January 31, 2010
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going to school to get your MRS.
When my peers discovered that I actually planned to USE the degree I was paying nearly $30,000 per year to obtain, they were flabbergasted. “But what about your husband?” They’d ask. “It’s the man’s job to make money. A woman shouldn’t work! Who will do the cooking and cleaning? You can’t work while pregnant or when you have children!”
We actually had discussions in class where the guys talked about how they’d never stay with a woman who wanted to work, and the girls talked about how they would never voice an opinion to their husband or boyfriend: all decisions would be made by the man (whom they hoped to find and marry by their sophomore years). I was ostracized for thinking I had the right to work if I damn well pleased, and some of the comments from other girls were shocking to me. They told me that no man would ever want to be with such an ambitious woman. The worst part is, they really didn’t think they were being insulting; they thought they were really helping me to “see the light”.
