An Ode to Womanhood

The Inequities of Being a Woman 

Copyright Vladimir Kagan, February 12, 2012

 

I freely admit that I am an old-fashioned male chauvinist! (My dear women’s libber fans… Please don’t be angry or stop reading this Blog). I liked the idea of men’s clubs and saw no need for women to penetrate them (though our clubs have become better for their membership) so why should they have women’s clubs that exclude men? (But that is beside the point).

I understand women’s frustration about “glass ceilings” and discrimination in the work place. I also understand, hiring a pretty woman of marriageable age is a high-risk investment: they get married; they get pregnant; they move with their husband’s job; they beget children and are focused on two careers; etc. etc… You must admit, it is a dilemma for the human resource department…. This too is outside of the parameters of this article.

I worship the female body and as most of my male brethren, consider the breast the epitome of feminine beauty. That their primary function is a Mammal mammary gland is secondary to their ability to entice men.

 

I am touched by the sheer inequity between men and women!

 

Here’s where the injustice sets in. One in eight women suffer from breast cancer. They suffer their loss stoically as though it was ordained.

Add to this God’s punishment, the pain of bearing children. The pain is excruciating… no man has ever gone through it unless like me, having had kidney stones. Women willingly subject themselves to multiple repeat performances of this painful act, in the interest of propagation. No complaint – just a woman’s fate.

 

Raising children, though often shared now a day by spouses, is still a woman’s task… How often I rejoiced when the babies screamed for a feeding and only Erica had the natural supply of nourishment? When they were sick with fevers, Dad would not do. When school started, whose regular responsibility was it to take them and pick them up? Deal with teachers, parent’s meetings, scrapes and scraps? Mum, who had a full career as a TV personality, author, lecturer, and ran two retail shops plus a mail order business. She was an Iconic figure in her needlework craft and a first rate mother!

Naturally, I was “too busy” working and gladly left these trivia’s to Erica. Was it fair? Hell no! Did I concern myself about her burgeoning career? Not really. Was I a good father? Ask the kids: Marginally. Yes, I taught them skiing, sailing, made them love running and hiking… because these were the things I loved most. We took the children skiing every weekend in the winter and sailing in summer – we took then on exotic trips when ever either of us had to travel. Did we do ball games, soccer practice, or swim meets? Never. 

This is not another eulogy for my wife, but her departure showed me how spoiled I was… and am. I don’t make beds, I don’t hang up my clothes, I don’t do the dishes and when the kids were small, I certainly never changed their diapers! She would do everything for me… trifling and major…uncomplainingly.

 

As I am fortunate to live part of my time with my daughter and her family, I now see that her commitment is just as selfless as her mother’s. Drive three girls to school every morning when she really deserves an extra hour’s sleep… Pick them up, do their homework with them, coax them on through depressions when marks are not straight A’s. Squire two teenager’s social life in an age when all their compatriots are running wild. Deal with a sub-teen’s desire to be bigger, better and more fun than her sisters.

Dads are great but Mother is on the firing line toiling with the crucial details that go into raising kids. Has Mom got a career? You bet – Besides being the Major Domo of the house she is running a successful business… It is the fate of all women to grin and bear this cross in life.

  

Mom as the family entrepreneur!

 

 

My heroes: All women coping in this iniquitous world.

 

 

 

 

Comments

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