Critical analysis of vehicle imagery and documentation

Leslie Bennetts (2007) vents her rage on the system that compels mothers to stay home and forgo career dreams and opportunities of higher wage in order to care for their children. She also seethes at women who turn their anger and embitterment inwards instead of directing it outwards at a callous and unjust system.

I think that Bennetts (2007) has a point, but I also find her conclusions to be too categorical and it seems to me that she may be too generic in her fault-blaming. Ironically she herself may be evidencing the same fault that she accuses her targets of portraying, namely insufficient understanding and empathy of the other.

Bennetts writes that:

Stressed and resentful, the majority of women nonetheless continue to work, many out of financial necessity. Others quit their jobs to stay home, although the price may include conflicted feelings about having had to make such a "choice."

More than one female of my acquaintance has evidenced precisely these same attributes, in various ways. These are intelligent, sophisticated women who have been condemned to settle for activities lower than their abilities or to resign themselves to jobs that they hate for the advancement of their husbands. Some of these end up as tea party artifacts in order to advance their husband's career whilst others are slated to become clergymen's wives or attend pontifical meetings that they -- more comfortable in an introverted role -- detest. Others publicly malign their husband -- half-humorously it is true, but the ire is there.

Bennetts remarks that "Women are indeed giving up too much, which may be why so many are so angry." And yes this is true. I have seen women using all of these typical psychodynamic strategies and more turn in on themselves and condemn themselves for their dissatisfaction. Others, in misplaced religious fervor, devote their energies to persuade other females that domestic living is more important, sacred, Divine (and so forth) than the workplace and that, as good and devoted wives, they have to sacrifice their 'selfish' wants for the selflessness of their family's larger good.

I disagree with these assertions since it seems to me that discontent women will never make quality-performing wives or mothers howsoever hard they try. On the contrary, the best and most intelligent of these women may more readily slide into depression and revolution.

So Bennetts, it seems to me, is correct in noting that frustrated women seethe inwardly and that this is a misplaced and unhealthy characteristic. On the other hand, it seems to me that Bennetts may be incorrect in categorically attributing blame of women's condition to male-related shenanigans.

Men have to work just as the women do. The man who told his wife 'Then you leave work' was correct. If the situation were reversed with men being domestic care giver, men would have the same complaints as these women and evidence the same frustration. True, it may be argued, that men should equally share 'burden' with women but then the same situation may apply as was with the woman who was compelled to discontinue her legal career: the man may well lose his high-powered job. There are careers that demand obsessive and focused attention to the work. The man who cuts short his hours due to assisting his wife may well find himself without a job. Neither then man nor the woman is to blame. This is the state of the contemporary work situation.

Is the work situation to blame? Bennetts tells us that:

Even all these years after the women's movement emerged, working mothers must still confront the intransigence of a corporate culture whose extreme hours, inflexible structures and hostility toward caretaking needs can make the juggling act very difficult.

But in today's aggressive, steep peak of competiveness and urgency for survival, workplaces demand a high quality of excellence and mindfulness to one's labor. To progress and succeed one needs intent conscientiousness and constant improvement. The person who does not provide this lags. The business that fails in showcasing this may fail. Businesses need whole-minded motivation and presence from their employees in order to maintain the industry's survival. The business also needs the employee to devote himself to career improvement. The employee who fails to do so for family concerns can always choose another job. That is his prerogative, not that of the industry that employs him. So, therefore, the business is hardly ever, if at all, to blame for taking the employee away from his family.

Bennetts, too, grouches about the low level of pay that working mothers receive particularly in comparison to that of men. "Can any of us defend the fact those women's standard of living drops by 36% after divorce, whereas that of men rises by 28%?

Again, the situation is not so simple. Some women are in jobs (and choose these job) that naturally pay less than those that males may choose. Others deliberately choose low pay in preference to the extended hours that they can be away from work to devote to their families. With others, it is naturally the case that their lapse in their resume and their gaps in their vocational knowledge result in less skilled performance and in lower work positions, inevitably resulting in lower pay. There is no question of fairness or unfairness in this case. This is simply the position.

And then there are the situations where women, with comparable skills to men and in similar positions, are paid less. Gender discrimination continues

Ultimately, therefore, and in summation of Bennett's (2007) argument it seems to me that females have every right to be frustrated. Not living up to one's potential, as Adler (in his Adlerian psychodynamic approach) notes can result in all sorts of negative conditions including depression.

It is a sense of personal meaning and the feeling that one is a contributory member to society that stimulates one's life and accords one emotional and mental health.

Nonetheless, exploration of each of Bennett's targets shows that none of these can be held accountable either. The man needs to involve himself in a meaningful career just as much as the woman does. The workplace needs the individual to devote himself to his work. And monetary compensation has to correspond to level of skill and input.