Don't get me wrong. I like Old White Men. Some of my best friends are Old White Men. But women lead on the home front. We manage the home and family life. We work as nurses, counselors, teachers, nutritionists, fashion consultants, bookkeepers, beauticians, cheerleaders and chauffeurs for our children. We handle pregnancy, childbirth and birth-to-death care including bathing, feeding, clothing, and nurturing of our aging parents. We are expected to be goddesses in the bedroom and be dressed for sainthood in church. We are the 50% of the population that leads the family and we need a seat at the bargaining table.
Old White Men who sit in cigar smoke filled rooms deciding family policies are wrong. Wrong to suggest that grandma's medicare will bankrupt the country. Wrong to say that unemployment will be cut off for a young man's desperate search to find a place in society after returning from Iraq. Wrong to say that Medicaid must be cut for the mentally disabled kid up the street. Wrong to take more money from our schools when each fiscal year ends with layoffs from the year before. Wrong to say that assault style weapons don't kill more effectively with a 30 round clip. Wrong to burden college age students with a lifelong debt when employment prospects are so weak. Wrong to try to repeal Obamacare countless times when it holds the prospect of healthcare for everyone. Wrong to declare that a women's right to chose belongs to the state in which she lives.
Old White Men don't speak for me. They speak for the rich constituents that protect their jobs each year. The money changers. The lobbyists. They don't understand the needs of the modern family. They don't even try.
Old White Men believe the insurance industry speaks for us. They believe if Americans carry insurance for every conceivable problem, we won't have to worry about needing government intervention. They believe the oil companies are best left with glutted bank accounts and a license to plunder the environment wherever. They believe banks will regulate themselves fairly yet distrust us to file a
American homes are in the cross hairs of the current policy makers. American families are being attacked. If our men folk aren't willing to defend the home fires, women must stand. Old white guys are going to tell us what will happen inside our homes and inside our bodies.
Women don't make decisions that often control the money that comes into the family. Although most women either work a second job to support the family or are the primary bread winners in a single parent household. Women don't control the healthcare plan that is available to their children. Women don't control the availability of resources available to help take care of aging parents. Women don't control how local schools are funded. Women don't control financial assistance for the poor or determine how unemployment insurance is decided. Women don't know why veterans can't get the healthcare support they need. Women don't know why community health services for women and children have been withdrawn from they communities. Women stand on the sidelines.
No one wants to hear women bitching about their right to be heard in business and government. A woman's role is in the home, right? But we do have the right to look after our children, our parents, and our spouses in society. Our role is often deemed as bitchy and overbearing.
Elders of the church do good deeds and honor the family tradition. But they don't understand the needs of the modern family. Particularly the modern woman's choices.
But the problem is that women across the country aren't willing to mobilize for a cause. We can't stand up together because we have let men define our roles. Our role as mothers, they don't bother with. Our role as lovers is definitely under attack. They want the right to determine how and where we are to look for healthcare for ourselves, our children, our parents, and our spouses.
Family First
We manage home repairs by poking and prodding spouses (or contractors) and manage a disciplinary plan for children juggling homework and family rules. We are a shoulder to lean on and a back to bare the burdens of our family. Hopefully, in modern marriages, the responsibilities for cooking, cleaning, washing and ironing is spread among family members. gardeners, lovers, and in single parent homes, we act as mechanics,
