Australia Prefers Women At Home
October 11, 2010 No Comments
“Australians have become more conservative in their views” of women and work, according to a new study. But I think the problem is that any survey like this misses out of the real nitty gritty of the issues.
Most women (74%) think stay-at-home mothers are better for children and 41% of men “endorsed the male breadwinner model.”
The sociology professor who did this study says that “many people had ‘given up on the view’ equality was possible due to the experience of working mothers.”
And it’s true. The way our society is structured means that, for a lot of women, they cannot literally have everything and sacrifices need to be made.
Women may want a career, but also want to stay home with kids. They may want to stay home with kids, but they can’t afford not to work. And no matter which option they choose, they will lose something. If they stay home with kids too long it will be difficult to go back to work. And if they go back to work too soon they will lose out on valuable time with their kids. Families do their best to balance what they want and what they need.
But none of these results mean that attitudes are becoming more conservative.
Just because 41% of men think the male breadwinner is the best option doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t believe in equality or they don’t want their wives to have careers or they think the man should be the head of the house. It might simply be that, because of the way society is structured, the best option for a family’s future is to have the man at work and the woman at home with the kids.
In fact, this study actually showed that the goal of equality is increasing in Australia. The statement, ”if both husband and wife work, they should share equally in the housework and childcare” was the only one to have increasing support from survey respondents.
It looks like rather than becoming more conservative, Australians want more equality between men and women, and it just happens that more of them prefer to have stay-at-home moms. But why does that have to be a bad thing?
