Friday, February 14, 2014
MWPC Responds: A Little Valentine's Day Straight Talk
“Young women in college need to smarten up and start
husband-hunting,” begins Susan Patton’s 2014 Valentine’s Day op-ed in the Wall
Street Journal (read below). Patton’s thoughts on this Valentine’s Day are focused on
reminding young women that their “biological clock is ticking,” and we should
be “spending far more time planning for your husband than for your career.”
In 2014, young women in college are expected to, by Patton’s
standards, seek out and meet as many “like-minded, age-appropriate single men”
as possible. Don’t forget taking it slow in relationships, Patton warns. She
even concedes that this ideal might be a “message of yesterday,” but insists
that it still applies: “Men won’t buy the cow if the milk is free.”
In 2014, a female writes an op-ed insinuating women are
commodities to be “bought.”
At the MWPC, we see the career development of women across
the Commonwealth as the most central and decisive way to positively impact our
state, and thus the nation. Hopefully, the young women of Massachusetts have
not internalized this type of sexist oppression, but instead stand up against
it. They can stand up against it by studying hard, making goals, and striving
to be better for themselves and the ones they love. If those goals include some
day starting a family, being in a committed relationship, or getting married to
a man or a woman, that is wonderful. If they do not, that is wonderful too.
Brittany Straughn
