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The Radical Idea of Marrying for Love

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The Radical Idea of Marrying for Love
Rebecca Timmons
Professor Cross
English Composition II
20 June 2013

Marrying for Love, Is it worth it?

The way woman are perceived is constantly changing. In our culture there are so many aspects of the role woman portray. In the Book, “The Radical idea of marrying for Love” Coontz explores the many different cultures and how the way perceive marriage has changed. Their was a time when we looked at marriage as a need for survival to society and to our race, in some coutries marriage is still seen this way. Our culture today looks more upon the emotional aspect of marriage. Men and woman want a more sexually and emotionally fulfilling relationship. Coontz also looks at other cultures such as England that marry for station and the need to produce an heir to the throne. Is there truly a happily ever after? With Divorce on the rise and The expectations of your mother are not the same as for you. Taking care of your family has taken on a different set of challenges and obstacles, and with the addition of so many single mothers this has become the only honorable choice. Does this mean that one job is more important than the other? Housewives work, equally as hard as mothers who join the workforce; however, they do not receive the same respect as a mother with employment outside of an apron. Both positions have equally the same challenges and downfalls. The same author shows two different insights in this opposition, one in the defense of the housewife, the other written by a woman who gave up her life for her family and in return was left alone and uneducated with no means of taking care of herself. This would be the defense for woman in the workforce.

In the first article published in the New York Times (20 December 1977), Terry Martin Hekker titles the article “The Satisfactions of Housewifery and Motherhood” and describes the way that society views stay at home mothers. Hekker begins by describing her job as a housewife/ mother, in the

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