Yesterday, Hilary Rosen, a Democratic strategist and Democratic National Convention advisor, said that Ann Romney “never worked a day in her life.”
By Rosen’s standard, raising children—five boys, in Mrs. Romney’s case—apparently doesn’t count as work. The nation’s 85.4 million mothers would likely disagree.
Rosen has since apologized for her remarks, saying her words “were poorly chosen.”
Yet, as Carrie Lukas, managing director of Independent Women’s Forum notes:
It’s tempting, of course, to hold this remark up as evidence of the very low opinion that many on the Left hold of stay-at-home moms. Feminists like Linda Hirshman, author of Get to Work … and Get a Life Before It’s Too Late have helped create the sense that many on the Left consider women who take time out of the workforce as letting down the sisterhood, and failing to contribute to society in any meaningful way.
And as Penny Nance, president and CEO of Concerned Women for America, asserts, Rosen’s remarks are evidence of “a deeper problem with the values of this administration and even sometimes society at large.” She went on:
We say raising kids is the hardest and most important work in the world. How does this administration not get how important stay-at-home moms are to our nation? Haven’t they heard the saying, “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world”?
And if women had it their way, they would spend more time at home with their children. A 2007 Pew Survey reveals that 70 percent of full-time working mothers with children under 18 would prefer to work either part-time or not at all. The number of women who prefer to stay at home has grown since the late 1990s. As the Pew report shows, today just 21 percent of all working mothers say that full-time work is the most ideal situation for them, compared to 32 percent who said that in 1997.
However, the Obama Administration’s big government policies make it more difficult for families to make ends meet, restricting mothers’ ability to choose their ideal work situations. Burdensome taxes along with a rising national debt not only mean that families have less economic freedom today and that future generations will be strapped with the debt created by their predecessors.
Mothers are a priceless resource to their children, families, and the nation. Policies should support mothers—and fathers—who work hard every day to nurture the next generation of Americans.
