Let’s not ever return to the ‘good old days’
To the editor:
The good old days — how many times have I heard people talk about the way it used to be back in the good old days! If only we could go back to the way things were! Well as a female, I for one, have no interest in going back to those days.
Changes that have occurred over the last 60 years have impacted women’s lives for the better in so many ways. As a young girl, I felt that my choices, if I wasn’t a housewife, were limited to secretary, nurse or teacher. Girls were not encouraged to think about careers and it was normal to expect to grow up, get married and have children.
The advent of new birth control methods and the legalization of the use of birth control for married couples by the Supreme Court in 1960 (Griswold v. Connecticut) began to give women more freedom to plan their families and to consider careers outside the home. In 1972 the Supreme Court (in Baird v. Eisenstadt) legalized birth control for all citizens, irrespective of marital status. Women were given more options for how to live their lives, and haven’t looked back since.
Today’s young girls are encouraged to seek whatever interests them as far as careers go and we see females enjoying success in all walks of life. Mothers working outside the home are common and women are now filling many jobs that were considered to be for men only back in the “good old days.”
Some people say that society has many problems associated with women entering the workforce — children going to day care couldn’t possibly be as good as being home with their mother. I would contend that lots of the changes that have happened as a result of women going to work are very positive. The playing field is leveled when both parents contribute financially as well as share the responsibilities of managing a household and caring for a family.
From what I see, fathers have had the opportunity to become much more involved in the daily lives of their children, from changing diapers to cooking and grocery shopping. Isn’t more involvement with the family a wonderful thing for fathers? Isn’t everyone working together to share in the family experience good for everyone? I think so.
There have been organizations that have been instrumental in helping women through this journey. Planned Parenthood is one that has provided a wide range of services — birth control, cancer screenings, counseling — for any woman who needs them. Information about birth control plus affordable access to it has enabled many women to effectively plan their families and to avoid pregnancy when they so choose, so that they can pursue their dreams and interests.
The federal government provides funding to Planned Parenthood, but the current efforts by the president and some lawmakers call for defunding this organization. Why would cutting funds to an organization that is so valuable to so many women make our society better? What would women who have no other access to affordable birth control do then?
Women are smart, women are motivated, women are able. Women now have choices that were not imagined in my childhood mainly because birth control is available. Let’s not restrict access for women who have no other source by refusing to support organizations who help all women make their own reproductive choices. Let’s not go back to the “good old days.”
Malinda Winder
Mifflintown
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