The Women’s Movement of The 70’s is Being Blamed for The Downfall of America’s Education System: On What or Who Do We Blame The Downfall of The Rest of Our Professions and Jobs on?

I recently read an article where two men did research on various areas of American lives. One of their conclusions was as to why education in this country has gone downhill to such an extend. They put for a good argument making the women rights movement of the seventies the culprit.

I must say there argument was pretty straightforward and made a lot of sense. Their premise was, that prior to the women’s movement, a woman had few choice of careers. Most businesses did hire females for top positions with their firms, and even medical school was much tougher for men.

The only real career choice for women who wanted a career was teaching. The result was that not only were there more teachers available but, those who made a career in teaching were the best and brightest women out there.

After the women’s rights movement jobs opened up in what was once considered men’s fields, such as accounting and business. More careers were available to women in law and medicine and even in the branches of the service. These fields were now attracting the best and brightest women our colleges and universities had to offer. The women who wanted to have a full time career began going where the big money was.

This left the teaching profession short staffed and those who did go into teaching were not necessarily women (or men for that matter) who were looking for careers, but simply wanting jobs. Teaching was no longer calling but simply a way for people to make money. A means to an end.

The dedication and commitment that past women had brought to the career of teaching was now being given to other fields of endeavor and in the end hurt our children and grandchildren.

I might agree with this assessment and in fact, part of it may be correct. However, that does not change the attitude of American worker’s in general. I have witnessed the change in commitment and attitude not only in teachers in the last 30 years, but in the entire work force in general.

As a college graduation in the mid seventies I am a product of two different worlds, two entirely different work ethics, and two very different attitudes about education and work in general.

On the one hand I grew up watching my father put in long 12 hour days, as the owner of his own business. I watched the men who worked for him, show up for work on time, give a full days work for their wages, and treat my father with respect.

In return my father, made sure these employees got a decent wage, good health insurance, and when they or their families were ill he made sure they did not lose out when they could not work for a limited period of time.

It was a job based on mutual respect and need.

Today, I see employees show up for work late, some barely do their jobs once they arrive, collect their paycheck and often belittle their employer in essence biting the hand that feeds them.

In return, I have seen employers instead of firing the poor workers and rewarding the good workers do the opposite. They rely on their good workers piling more and more work upon them while lightening the load of those workers that do little.

I have seen employers go on extravagant vacations taking not only family but friends as well and then crying to their employees that they can’t afford to pay them a decent wage.

Employment is no longer for the mutual benefit of employee and employer. It has come to be an every man for himself situation where those who grew up under the old work ethic find ourselves floundering.

We go to our jobs each day, put in a full days work, and come home and ask ourselves why we made the effort when those around us receive the same pay, and often more benefits for doing little work.

We complain about our economy shrinking, jobs being lost, and wages and hours being cut, and blame the government, past and current Presidents, and anyone else we can find. Not understanding that they like all other American’s have somewhere along the line lost the motivation and desire to work hard or to give just rewards for those who do.

While you can argue that education has gone down hill because of the Women’s movement of the 70’s, we can’t lay the blame for the downfall of all other businesses on anything but ourselves.