Naomi Feltham
Montreat College
A Critique of “Her Problem Is Our Problem: Why We Must Change Our Views On Working Mothers”
At the beginning of this article the author, Rogers describes how women from certain social classes are treated differently depending on how they choose to take time from work when their child is sick. She explains that middle class mothers are encouraged to postpone their working schedule and told that doing otherwise is selfish and damaging to their children, while lower working class mothers are told that they’re lazy for even thinking about staying home with their children (Rogers, 2014). Authors Susan Douglas and Meredith Michaels, point out in their book The Mommy Myth, that in the 90s, the high obsession with celebrity mothers exploded and the welfare mother rose alongside it. Women of lower classes were not seen to engage in a traditional life of marriage before children, and were pitied against higher class mothers. The same problem kept arising over and over, even in the Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Brink. A large part of the book showed speeches and conversations of the women who faced financial problems and how they dealt with them. Results showed, as expected that every mother has the same goal, to love and care for her family at all costs. Women at the lower end of the financial spectrum have the same family goals in life as those of higher classes. Rogers agreed that there are many differences in each of our lives, but even though there are these differences, we should not categorise one another because of the “stubborn disregard for a woman’s need in the workplace” (Rogers, 2014). Author of the ground-breaking article "Why Women Still Can’t Have it All," Anne-Marie Slaughter believes that “the root of the problem for working mothers of all income groups is that our culture doesn’t value childcare” (Rogers 2014). This causes a great problem to many working mothers as there are no early childhood programs to put their children into at a young age. Maternity is very short, and private childcare takes up a huge amount of our pay checks every month.
Rogers’ beliefs are very strong and the facts are clear. Why should a woman from a lower working class background be seen to care less for her child than a woman of a higher working class? The author is precise in saying: We can’t continue to divide the culture into us and them, their problems and ours (Rogers, 2014). In god’s eyes all humans are equal, regardless of their gender, race or working class. Why should a lower working class woman be on the verge of losing her job because she needs to take a day from work to take care of her sick child? God wants us all equal.