And it is insulting to women. Caroline Forell, an expert on women's legal rights and a professor at the University of Oregon School of Law, puts it bluntly: 'Failing to require this of women makes us lesser citizens'" (Quindlen 2001).

At first Brady's essay may seem an artifact of a time long past, when women had few opportunities for advancement. Yet her words forcefully remind the reader that the common image of the idyllic gender-divided household was profoundly inequitable. It was not that women did not work and serve, but rather their service and work -- at home, for men -- often went unacknowledged. "I would like to go back to school so that I can become economically independent, support myself, and, if need be, support those dependent upon me. I want a wife who will work and send me to school" Brady writes (Brady 1971). In other words, during...
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