Women Unable to Raise Women?

I was born into a family that is made up primarily of women. I have 6 aunts and 3 uncles and the vast majority of their children (my cousins) have also been female. However, I have an issue with how they raise their girls. It is all about deference to men and finding a husband instead of being independent and strong women. Even when we were younger we had different set of standards for the boys, than we did for the girls. It went beyond the normal habit of allowing the boys to stay out later or to begin dating earlier. The boys were sometimes forbidden to clean certain parts of the house-the bathroom- even though, arguably they caused the most dirt and the most smells.

My brothers were also allowed to stop doing dishes at a certain age under the false pretense that they were granted this honor because they had begun working, because neither my sister nor I was granted this same privilege. It all had to do with a woman’s place in the home as a house keeper and a homemaker why we were forced to keep cleaning long after the age when my brothers were allowed to stop. I was very strong willed and I did not buy into this pervasive way of thought and I had a strong opposition along the way. I would often have one family member or the other tell me “A lazy woman is a nasty woman” because of my dislike for housework. Or they would tell me “You ain gin never find a husband”, because at that time I didn’t like cooking.

I was never once told that I would be just okay without a man, but instead I think my whole upbringing was centered around making me a good wife and a good mother. Now, those lessons were all fine and dandy if that had been what I wanted, but the lessons never changed when I voiced my opposition to being a housewife or a mother. Instead, my lack in this area was emphasized, whilst I feel like my academic achievements were downplayed. Now I won’t say that my parents were not proud of me, I will just say that they did it more in silence, and were far more verbal of my lack and intense disinterest in housekeeping.

I think now, a few of them are moving away from wanting to make wives and instead are trying to make women; strong, beautiful, educated, self-sufficient women who are able to have goals past her kitchen and are able to have desires that are worldwide. Now I beckon the rest of you to please get out of the mindset of a man or a husband making it all better. Because sometimes, they just make your life miserable!