Women should be restricted to work potx

Women should be restricted to work connected with
the home and children
“Women should be restricted to work connected with the
home and children. They should not engage in politics,
commerce or industry.” How far do you agree with this
statement?

Before I begin with my opinion of the statement, let me
analyze the statement itself. The word “work” should not
be taken to mean doing something for a salary but rather
to engage in an activity. To agree with the first sentence
would be to say that women can only obtain jobs such as
teaching, since they would be dealing with children then, if
they were teaching, lower levels, or jobs like being
domestic servants, seamstresses, cooks or interior
decorators, since they would then be doing something
connected with the home. The statement implies that
Women should not engage in charity work, literary work,
nursing, acting, singing and dancing and many other
activities which they do remarkably well and have received
critical acclaim for, for example Lady Edwina Mountbatten
for her charity work, Jane Austen for her perceptive writing
on Victorian society, Anna Parlova and Margot Fonteyn for
their breathtakingly beautiful ballet dancing, and Florence
Nightingale for the new hospital hygiene rules she
established in nineteenth century in England and which we
inherit today. Obviously, the whole idea behind the
statement is that Women should not engage in activities
unconnected with the home and children because they are
not capable of doing them at all, especially in politics,
industry and commerce.

This idea is not necessarily true. For decades and
centuries women have been involved in activities not even
remotely connected with the home and done them well.

In the fifteenth century, the famous woman Joan of Arc led
the soldiers of her country to war, to the admiration of
many. Queen Elizabeth I ruled England in the sixteenth
century, using her own wisdom and never allowing the
decisions of her ministers overrule her, nor did she ever
marry. England did not see ruin during her time and in
fact, it flourished, especially in arts and culture. The
famous and revered works of William Shakespeare,
among those of other equally famous writers, were
produced in that period. Queen Victoria of England ruled
almost half the world, the great British Empire, at the peak
of her reign in the nineteenth century. Even in
contemporary times there existed Golda Meir of Israel,
Indira Gandhi of India, etc. The remarkable thing about
these women is that the people voted that they do such
work, and they have performed on par with their male
counterparts.

With regards to industry, a tour of any factory today will
yield the sight of rows of women along the assembly lines,
working to produce consumer products which are the
basis of today’s civilization. In Singapore, women
contribute largely to the economy in this way and have
helped fill the labor shortage in this area. This is a vital
contribution since Singapore is a country based very much

on industrialization. Women are needed in industries and
should engage in them, either at the assembly department
or even at the top of the company as administrators.

Commerce is one area where women are not a rarity
either and where they can succeed. Women today do set
up their own businesses and make huge successes of
them. Take for instance the cosmetic business with big
names like Helena Rubinstein or Elizabeth Arden, or even
the fashion business. True, these are businesses largely
directed at women, but the fact is that women are also
running them and doing it well.

Another reason why the statement restricts women to the
home and children would be that if a woman was to
engage in something so diversely different from the home,
she may neglect her own family and home. This is a
cynical approach because, in fact, if a woman were
allowed to broaden her horizons and outlook, she would
make an open-minded approach towards her family and
home. She would make an interesting conversationalist,
relate better with her children since she could better
understand what they face daily outside home and be a
source of knowledge and inspiration to them and also
relate better with her husband since she would understand
how taxing a job or demanding activity outside the home
could be. With today’s modern appliances and gadgets,
she would have no excuse for neglecting her housework
either, and in fact, it is about time that the family helped
women out with the housework.

Therefore, I feel that women should be encouraged and
trained to venture into any field of activity if they feel
capable of handling it.