Fran as long as you can act the same way a man does. Earn as much as a man, drink as much as a man, shag as much as a man - then you can count as a man and have equal rights. Really? That is an interesting POV. I never thought that way. If you have, I am sure other women thought the same thing.
I think attitudes to girls and women need to change fundamentally it is not about forcing girls into boy-shape cookie cutters it is about looking at what girls and women bring to the world and valuing that. I quite honestly believe that it would be a good idea to look at women's career paths in a totally different light-.... I agree.
work for economic reasons is because the economy has absorbed the extra income women bring to the family, we now have no end of luxuries our forebears didn't enjoy, house prices are totally ridiculous and impossible for one earner to manage, and we are paying other people to watch our kids. By the time a lot of women get round to having kids they've already enjoyed 10 years or more of earning their own money with nothing but luxuries to spend it on, or being part of a two-income household. By the time they get around to having children dropping that second income just doesn't seem possible. Before the 70s mortgage companies took no account of the wife's income when offering a loan, hence house prices had to remain affordable on the man's income only. It seemed like equal opportunities to let the wife's income count but it just meant house prices spiraled upwards and no-one could afford a house on one income.
Oh gosh, this is so true. People got used to having and having. Very few people are satisfied with less than what is available. They might not have it but many want it.
A big change I saw in my lifetime was when people used to ask how much did something cost to how much is the monthly payment? It is similar to going from an owner's perspective, to a renter's attitude. I see the shift as “What can I have now.”
