Rather than a celebration of International Women’s Day, the article comes across as an attempt to avoid any real dialogue concerning the issues at hand, and speaks just a bit too much perhaps about gender roles and the way they are viewed by the Church. The Church has never been seen as much of an ally to the cause of Women’s rights. Sadly it is more often seen to be marginalizing women, limiting their role in the church. The church seems all to happy to pigeonhole women into the role of nurturers, preferably as a mother in a two-parent household – a pigeonhole that’s not really very realistic.
It is no surprise that feminists have reacted poorly. As a woman who understands (though mostly disagrees with) the church’s staunch view on certain topics such as abortion and birth control, it is still insulting to think I have the washing machine to thank for where I am in life. I would like to think that my ability to go out in the workforce and support myself regardless of any family I may have has more to do with a desire to be independent and self-sufficient than the luxury of running water in my home. Yes, it’s helped, but without the right to work, or the right to have some control over my body, the washing machine would simply give me more free time. To give the impression that this is somehow more indicative of the lives of women throughout the world and ignore the dangers still faced feels straight out of a 1940s Sears catalog. If nothing else, I’m well agitated.
