Would they say this about a man?
I read a news article today about the female astronaut, Lisa Nowak, who was arrested yesterday. Here is how the article began:
February 07,2007 | HOUSTON — Lisa Nowak chose a juggling act of dauntingly high difficulty: to be an astronaut and a mother of three.
Are you kidding me?! I don’t think I’ve ever read an article about a man who was arrested for attempting to kidnap and murder someone that mentioned that he was under stress because he had chosen a demanding career and also had children. Stress is certainly cited as a reason when men have a mental breakdown, but never is it because they are “juggling” family and a stressful career - usually it is because work pressures are too much, or because they are in financial trouble, or because they are having an affair.
Why is it that a woman must have had a breakdown because she has children and a stressful job? Until a few weeks ago, this woman was married. She had a support system in place at home. It’s not like she was trying to be an astronaut and a single parent. Argh! Just when I think that we are getting closer to having equality, I see an article like this and I realize that this stuff just creeps out without anybody even thinking about it. I’d bet that the author of this article never stopped to think about how his or her comments contribute to the inequality between women and men. It probably was just a great opening line. But, there it is: Women can’t have stressful careers AND children because they might have a breakdown. Sigh.
