James Levine Quotes

The key to success for any woman who wants to have a really serious career and a family is to marry a guy who is going to take at least half the responsibility for the house and kids - and sometimes more than half.

Many women cut back what had to be done at home by redefining what the house, the marriage and, sometimes, what the child needs. One woman described a fairly common pattern: I do my half. I do half of his half, and the rest doesn't get done.

My husband gave up all his work to stay at home with the kids, and we split all the duties at home. I do all the boring stuff - like pay the bills, and he does all the exercising for both of us, which I'm very grateful for... I thank him for it regularly.

I'd like us to deliver a little message to all the men still out there who think it's the '50s, and coming home simply means watching television with a beer.

Why do otherwise sane, competent, strong men, men who can wrestle bears or raid corporations, shrink away in horror at the thought of washing a dish or changing a diaper?

When my dad needed a shirt ironed, he would yell downstairs to my mother, who would drop everything and iron his shirt.

Many men today can cook, or at least order takeout, and know where and how to hire domestic help, perhaps with refreshing clarity and less anxiety than ever-conflicted mothers.

And, over the last thirty years we have seen men's participation in both housework and childcare has increased and women's have stayed at about the same.

So, the total number of hours spent on the stuff you have to do to take care of a family, working and caring for stuff at home, the total number of hours is actually about the same for mothers and fathers.

If I can do it, men can certainly do it. It's interesting now to talk about equality in the home and involving men in household chores such that women don't have to over extend themselves doing both her job and coming home and doing all the household chores. So, that kind of sharing the load is something that I have seen in my family growing up.

Most women work one shift at the office or factory and a 'second shift' at home.

Women are not going to be equal outside the home until men are equal in it.

When men do all the outside work, they contribute on average about 10 percent of housework. But as their share of outside work falls, their share of housework rises to no more than 37 percent.

My parents were liberal intellectuals but even they expected me to stay at home and look after my younger siblings and do the housework.

My wife works harder than anyone else with the children around the house. I make the money, sure, but she does everything else.

Most men I know rely on women to do all the literal dirty work.

I've never been drawn to the feminist movement. I was brought up to believe that men had little to do with the home or children - except to bring in the money.

It's more pressure on women to - if they marry or partner with someone, to partner with the right person. Because you cannot have a full career and a full life at home with your children if you are also doing all of the housework and child care.

The more brutal it gets in the working world, the more appealing the prospect of having someone at home creating a sanctuary becomes. Increasingly couples, particularly with children, are making that tough choice, with one or other partner electing to embrace domestic duties while the other brings home the cash.

Just as there is a wage gap between men and women in the workplace, there is a 'leisure gap' between them at home. Most women work one shift in the office or factory and a 'second shift' at home.

And whereas women had to fight to find their way into the workforce, men are now fighting to reclaim their place in the family structure.

I'm not saying that women shouldn't pursue careers, but if it is going to be equal in the workplace, it should certainly pan out to be a little bit more equal in the home, too.

We go to college, live together or marry, and have kids - often with little more thought to the daily routines of raising children than our grandparents gave them, when women by and large stayed at home.

My ideals told me that men and women could both go out to work and be truly equal. My children told me something more complicated, something I really didn't want to hear. Their need for me was like the need for water or light: it had a devastating simplicity to it.

The benefits of feminism for someone like my husband are fantastic. He can stay at home with the kids, he can take them to a park, he does the school run.