All the Older Single Ladies in Poverty

[mntleo2]

120. (Taking off glasses) Yes, Verrrry interrrresting....

This is because only paid work is "counted" as "doing anything".

Really this formula for what work is "important" and what work is "trivial" is about things that women have fought for eons. Laws have been enacted in attemots to change much of this, but still they persist...

Fathering a child? REALLY important!

Risking your live to give birth to that child? Not so much.

Providing for that child? In my youth this was extremely important and a gauge for men as for their masculinity. Because then men got a whole bunch of power and credit for being a "real man." Nowadays much because women are expected to financially provide as well, providing is not so much of a gauge to masculinity. Some men cannot afford this support, some men cannot help at all (they are disabled or incarcerated) and some men, if they have enough money to get around it,entirely reneg on that role and just decide not to help if they so choose ...

Actually performing the work of raising that child? What work are you talking about?

So if we hire other women to do our work, well then, it is "doing something" and if we cannot afford to pay for it and have to do it ourselves, well then because it is unpaid, it "does not count"....

I am the mother of three sons. The boys when little would do things they were not supposed to do, like play with the TV knobs. Their "logic" was that, if they just looked away while their little hands were busy, then they were not responsible and it just did not happen 'cause they did not see themselves doing it, lol.

The most interesting part about this to me is somehow, unless work is paid work, then unpaid work just does not exist. Much as I love and admire men because in many ways they are very practical then I am ...But "not working" when you are working your ass off and not getting paid, seems like a man's logic if they are not the ones doing it, lol.

Cat in Seattle