Women are taking a huge step back in their careers. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a lot of tension for working moms. Single and married moms are struggling, but why? Kids have now been home for 8 months and parents are finding themselves in uncharted territory. Working moms not only have a full-time out-of-the-house job, but now they have schoolwork to add to their day-to-day. Think about that for a second…I drop my angel off at daycare and roll on to work and put in a full day focusing entirely on my job. But how would my day look if I now had to work from home with my children also in school, trying to focus on schoolwork via a computer?
Furthermore, as adults, how do we do during virtual meetings? I personally am much less engaged during my meetings. I am a scientist so I often have work to do in the lab. Now that we have virtual meetings, I find it tempting to take my computer to lab with me and split cells, or start a culture, while someone is talking during the meeting. When I do this, I find myself pretty lost on numerous occasions because I zone out to focus on other tasks at hand. It can be very difficult for an adult to stay focused during virtual meetings so remember your child is just a child and he/she is expected to stay focused for hours looking at a computer screen?! It’s incredibly difficult to do what we as a society are doing right now so give yourself a pat on the back for hanging in there!
A couple of weeks ago, I watched Sunday Morning on CBS and there was a segment about how this pandemic is putting women and their careers decades behind. Women have made huge strides over the last several decades becoming career-driven professionals; however more and more women are leaving the workforce to stay home and care for their children. This may be the option that they want. I would love to stay home with my sweet little girl, but I am now a single mom who needs to work. Maybe someday I will be able to stay home. ??
Sunday Morning interviewed one woman who said that she is doing all of the work regarding their child, because her husband also has a demanding job. Also?! So they both have demanding jobs but she’s doing all of the work. Seriously?! Women are finding another excuse to stay in a one-sided union. I did this for a while. I thought I was unhappy because of the stress from grad school, then I graduated and I thought I was having a tough time because of my job at the time. Then I got a new job and a new apartment and I thought that was adding stress to my life. I got pregnant and I thought I was miserable due to debilitating morning sickness. Lastly, I had my baby and I had an epiphany. I was miserable because I was married to someone who emotionally and verbally abused me daily, and who never helped around the house. Sometimes, we subconsciously blame external factors for our unhappiness because we can’t see that we’re miserable with our significant other.
Not to complain about men again, but that’s where this is heading! Men expect us to be the 1950’s housewife who do all of the cooking, cleaning, raising the children, AND work full-time. Women also want to have their own careers, however when women are also working full-time, men need to recognize that they too will need to help more around the house, IF they expect their lady to be cheerful and energetic.
To be blunt, we’ve raised men to do as little as possible. And we’ve raised women to put up with it. It’s time to realize that if we truly have to do it all, why not do it alone? I know everyone wants someone to share their life with. I would love to have a special someone to snuggle up with at the end of the day, but as soon as we start demanding more from our men, we’ll receive more. If women stopped tolerating the expectation that we must cook, clean, raise the children, and work full-time, men will start realizing that if they want a woman, they will need to get up off the couch and pitch in. If you feel like you are not happy, really analyze your life and make sure you recognize where your unhappiness is truly coming from.
