Gender equality means equal right to have access to work in the same way. The fact of assigning a job to a gender is not synonymous with freedom. On the other hand, if a person chooses on his or her own to work in a trade that is gender-specific, it does not mean that he or she is forced. On the contrary, it exercises its freedoms much more than those who accept jobs that do not suit them.
In short, don’t choose a profession based on your gender. Express your freedom to do what you want.
However, the status of housewives and househusbands is very precarious: they are dependent on their spouse. Can you really afford to stay at home when your partner has a precarious job? What happens if the spouse loses his or her job, falls ill or dies, or if there’s a divorce? There are no guarantees. Some may feel obliged to stay in a relationship that is bad, just to avoid being destitute.
And yet, education is much better when parents can devote themselves to their children’s upbringing. Homemakers have a real role to play. When both people in a couple work, they have to pay the people who do the housework: housekeepers, nannies, after-school care, ready meals and so on.
We need to revalue the work of housewives and men and give them guarantees, at the very least a basic universal income.
At present, couples have the choice between having both spouses overworking and seeing little of their children, or taking care of the house and children, risking plunging the family into poverty. In fact, single-parent families suffer more from poverty than other families.
Why Stay-at-Home Parents are Good for Older Children -Eric Bettinger – Graduate School of Stanford Business: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/eric-bettinger-why-stay-home-parents-are-good-older-children
Home with Mom: The effects of stayathome parents on children’s long-run educational outcomes – Discussion Papers – Statistics Norway Research : https://www.ssb.no/forskning/discussion-papers/_attachment/113165?_ts=13ea1e1e480
Towards a better future for women and work: Voices of women and men – ILO: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/@publ/documents/publication/wcms_546256.pdf
More Millennial Women Are Becoming Stay-At-Home Moms – Here’s Why – Sarah Landrum – Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahlandrum/2018/02/09/more-millennial-women-are-becoming-stay-at-home-moms-heres-why/
Stay-at-home fathers in Australia – Australian Government – Australian Institue of family studies: https://aifs.gov.au/publications/stay-home-fathers-australia/4-characteristics-stay-home-father-families-compared-other-familieswo
