home and family have suffered. Our children have been institutionalized more and more. Schools have stepped in to provide more after school care and activities (which is great considering the alternatives we have, i.e. nothing), and many “liberated” mothers have hired other mothers (cheap labor) to leave their own children behind to care for thier's in one of the lowest paying industries in our country (an eye opener as to our American Values). Somehow, in our value system it is better to leave your children and care for another’s children, because you are making money, stimulating the economy and money is the signpost of success and equality not the sarcasm). The dominant feminist mantra presents the solution always being “more childcare.” Success is measured by how well women are able to fill the positions that men dominate, while what once was women’s work (now the “care industry”) have remained degraded, a place for the poor and the immigrants to work or the site of a woman’s “second shift.” Not working and “just” staying home to care for your children is so un-feminist these days, you can never be successful or equal doing that!
I have become appalled at the level of devaluation of mothering in this country, especially as I am a feminist, and I have seen how the types of feminism that have become mainstream have worked to exasperate this devaluation. Women’s equality has been linked to women's ability to sidestep responsibilities of care of family and home. Unfortunately men have not stepped in enough and home and family have suffered. Our children have been institutionalized more and more. Schools have stepped in to provide more after school care and activities (which is great considering the alternatives we have, i.e. nothing), and many “liberated” mothers have hired other mothers (cheap labor) to leave their own children behind to care for thier's in one of the lowest paying industries in our country (an eye opener as to our American Values). Somehow, in our value system it is better to leave your children and care for another’s children, because you are making money, stimulating the economy and money is the signpost of success and equality not the sarcasm). The dominant feminist mantra presents the solution always being “more childcare.” Success is measured by how well women are able to fill the positions that men dominate, while what once was women’s work (now the “care industry”) have remained degraded, a place for the poor and the immigrants to work or the site of a woman’s “second shift.” Not working and “just” staying home to care for your children is so un-feminist these days, you can never be successful or equal doing that!
You could be the best preschool teacher in the world, but the Wall Street tycoon will be the one considered successful. He will be the one with his name in the papers. I suppose it is easier to get women into “men’s jobs” than it is to try to make a society value “care” while the media screams at us that the only way we can survive is to make more profits for the rich capitalists. When future historians look back into our time, they will note that we value people for their ability to wield power, use scientific logic and their ability to make money (power).
During a recent debate with a friend about culture and whether other cultures do fine without us (of course my take was that they would do much better without the Western Ideology and economic systems imposed upon them) my friend made a comment about ancient cultures only valuing women for their ability to reproduce. I did think that this was a bit erroneous, as women’s work in agriculture has been so indispensable to so many cultures and civilizations for the majority of human existence. Throughout history and prehistory, women have often been the primary agricultural workers. Also, men have often been valued and respected in their strength, or in their material wealth. People tend to need to be respected for something.
The truth is that our own, western culture has been one of the most brutal to women. Our culture has stripped women of their power and worth over the last 1000 years or so (I guess it depends where you come from), through things such as witch hunts, legalization of rape, propaganda, violence and outlawing natural medicine, midwifery, birth control, etc. When it was decided that child birth and childrearing was just a natural function and that nature was vulgar and something to be feared and exploited for our benefit, woman, as the child rearing gender, had her fall from grace. She has only recently, over the last hundred or two years been climbing her way back.
Women bear children and their bodies supply nourishment, which lead to women being the ones with the children at their feet. This created a sort of division of labor but NOT the devaluation of reproductive labor. That is a contemporary idea that we often project into the past. In fact, women were once actually worshipped for their child bearing and rearing abilities.
Women bear children and their bodies supply nourishment, which lead to women being the ones with the children at their feet. This created a sort of division of labor but NOT the devaluation of reproductive labor. That is a contemporary idea that we often project into the past. In fact, women were once actually worshipped for their child bearing and rearing abilities.
Once upon a time, God was a woman, she worked outside the home as her children played and worked all around her.
When we refer to other cultures or ancient cultures valuing women for their ability to bear children, we have to realize that we are looking through a decidedly Western lens that does not value reproductive work. In the hierarchy of power and the discourse of equality, reproductive work and care (of elders or children) are squarely at the bottom. I have done a lot of learning in Chiapas, Mexico and reading about the cultures from the area. In Mayan culture, equality is (or was, this part of Mayan culture has been highly eroded) about respecting difference. There is (or again, "was") a tradition of Complimentaridad; male and female work are different and complimentary. One is not valued over the other. The western hierarchy of values places money at the top, so one who is not making money is not considered as successful as one who does. When the Americas were colonized, western culture began to seep in as the West destroyed and exploited indigenous peoples and became the dominant culture. Even after independence, the Americas are controlled by the Globalized Western Capitalist Economy. This has forced indigenous Maya out of the villages and into the money economy. This lead to western ideas about gender and public and private spaces to be transported back into the villages. "Women’s work" became, as it is here, considered inferior and less valuable. This is one instance. It has been well documented that the introduction of our culture into others, even if they did have some inequality to begin with, has changed women’s positions for the worse in almost every instance. As equality in our culture improves, we point at other cultures and say, “Look at the guys, they are so far behind the times with women’s rights…oh the hypocrisy!
And in the end, we still like to blame our mother's for all our problems.
I wonder, in what kind of world should be want to be equal in?
to read the paper I wrote on Indigenous Feminism in Chiapas, check out this link: http://www.mujereslibres.org/Articles/indigenousfeminism.htm
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