LETTER: Barefoot and pregnant?

In his Sunday column, Victor Joecks quotes Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker talking to college graduates saying we females have been told “diabolical lies,” thereby insinuating that college educations are simply stepping stones to marriage and family. Are we to believe that women are to be barefoot and pregnant? What century are these guys living in?

Why does a fulfilling and contributory career have to be exclusive of marriage and motherhood? How many mothers have been role models for their children as they forge careers and create a happy home environment? Also, have they not checked out the divorce rate, which I believe hovers around 50 percent across all demographics? Try being thrust into single motherhood after a divorce without work experience. “Happier and wealthier”? What a huge assumption that women in that commencement ceremony are most excited about their future marriages and children.

Then Mr. Joecks takes a weird turn quoting an author saying that “many single childless adults die essentially alone.” I’ve known many married men and women with children who end up dying essentially alone.

Personal happiness for women is an amalgam of many facets, and marriage and family are only one aspect of “happiness.” We ladies have had to fight the bulk of the 20th century to be recognized, educated and rewarded. Let’s not let a football player or a columnist imply that single, childless women are somehow not fulfilled because they aspire to be doctors, lawyers, engineers, newspaper reporters, etc.