What Do the French Women Want

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People often ask me about women's liberation. In reply I can only reflect on the society I know best, France, and what I see here in China, where I now live. What is it like to grow up female in France?For one thing, I have never noticed any prenatal preference for little boys, unlike in China. I presume this is because of France's highly developed social welfare system; French people no longer look to their children for financial support when they get old. Moreover, as there is no one-child policy, there1 is no temptation1 to selective infanticide or abortion. The French government has a long tradition of encouraging births, because the country has had a comparatively low birthrate for over two centuries.Families with numerous children receive financial aid from the state, and of course education is free and compulsory for all children through the age of 16.

Very few children leave school before that age, and a high percentage of lice graduates go on to university. There certain male-female differences are still apparent; girls tend to take arts degree while boys predominated ^."i^f1 heavily in technical subjects. Consequently young women often find themselves at a disadvantage in the competition for jobs, but this is the result of their free choice, not social pressure or discrimination.I regard this liberty as beautiful, even if it does lead people to make impractical choices at times; people care genuinely for the subjects they choose to study. Still, many women find that after twenty happy years studying things they love, they spend the next forty as frustrated "assistants.

"When today's average Frenchwoman gets out of school, she is eventually able to get a job that enables her to live simply but decently. Real middle-class comfort, however, requires another, bigger income, so most married women are still in some sense dependent on their husbands. 1 he economic realities translate into a situation in which wives with outside jobs are also the house-keepers; they do the cooking and washing and look after the kids.In the 1980s, it looked as if French society might be headed in another direction. Many women were trying to do everything, from raising the kids to fighting their way" up the career ladder. In the end they wore themselves out'*: with so many commitments, they had no time to rest. Just as bad, the situation at home was deteriorating : nobody was home to keep things in order. Family size shrank and numerous "DINK" (= double income, no kids): households appeared couples who had rejected or given up on the idea of children.What future was there for a society of DINK manages? From a French perspective (again, recall our historical trouble with a low birthrate), wasn't it selfish of couples to refuse to become parents?These clays French women have slowed down a bit. They no longer think of jobs and money as the only means of achieving their goals in life. Women's liberation looks disquietingly like the "right" to work more.

Are liberated career women happier than satisfied mothers? If men are happy working, and women are happy helping them to deal with pressure, what is there to criticize? I don't think equality is at stake': this is simply a rational division of labor.1 believe that creating a harmonious family is a woman's duty. Success doesn't depend wholly on women, but they still play by far the greater role. The real issue isn't whether men and women are equal, but rather what makes for a good life. What are the criteria by which we decide that a life is adequate, or admirable? Why, I must ask, is success in a career so often seen as tan?tamount6 to success in life? If I, as a woman, succeed as a wife and mother and find my job experience positive and satisfying, then I will regard my existence as. . . not bad, and be content with it.Maybe we should stop focusing on women and remember that for men, too, it is hard not to see their own children growing up. I am sure many husbands would be happier with less time-consuming careers that allowed them to come home and play with the children.

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