I had my sons do “pink jobs” as much as blue…and I failed in one area: I let my eldest go to college in a red, very rural state. He had mysoginistic college roommates. Now he has a trad wife graduating in May with an engr degree and she’s not going to work bc they want to have 10 kids, starting asap. (He should be encouraging her as an equal.)
Another regret: I allowed him to live FT with his dad at age 14. I still saw him as we lived 1 mile apart, but much less. I got my engineering degree in the ‘90s and the E in STEM is still a low 10% women. My daughter avoided Engineering due to extreme mysoginy in her HS robot club and with what she witnessed in my career, growing up. (I overshared but I fought back and shared that.)
His dad is far from mysoginistic, I swear I don’t know how he got so indoctrinated. Now he’s getting reinforced by the eradication of DEI. He and his sister no longer talk to each other.
I wish I could go back in time and advise myself. Moms are the root of changing male society. Had to vent, sorry.
Comments
I’m sorry for your experience, but I kind of disagree with the conclusion you’ve made. You’re not at fault for what happened. My half-brother is misogynistic too and it’s not because of my mother AND HIS FATHER. We can all make a difference and moms shouldn’t have all the pressure of being a parent and giving an education. Education is also (unfortunately) not everything.
Because our kids track that which clenches our asses the most and they use that to rebel. Rebelling is normal; healthy even as a way to establish ourselves as separate entities from our parents. Every single one of my friends that went through it used their parents hot button issue to do it.