I am not a feminist. In fact, I’m the opposite. I am a woman, but not the kind of woman you saw all over the news protesting the new President. I support our new President.
Let me explain myself here. I know I am one of the minorities in this, but most things women across America, and the world were marching for on Saturday, I am probably against.
Gender Roles
One of the things that people seem to oppose, that I tend to support, is traditional gender roles. I believe that a woman’s place is in the kitchen. It is to be making food, that her husband provides, for her children and husband, even throwing the occasional dinner party. A woman is the caretaker of her children. She should stay at home with the children until they are of age to go to school, then she can return to work. But when she is at home, the work is left behind, she is there to cater to her husband and her children’s needs.
My family has this mindset too. When I was younger, I was to take care of my brother who is a year and a half younger than me when my parents were not home. If I was sitting on the couch watching TV, and my brother came out of his room hungry, I was to fix him something to eat, even if it was just Pizza Rolls. He was the boy, he never learned how to even turn on the oven (same with the washing machine). Many times I would pick him up from school and drive us home, and when we got home he fed the livestock and I went inside to fix him a snack and brought it to the cattle pin for him to eat while bottle feeding the calves.
Wage Gap
Do I think the wage gap between men and women is called for? Yes and no. Like I mentioned in the previous section, a woman stays at home with her children and the man provides for his family, so naturally the pay for men is higher. A job at a factory for instance: a man is typically stronger and able to handle a ten hour shift in the hot and loud conditions of a factory, while a woman is typically not. An elder member of my family tells the story that when women became more prevalent in the workforce in our small town, they were given breaks every two hours at work because they could not handle working for that long period of time, so they needed a break every two hours. Do I know if that is true or not? No. But do I think it is important? Absolutely.
The wage gap is not fair because what if the woman is the sole provider for her children? What if her husband died? Then she has the responsibility of providing and caring for her children, so she should get paid the same as a man. Employers should take into consideration those circumstances.
But, on the other hand, I have had many jobs in my life and only one time was I paid less than a man for doing the same job. And that instance was a man from a different country where women aren’t allowed to work, and are looked down upon, I respect his culture’s viewpoints.
