Dr. Emily Martin examines how "male flight" from female-dominated professions—like nursing (historically 90% women) or teaching—keeps wages stagnant, framing it as systemic devaluation rather than choice. She counters viral claims that motherhood surpasses careers by citing 2020’s record-low fertility rates and studies showing married mothers rank among the happiest demographics, yet critiques cultural pushback against traditional roles. Even in dual-income households, women handle 67% of childcare and household labor, debunking "grooming" myths while exposing ideological contradictions like "equal rights, equal lefts" merch. The episode reveals that societal messaging, not inherent dissatisfaction, drives declining marriage rates since 1867. [Automatically generated summary]
And we lack the opportunity to have real meaningful conversations about what's best for humanity.
Yeah.
And I do want to say, too, when you mention things like teachers, it is true that when we look at a broad scope of women's careers versus men's careers, especially historically, women do, again, they're pushed into it.
And so now we have more opportunity.
But women were typically secretaries, nurses, teachers, and fields that were female-dominated were underpaid.
In what time period?
I think they're talking about the 1900s.
And continue to be underpaid because they're female-dominated.
There's a principle called male flight that when more women enter into a career field, men leave.
And then the wages for that position tend to either stagnate, they don't continue to increase as the as in.
Oh, I want to say something, but I can't.
I can't.
Okay, let me just, let me think.
So she said your study says that when women go into a career field, men leave and the wages don't increase.
Is it possible that they don't do as good of a job?
Not all, not all, not all.
Inflation in the years increase, or they decrease because women are now in those positions.
And so water societal perspective, women have found themselves in positions that are compensated less because they're seen as lesser than.
Okay, so I want to go to this topic of purpose, women, freedom of choice.
You mentioned something about women not finding their purpose to be motherhood or being wives, but I have a feeling, at least from my own lived experience, that motherhood and being married to my husband is the most.
What age?
What age did you do it?
I mean, that would be my question because it's one thing to say that, right?
But if that was your number one choice, you would have did it first.
Not saying right or wrong.
What age?
I don't know, this commentator in the middle.
Most important thing I've ever done, far more valuable being a mother than this podcast.
Let's just be real.
I love this podcast, but it's nowhere near compares to being a mother.
So I imagine people listening who are mothers, I would think people might want to discuss this together about that based on something you brought up.
So why don't you elaborate a little more on that and then you can respond?
Yeah, absolutely.
So again, this is all about choice.
I think that the whole point is realizing that both choices are valid and everything is going to be different for every woman because we're so unique and we're so individual.
And motherhood and being a wife can be incredibly fulfilling, which is why I'm pro-choice in all ways of life, because I don't think that it is my ability.
I don't think that it is my responsibility or that I even have the ability to say what will make you happy or what will make you happy, which is why we should all have equal opportunity and respect everyone's choices to do either.
To be a traditional wife and mother, to do a little bit of the in-between or to be a full-on career woman.
I think all of those are valid for different women.
You mentioned earlier something that stuck with me that embracing marriage or motherhood in the past for our mothers and grandmothers was elevating the men in their life rather than putting themselves first.
Can you elaborate on that?
Yeah, absolutely.
So typically women were encouraged to stay home, take care of the house, take care of the kids, while their husband, father, the father of their children, you know, went after their dreams.
They went after the promotions.
They dedicated their life to work and whatever.
Farming?
Coal mining?
Factory worker?
I mean, when I Googled it, that's what it said.
The job options were back then.
I don't, what dreams?
You had to be born into a royal family.
A peasant?
What was the welder?
I don't.
Where their passion was and whatever their purpose was.
And so women's jobs weren't necessarily to discover what their purpose and their passions are.
If it was, if it happened to be outside of motherhood and wifehood, it was instead to be like, well, just encourage him to do what he needs to do.
And you pick up all the pieces while he's out there.
Do you think that's still true today?
That marriage is inherently elevating men or motherhood is inherently elevating.
Riley Reed got married.
Or sorry, Riley Reid got married.
It's done.
There's no Nala got married.
You guys, conservatives, you let everybody in and you ruined it.
I don't know what to tell you.
You know, you simped for women.
You believed all these abuse claims.
You believed the hoes that came into church and said they were born again.
No one was shocked that the divorce rate today, if you look at the divorce stats, it's not different for people that are Christian, Catholic.
It's all the same or similar.
So congratulations.
It's dead.
The average marriage is eight years.
It doesn't exist.
It's gone.
Sorry.
If you make it work, you're the exception.
You're not the rule.
I hope you do.
I really do.
I wouldn't bet on it if I was a betting woman.
Elevating men.
Yeah, absolutely.
And there are statistics that show that even when women and men in the same households are working the same amount of hours, they're both full-time working parents, men or women will be more likely to be in charge of the kids' schedules, do all of the housework, and have more of that mental load of the household.
So even when in our modern society, where really economically people, families can't, a lot of us can't be single income.
We have to be dual income.
A lot of that load still lands on the woman and there's very, there's a domestic labor gap.
I think that follows with what young women are being told today: that marriage and motherhood is never something that you should pursue because it's going to be a choosing, our Mental load on you.
It's going to bring stress and hardship and negativity to your life, which obviously manifests in the trends that we're seeing societally.
You know, we have the lowest marriage rate right now since we began recording marriage rates in 1867.
And we hit an all-time low in the last 100 years fertility rate in 2020 to the point that we can't even replace our own existing population.
So clearly, this narrative that's being told to young women is overwhelmingly convincing that you are going to be miserable when you tie the knot and spend the rest of your life with one individual.
That's echoed through every single headline and viral social media video that we see at the exact same time.
And even more so, the life is going to be sucked out of you if you bring more life into the world.
But that's been proven to be the opposite over and over and over again through every generation.
The overwhelmingly happiest people in society are mothers and wives.
So how do you reconcile the difference between that?
Yeah, again, it depends on the studies that you look at.
And I, I mean, you guys can just go on TikTok and you find both.
Women treat TikTok like their diary.
You'll find ladies that say, oh, I'm super happy, trad life.
Then you find women complaining about their husband, then divorce.
Like, I'm not discounting that the people that stay married are the happiest, could be.
But you got to get the state, like choices reveal more than what people say.
Choices are going to reveal the most.
So, but the challenge is we can't make free choices when the state is holding a gun to the men's head and making them stay.
Recognize you continue to use this word never.
Women are told that they should never get married and never have children.
And I push back on that because I disagree.
Again, I think the idea is encouraging choice, encouraging intentional choice.
Is this really the person you want to be with?
Is this someone you can see as a partner?
Is this being a mother something that you couldn't imagine your life without?
Women are not being told to never do those things.
We're being told.
Well, they are quite frequently, actually.
Not by you, perhaps, but by many, many people in society, many of the most again, they're being told, being just so over it.
I'm so over women blaming society that caters to women.
That we're being told by society, which caters to us anyways, that we're being, they make it sound like we're groomed into the choices we make.
I mean, how many people told the girl that had sex with a thousand men, a hundred men, don't make that choice?
Okay, so that's all I got for you guys today.
I just thought this debate was interesting.
I wanted to react to it.
Let me know what you guys think.
And if you like it, I'll do more tomorrow.
If not, I'll pick something else.
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Give me some feedback on these because I wasn't, I was trying to debate what kind of merch to do.
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