There are more than 300 million people in the U.S. today. And for some reason, people feel the need to continuously bring more into this world.
According to a 2006 census poll, about four million women give birth each year in the U.S. About 415,000 of them are between the ages of 15-19. More than 100,000 of these mothers are 40 or older giving birth for the first time.
There is a certain pressure placed on everyone in this country, especially young women. It is the pressure to get married, usually involving a huge, expensive, fairy-tale wedding.
It is the pressure to have children and raise a family in a home in the suburbs with a white picket fence. It is the pressure to fit into archetypal roles in society that have been in place for centuries.
The pressure causes people to push their own children and live vicariously through them.
We have all seen the football-crazed dad, yelling from the sidelines for his son to do better and work harder. Or the beauty pageant mom, pushing her daughter to be beautiful.
The feminist movement made great strides in the 1970s to achieve equality for women. Now, the generation of women raised by those feminists are grown up and falling into the same traps their mothers did.
I have heard several women at MSU say their main objective in life is to have children. Regardless of what field of study they are going into, they plan on settling down to stay at home to raise kids.
Every time I hear this, I cringe. Every time I hear someone say their greatest accomplishment in life is their children, I am forced to wonder what else they could have done.
Imagine someone's greatest accomplishment in life being their children. The children grow up and their greatest achievement is their own children. And it would go on and on, with everyone being proud of their children but having no other notable accomplishments in life.
I'm left to wonder, if procreating is the only real achievement in people's lives, when do other things get done?
When do people make innovations or create pieces of art? When do new ideas form and paradigms drastically shift?
Where does culture come to exist between time spent having children as the greatest accomplishment in people's lives?
The emergence of new feminism attempts to add weight to the roles of women in the home. It recognizes and celebrates the supposed distinctions between male and female roles.
The new feminist movement emphasizes the notion that if women make the choice to stay at home, bake and have baby after baby, it's is a legitimate choice that should be respected.
I recognize this is a choice many women make. It appears to me, though, that this is selling yourselves short.
Sure, you can stay home and raise your kids. But if every woman does that, men are going to continue to be the ones shaping the cultural surround, enacting policy and making the decisions that affect everyone's.
Not to mention the insurmountable task of trying to raise a family on a single income.
The only thing forcing many women into roles outside the home is the pressing need for more money for the family.
The role of women staying home arises from centuries of subjugation in this country.
By continuing this cycle and perpetuating this role, women are taking what is essentially being handed to them and ignoring any progressive ideas.
I recognize I am a male asserting these claims about a population of females. I realize this might take away some of the legitimacy of my claims.
What people do need to realize, is that this is not simply a gender issue.
Prescribed social roles are something that need to be questioned, challenged and broken down by everyone. This can expand beyond family roles into every corner of American life.
Matt Flint is The State News opinion editor. Reach him at flintmat@msu.edu.
