Fraught with the ghastly doctrine of coverture, the expectation for female subservience has long subsided. History and expectation have intrinsically outlined women as caretakers- I have testified against many arguments that Nature dictates the dynamic of this union. Now that women have reached a point where they can be content with their virtue, they are granted opportunities to express their intellect for public and individual good. This greater participation in labor makes leaps and bounds beyond a singular purpose of motherhood. Nevertheless, a question of which sex should sacrifice their public livelihood to take care of their child has risen. It seems there is much uproar about men upholding the tender role of a caregiver – leading women to pursue greater potential.
Some challenge that this reversal sets precedence as new standard. I would contend the modern partnership of men and women is not a question of women’s into an upheaval of deserved superposition – quite the opposite – what heedless conjecture! It is hardly my intent to support that such a new criterion would be healthy. Seeing as how attitudes perpetuate behavior, and thus, crude notions repeated through hereditary, we should refrain from complacency in confinement.
For the tenderness in childcare is not an impediment to free thought, nor should the objective of raising a child confine one’s limitations. Is it inconceivable that men could not possibly explore greater emotional capacity? Demonizing a man for taking a caregiver role is to demasculate his pride and simultaneously imposes scrutiny of feminine qualities. This brutal sentiment would perpetuate the prejudices we have worked so hard to expunge from our public lives. More than ever, the divergence of women from obstruction in financial stability and intellect has proven to heighten individual self-realization and sensibility. Being able to provide for themselves, free of gender bias, allows for great exploration and virtue – could that not be the greatest catalyst for societal morality? For when we limit the role of one sex, we also restrict the prospect and growth of the other. Such stratification would surely produce a most flagrant display and continuation of unfashionable and discriminatory manners.
This is to say, greater public recognition in parenthood as a complementary responsibility will help to eradicate arbitrary prejudice – that both men and women play equal role in mutual respect and cultivating the fertile mind of a child. Does a child not benefit from the qualities and lore that both sexes poses? The absence of equal participation and example will have ravenous effect on the independent thought of children. As parents we may house their bodies but certainly not their own conviction. In consequence, it is my own supposition that sharing and crafting a common appetite for independent thought is the utmost commitment to mankind.
For now, we should push both sexes to truly explore the meaning of sharing the responsibility of parenting, meaning, we should expel the notion of dominance within partnership. Cultivating equal opportunity for both men and women to partake in early childhood is fundamental. Once the workplace recognizes that the sacrifice of a child is not left to the responsible of the sex who bares it, pillars of equality can be ingrained into the workplace and the pubic.