It amazes me there are some people who embrace a reactionary movement that wants to restrict the role of women. Maybe not as restrictive as the dystopian “The Handmaid’s Tale,” but some want women restricted to a motherly role. Of course, that pre-Women’s Movement memory does not recall that many families could not afford one wage earner, but let’s set that aside for now.

Let me instead mention a key theme these folks are missing from the book “Half the Sky” by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Women hold up half the sky and regions and countries that devalue 1/2 of their assets, cannot compete as well. For people who want to make women more subservient, they should realize more than 1/2 of the people in universities in the US are women. Let’s reflect on women’s role in science, eg.

From an AI Search Summary “Famous female scientists have fundamentally changed our understanding of the world, from radioactivity and DNA to space exploration and environmentalism. Key figures include….

Pioneering Physicists and Chemists
Marie Curie (1867–1934): Pioneered research on radioactivity, discovering polonium and radium. She was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes.
Rosalind Franklin (1920–1958): A British chemist whose X-ray diffraction images (Photo 51) were critical to discovering the DNA double helix structure.
Maria Goeppert Mayer (1906–1972):Won the Nobel Prize in Physics (1963) for proposing the nuclear shell model.
Lise Meitner (1878–1968): Physicist who played a key role in the discovery of nuclear fission.

Biology, Medicine, and Environmental Science
Rachel Carson (1907–1964): Marine biologist and conservationist whose book Silent Spring sparked the modern environmental movement.
Jennifer Doudna (1964–) & Emmanuelle Charpentier (1968–):Awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing CRISPR-Cas9, a genome-editing technology.
Gerty Cori (1896–1957): First woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1947) for her work on metabolism.
Jane Goodall (1934–): Primatologist renowned for her long-term study of chimpanzees.
Alice Ball (1892–1916): Chemist who developed the “Ball Method,” the most effective treatment for leprosy in the early 20th century.

Astronomy, Engineering, and Technology
Ada Lovelace (1815–1852): Often credited as the first computer programmer for her work on Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine.
Katherine Johnson (1918–2020): NASA mathematician whose orbital mechanics calculations were critical to the success of US manned spaceflights.
Mae C. Jemison (1956–): Physician and first African-American woman to travel in space (1992).
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900–1979): Astronomer who proposed that stars were primarily composed of hydrogen and helium.
Grace Hopper (1906–1992): Computer scientist who pioneered computer programming languages.

Geology and Paleontology
Mary Anning (1799–1847): A pioneering fossil hunter whose findings in Jurassic marine fossil beds fundamentally changed scientific thinking about prehistoric life.
Joan Murrell Owens (1933–2011):Geologist who identified new coral species and was the first African American woman to earn a geology PhD.”

These are examples of women’s success in the field of science. I have written before about the actress Hedy Lamarr who developed and patented a communication device for guiding torpedoes that found itself in every cell phone today. I also wrote about a Mary Sherman Morgan who was the first female rocket scientist. But, let’s set that aside.

Not every woman is a scientist. Not every woman is a mother. But, women everywhere work hard at what is asked of them, Many have dual roles of being the main health caretaker in a family while working one or more jobs. Those who want women to focus on the motherly role, need to realize the significant majority of women don’t have that choice – they must do both. For those men who want a wife like that, my reaction is they are are selling women short. They also are failing to learn the lesson of Cat Stevens’ song which says “I’m looking for a hard-headed woman, one who will make me do my best.”