When Woman Went to Work

My Wife Took My JobA man was sitting despondently on the staircase of a library holding his head in his hands. I knew this man and saw that he was very distressed. My husband sat down beside him and started asking if there was something the matter. He told a very sad tale of how his wife was divorcing him and taking the children away from him. “How did this ever come to be?” my husband inquired. “You know Sally and I went to school together as we met in Medical school. Well, Sally recently went back to work and was starting a private practice. One day, after she had become successful in her practice, she decided that she didn’t need me any more and decided to divorce me. The court found that since she was making more money than I that she would receive custody of the children...! And she works more hours than I do!” How did our society get to this mindset? When did a woman start competing with her husband? When did women feel the need to go out and leave their homes and provide for their families? Let’s find out...
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION During the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, the Industrial Revolution brought a great many changes in regards to women. Many of the women sought to help out their economical situations by coercing their husbands through promising more income if they would let them go and work in the English and American textile mills. These and other types of factories began hiring women because they would work long hours and for half the wages as men. The mindset of the employers during this time regarding women in the working field was mainly that they were industrious. They were not, however, viewed with respect nor were they then considered among the class of what society labeled as a “respectable woman”. A respectable woman, during this time, stayed at home and tended her children and her husband. A disreputable woman would go out and help provide for her husband. There are many commentators in newspapers which made fun of women who wished to usurp the position of men, and they showed that working women’s husbands were not respected by their wives, nor by their peers. And not only did the old-fashioned working wife not respect her husband, her actions showed very clearly that she was not content with the wages which he could provide. By the 1830’s, many thousands of women worked in the textile mills of such industrialized regions as England and the New England States. Many people left farming and sought factory work. As a result, working conditions became worse and wages dropped. Remember supply and demand... Jobs were scarce, laborers many. The Women’s Rights Movements began to develop during the first half of the 1800’s, when social and political revolutions were occurring in many nations. Many Christian men rose up and debated woman’s role in business, the family, politics and society. Their arguments were: 1. The Biblical viewpoint of women in the work force. The Bible is very radical if viewed by a feminist of today. It tells us that women need to stay in the home and care for their children and husbands. Titus 2:3 “The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becomes holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things. That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.” They stood on the premise that God had created women to nurture their husbands, children and home and that to leave the home would mean to leave all that God created women to be. They believed that if a woman was to leave her home and provide, that it would be usurping God’s place He had given to man. I Timothy 5:8 tells us “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” A sober argument was that if women took over the position of providing for the family, that they would also be hindering their men spiritually, and that these two things were intertwined. They believed that by women going to work it would make men infidels. 2. The effect on motherhood and the coming generation. If a woman was to no longer be at home with the children, would there even be a home? Or would it become a leering monument of something that should be but is not. A pretending of a home but without the heart? What would become of the future generations? Who would raise the children? These men posed great questions. It is a sad thing that our society did not heed their caution, nor listen to their sound arguments. Well, we know what happened. Women left their homes giving the government the responsibility to raise the children with humanistic beliefs and thoughts. Daughters, who were once taught that the highest calling was to be the guide for future generations, were then taught that the norm was for them to go to college and to provide for their families. No one teaches today, nor then in a public school, that the norm (according to God) would be to stay at home and take care of her husband and children. No! That would be demeaning to the feminine race. 3. Lower pay for women meant that men would lose their jobs and be replaced by women which meant men would not be able to support their families financially as they used to be able to do. It happened just as they predicted. These men warned that if women went to work, there would come a day when it would be cheaper to hire a woman. Then, after a period of time, would get to the point where men’s salaries would drop to equal the women’s... And then, because of the economic market, BOTH would HAVE to work in order to make ends meet. Meet the 21st century. We are living out what they said would happen. 4. Gender changing... These men were afraid that in years to come, they would succumb to having not only women providing for families, but also that they would be leading in the area of spirituality too. That men would be turned into women and women into men. Again, God created them “male and female”. He did not create Adam and Steve. Remember the old saying of a domineering woman, that “she wears the pants in that house”? Now women wear men’s clothing and men wear women’s. But we say that this isn’t so, that it was simply a matter of speech. Now men are staying at home and women are out supporting the family. I have been amazed at how many couples we know of who are doing this.... and some in the name of Christ. Well, our dear brothers who stood up to Congress’s push during this time to have women in the work force would be so sad to know that they were right. These changes have occurred but to an even worse degree than they’d ever imagined. They lost their debate. It happened during the wars that occurred in America....
WARTIME CHANGES During World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1934), women in America took over many traditionally male jobs to free men for combat. Thousands of women served in the armed forces. In the United States, about 18 million women worked in war plants during World War II. Many industries sponsored child-care centers so that mothers could be free to work. The U. S. Government created a policy of equal pay for equal work in industries with government contracts. Many labor unions also adopted this policy. But little discussion took place about equal employment and advancement opportunities for men and women. After both world wars, most women returned to their old jobs or to their homes. Until the 1960’s, few women campaigned actively to extend women’s rights. N.O.W. This changed with the book The Feminine Mystique, published in 1963 by Betty Friedan. She was the founder of NOW (National Organization for Women). Ms. Friedan complained (whined) that society put pressure on women to be housewives only and not to seek a career. She founded NOW to fight for equal rights for women. She led a nationwide protest called the Women’s Strike for Equality on August 26, 1970. That date marked the 50th anniversary of granting the vote to U. S. women. In 1971, Friedan helped form the National Women’s Political Caucus which encourages women to seek political office. But I’d like to say to Ms. Friedan, what have you accomplished? Look at your own family and that of all your acquaintances. The majority of your ancestors are not seeking God... Many do not even believe in God or in anything that would have to do with God or His Son. In becoming men, did you become something other than what God created you to be? Are you happy? Are you satisfied? How can one be satisfied when they are pretending to be something other than what they were created to be by the most Holy God of the universe. Isn’t it a great tragic game?.... A great hypocrisy? And you, my sister who is reading this, will you raise your daughters to be men? To usurp the position of men and train them to provide for the family, rather than to provide the nurturing position which God has created them to fulfill. Will we state that we are giving our daughters security against the future through a college education, when what we are instilling in them is a humanistic thought that THEY through their own effort can control their futures, rather than to rely on the great Father whom they are supposedly going to serve all throughout their lives? The theory of, “What would you do if you get married and your spouse dies” is a terrifying fear we implant in our daughters in order to have them learn a vocation! This was implanted in the generation of mothers now. What about us as parents? Wouldn’t we step in as Biblical mothers and fathers and help our child if they were to be found in this situation? Then the debate comes back, “What if you as parents die?” Well, then they would be left with our home to live in until their demise, and hopefully we would be leaving an inheritance to our children’s children as the scriptures command. The Lord our God has other ways than what is familiar in the world. Do you homeschool your daughter? For what purpose? God in His wisdom will show us what He wills rather than what we will as we seek first His Kingdom and all the rest shall be added unto us! He promises! We should take every thought captive to Christ and see if they line up to that which God’s word tells us women should be doing. And then, in humble submission to God, obey His Word and walk in the tradition of those Godly Biblical women of old.... Only then, will we find true happiness and contentment. To live to the fullest what God created each of us to be... women unto Christ!!!! -By Anna Neumas