Toxic Ideals
As to why so many younger western women are leaving Christianity, part of it has to do with the problems with complimentarianism. Especially when it comes to being the perfect homemaker, but when certain occupations require you to be away from family for a given time being that it’s practically unattainable and impractical. With nursing, you have to attend to a sick person’s needs to the point where family may not always be prioritised.
Similar things can be said of working in factories where they spend hours and hours working on something en masse, they have to be exacting and good at this or else they’ll be get fired and risk becoming unemployed. The homemaker ideal is alienating to women who work long hours at either the hospital or the factory, even if they have family to attend to but when work becomes important they’ll be willing to do what it takes to earn money even if they may not always be with family members.
The homemaker ideal is thus best suited to those who either have part time jobs or work at home or both, not so much to those who have to work elsewhere. It could be the factory, it could be the hospital, it could also be the bank or performing arts when it comes to touring around the world and recording music. I feel this is why so many young western women are alienated by Christianity, especially if it doesn’t take their occupations into consideration.
But this would mean the homemaking ideal is impractical for their lifestyles and job requirements, which means something has to change if we were to sympathise with their struggles at work at all.
