- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
As a young girl growing up in the sixties I admired women like Gloria Steinem and felt the feminist movement championed choice for women. My choice took the next thirty years of my life along the traditional path of wife and stay-at-home mom. The problem with that path is that it has become a shaky walk along the highwire without a net. Changing laws and social norms like no-fault divorce and high divorce rates combined with an antiquated social security system leaves women like myself out in the cold and facing poverty. Ms. Flanagan's book should be accompanied by a health warning; "Devoting your life to husband, home, and family can be hazardous to your health." Divorced after thirty years of such devotion, I have been left with no job resume, no job offer above eight bucks an hour, no health insurance, and only half of the "breadwinner's" social security - if I live that long. Starting over at my age with no health insurance doesn't bode well for longevity. The feminist movement gave women choice, but our public policies and laws never quite caught up. Ms. Flanagan wants women to scale down the "choices" to one and regress beyond pre-no fault; That's one step forward and two very precarious steps back - and dangerously close to the precipice. I am dying proof that Ms. Flanagan's "Leave it to Beaver" lifestyle for women can be hazardous to their collective health.
