The new-age nuclear family

Thanks to the suffragettes and women's rights activists from yesteryear, today's women have greater concerns than tea etiquette and needlepoint. But caught up in the frenzy of equal rights and new-fangled freedoms, did they even stop once to think about the immense burden they would impose upon the future of womankind? \nEveryday, a woman must contend with an infinite list of choices. What other studies exist for her beyond the scope of home economics and typing? Should she hyphenate her last name? Skirt or pants? With wings or without? The little blue pills or the patch? \nAnd on top of those really tough issues, career women have to deal with the other questions that come along with liberation, such as what is her bigger priority -- family or career? Women who choose their jobs sometimes feel regret when they reach the middle of their lives without children, and sometimes, women who settle down too soon wish they had waited until after establishing a career. It's a conundrum. \nOr is it? Utah's Tom Green, not MTV's, a fellow feminist, might have a resolution. \nGreen loves women. If he weren't in jail right now for polygamy, he'd have five wives to prove it. Last Friday, "Dateline" interviewed both Green and his wives about their unorthodox lifestyles. \nDuring the story, reporter Margaret Larson asked one wife, Hannah, to respond to cynics who suggest that she has been shortchanged four-fifths of a husband. \nHannah cheerfully said, "I'd rather have my one-fifth than not have him at all." \nWithout a doubt, polygamy increases Hannah's self-esteem.\nThe wives insisted having several women around the house makes life easier: less cooking, more help raising the children and a house full of girlfriends. What could be more liberating? Polygamy doesn't oppress women; it frees them. \nImagine the benefits. A career woman would never have to drop her kids off at a day care when a handful of other mothers are in her home. While she works overtime at the office, she never has to wonder whether or not her husband sleeps with other women; the answer would always be yes. Her day becomes less cumbersome.\n"It's helpful to think of polygamy in terms of a free-market approach to marriage," said Elizabeth Joseph, a Utah attorney, journalist and sixth wife in a pluralist marriage. "Why shouldn't you or your daughters have the opportunity to marry the best man available, regardless of his marital status?" \nBecause Joseph is a professional woman, she understands the difficulty her cohort has finding men that aren't already married. It's in a woman's best interest to marry as young and as soon as possible to beat the rush. According to statistics by the U.S. Census Bureau, a whopping 2.1 percent of men 24 years old and younger are already hitched. Ladies, with a rate like that, who has time after graduation to worry about whether or not Mr. Right already has wives? \n Sure, it sounds ingenious, but is this proposal for a feminist-polygamous movement too radical? \n In a press release, the Utah chapter of the National Organization for Women indirectly discussed polygamy, stating "common ground … includes the need for working women to have quality child care and for all women to make their own lifestyle choices." However, NOW officially states it has "no stand on polygamy." \nSurely, underneath that thin layer of indifference is suppressed approval. \nGreat strides have been made since the days of twentieth century women's rights activists. Thanks to their victorious efforts on behalf of equal rights for both sexes, today, women can exercise their right to choose their subservience to men. \nPolygamy simply offers feminist women a way to live up to their full potential.