We had a good balance between family and other pursuits for women from the 1920s-1960s. Women were eager to get married, have children, and raise them, taking care of the household while their husbands brought home the income. But at the same time they had women's sports, and women who were single or widows or divorced could easily get good jobs in the job market.
I don't know if that balance can be maintained in the long term. It tends toward a breakdown in the family structure. You get latch-key kids sitting on their steps, waiting for their mothers to come home and feed them. That's the start of the decay. It tends toward divorce. Greater independence by women naturally inclines some of them to reject their husbands and children more easily.
Maybe that is why the Muslims control women as rigidly as they do. Maybe it's not about the suppression of women, but rather about the survival of a healthy society. Maybe for any healthy society, women need to be kept in the roles of mothers and homemakers. That was true for the ancient Romans, and the Roman Empire lasted for more than a thousand years. Men need to be men, and women need to be women, in order for a society to survive. Once you start blurring those lines, you are finished.
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