Muscle cars, hunting, sports and breasts: which one of these things aren’t like the others? I know what you’re thinking. This is one of those articles on all things men love! Sorry, that’s next week. I’m talking about categories. Two of them. Men and women.
Normally, you wouldn’t put women next to hunting. If you don’t think girls enjoy listening to a ball game while driving in their 1974 GTO, then you might want to keep reading because I am about to let you in on why women fit in those categories perfectly. Note: this is not going to be a man-bashing article but an article to commend women for trying so hard on a daily basis.
I think it’s amazing how people still give women roles in life. Staying home and preparing meals for your husband is fine if that’s what you want to do. But if I want to work on my muscle car and drink a beer while my husband is inside vacuuming the den, there shouldn’t be a problem with that.
When my grandmother was in her 20s, the only two professions a woman could have were as a nurse or a teacher, if they worked at all. While society laughs at this now, we can only hope that women’s career opportunities continue to keep going in an upward direction. There’s always a downside, though. Unfortunately, women are still seen in many cases as less intelligent than men.
Let’s talk money. Women are usually seen as impulsive and wasteful with money. But how many times do you see a man at the mall when the biggest sale of the year is happening? If a man wants something, he will normally just buy it when he sees it so that he won’t have to deal with chaotic shoppers. Yes, women can be impulsive, but their reasoning skills and practicality outweighs any impulsive nature that may be there when money is involved-especially sales!
Back to occupations: If you take your car to be fixed and a woman’s head pops out from under the hood, I think you would be taken back a bit. People are used to their lives being black and white: men fix cars and work the grill; women shop for groceries and buy the children’s clothes. More and more women are getting high executive jobs and are gaining control of giant companies, which I think is a breath of fresh air for people today.
When it comes to stress, women are normally seen as not being able to work properly under pressure. Let’s think about that for a moment. How many mothers do you know who have quiet, perfect children who aren’t demanding or needy? When a woman has children, her life becomes the definition of under pressure.
Usually, a typical family scene looks like this: one child is vomiting while the other is screaming to go to the bathroom and another is crying for no reason at all. To top it all off, this is all in the car on the way to day care so that mommy can go to her job and work twice as hard to prove her intelligence.
There aren’t many things that can top that stress level. I understand that deadlines and important business meetings for a typical male worker can be stressful too, but sometimes people don’t understand the stress of children. Whether it’s a single woman or single man, I have much respect for any person who can have a job and take care of children at the same time.
I am going to give you a specific example of what I am here to prove. My mother went down the typical career path of being a nurse because she loves to help people. She also has three children, not to mention all girls. While she has a job, raises children and prepares most meals, she still has time to watch the football game with my dad and his buddies, drink a beer and work on her 1974 GTO.
You don’t have to be a man to enjoy sports, beer and old cars. It was not rare for me to come home from school and find my mom on her day off, wearing high-heeled shoes fixing the refrigerator. My mom proved to me that you could be a career woman, have a beautiful body, raise a family and be Miss Fix-it all at the same time!
So women, put the gift of multi-tasking to use and do anything you put your mind to.
Categories:
Women can fill all roles
Bailey Singletary
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October 25, 2005
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