[speaker001:] well the roles of women have certainly changed over the last uh decade or two and I wonder if the the stresses that it puts on the the woman's body is uh all that good for her as it were had had there been enough adjustments in society to help the woman cope with what she has to go through um support group wise or or just all the different aspects that men have developed over the years to handle what the world does to them uh how how is the woman's world coming along in that respect
[speaker002:] I think it's come along very slowly I think that uh a lot of the stresses that you talk about have have have taken a long time to become recognized but more strides are made toward addressing those stresses in women than ever were in men and I think that you know women have had stress you know for the last two hundred years but it's been a different kind of stress different kinds of situations because just being in the work place is different from being at home but at home you still have work to do you still have things to take care of but you don't have the responsibilities and the pressures that you have in the work place so a lot of women have a little bit of trouble adjusting to that but I feel like the in in the last couple of decades the the roles have almost come full circle because you know early on people were wanting to we were wanting to stay home with the kids and then they got into everybody has to have a career and it seems to be going back to a lot of women wanting to stay home with their kids although I don't think it'll ever go back to the way it used to be there will still be many many women who seek careers uh before they seek family
[speaker001:] do you think a matter of choice or economics both
[speaker002:] both I think it's it's a matter of both um economics economics has a lot to do with it unfortunately but uh I think a lot of choice has gone into it lately and and most of them or or a lot of women I know would rather
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] um if they have children they would rather stay home with them if if they if they possible can
[speaker001:] yeah that's true you know that's an interesting point that you brought up about the the fact that they essentially always have been under stress uh I would say more in the later latter years even those who stayed home had stress but when you're the one or the two out of ten women staying home on the block uh then the stresses that you do have uh the normal day-to-day stresses caring for children or whatever is occurring
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] uh you could go to at one time one era you could go to the other dozens of wives on the block or you could meet for tea or whatever and you had that stress relief uh built in
[speaker002:] yeah your neighbors that's true
[speaker001:] uh whereas now with it's a kind of fifty fifty split or leaning whatever percentage happens to be in your neighborhood like for our neighborhood we're looking at ninety percent working women let's say uh there's no place for the wife to go when she has uh those kind of of stresses to be relieved
[speaker002:] yeah right there's no one for her to go talk to and there's also no one to to kind of come in and take over for her and allow her some time to herself for even a day you know because there's fewer and fewer people left or women that left at home to do that
[speaker001:] so that's right about two months ago Omni Magazine which is a a science magazine are you familiar with that read an article um really restating some conclusions of some some uh
[speaker002:] um-hum yeah
[speaker001:] programs or some investigations or research whatever you want to call it into the the actual physical differences between men and women and questioning whether those physical differences uh accounted for some of the differences in ways women handled stress as opposed to men and I guess to just barely summarize what the article said was that in the the womb the differing levels of testosterone and estrogen across the lower part of the brain the base of the brain affected essentially how the brain was connected to the rest of the body
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] uh now how that has to deal with stress I'm not really sure since I thought most of the stress had to do with you know from the from the eyes and the mental processes on up I don't know what it would have to do with the connectivity to the rest of the body
[speaker002:] hum yeah
[speaker001:] but it was an interesting uh uh line of reasoning where we've always thought or been told especially by the for lack of a better term women's libber you know we're just the same as men well maybe not and and maybe you shouldn't be exposed to the stress the same way that men have
[speaker002:] right right
[speaker001:] have managed to do all these years and maybe it will take a lot longer before the physical physical evolution or for lack of a better term will occur to allow you to handle what we've put ourselves through
[speaker002:] yeah I agree with that I it it's something that um you know I guess science will eventually have all the answers to everything I don't know but it seems like it it would really be it's it's really difficult to put two person a male and a female in the same role in the same circumstances and have them react to have them and their bodies react to the same situation in similar similar ways I think you know even between a same sexes in a different in the same role there would there would be differences in the way one guy handled something over the way another guy would handle it so I I think when you put a male and a female in
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] in and when in comparison you know it would be uh completely different I mean just just totally different and it you know goes a lot of it goes back to the way you were raised as children you know the males are raised to believe this and be this way and the females are raised to believe something else and be this way and uh when when you're raised that way you you kind of perpetuate that oh those ideals that other people uh force upon you
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] and so you don't you're not able to well I I guess you are able to if you want to change them but you you stay in those roles for so long that it's it's hard to to adjust and it would take a a really long time for ethnic science to figure out you know what affects women how and how the same thing affects men I think it I just don't think it's any kind of study they can do in any even twenty or thirty year period of time you know
[speaker001:] yeah the subject would die before they had to run all the tests that they need that's it would be an exhausted test uh how about the the area of role models or roles as it were when you
[speaker002:] that's right  it would
[speaker001:] you know teach the boy that uh he fixes the car and the woman fixes the meal uh not not arguing that there should be a role for a sex but should there be uh a set of not not a specific role let's say let's not say that only the the girls should do the cooking but at any given generation or for any given
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] uh compatibility if you want a couple to be together shouldn't they have uh defined roles as it were uh certainly capable of sharing the other role for nothing more than empathy I mean it you know at least they understand what the other person is going through
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] uh not being a tremendous cook I I know what the burden of preparing a meal but I don't know what it would have taken to make that meal taste any better out on the budget I give her that kind of deal
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] so I I wonder I don't have any argument or any problem with women changing a given role as long as there's something on the other side let's say of of any relationship to
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] to match that I mean you don't want two people doing the same thing in the relationship
[speaker002:] to pick up the slack yeah that's right yeah yeah you have to it has to balance out
[speaker001:] so
[speaker002:] and I guess that's when you get into relationships and people people are attracted to people who compliment them most often I mean they say opposites attract and I'm not too sure I believe that very much but uh I think that people when they get into relationships you know if there's somebody who like like if you got two people who hate to cook they're going to eat out all the time and that you know that's not that big a deal but you know if you get somebody who likes to cook and someone who doesn't like to cook then the person who doesn't who doesn't like to cook probably likes to do something else you know so I think that people end up I think that that women are more diverse now than they ever were as far as what they have learned and what they're capable of and and uh what they're willing to do and so I feel like it you know that men have gotten to be that way too they've gotten a little bit more relaxed in their thinking about uh women and you know what they expect of them so I think that you know it's a slow evolution but I think it's it's it's a good process I think it's it's working you know there are still people who men who believe that women should be home you know all day
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and cooking dinner my husband's in the kitchen cooking dinner saying right on right on
[speaker001:] yeah I I I know one that's still that way but that's about it I'm down to one friend that holds that position still I'm the only one home right now and I I have the kids clamoring for my attention now so I understand what that's like
[speaker002:] yeah  yes so I I you know think that there are very few men who still feel that way and very few women who will tolerate a man who feels that way
[speaker001:] now that's an interesting point yeah I mean once the expectations are