Here’s a novel suggestion in response to the economic crisis:
I propose a revolution. Our whole social order is flawed because we no longer understand the duty of the sexes. The duty of men is to talk about G-d by the city gates, make speeches and occasionally kill each other. The duty of women is to make sure everyone has enough to eat and to laugh at the men behind their backs.
. . .
The necessary measures are clear: we must revoke all of the political privileges of women, and in turn forbid men from making or spending money of any sort. The 19th amendment must go. Credit card companies and banks will close accounts held by men, and stores will refuse to sell to them or hire them as employees. Only academic, theological, political, sporting and military careers will be open to men, and all shall be strictly unremunerated. If it is necessary for the purposes of democracy to pay public officials a salary, let it be paid to their wives, or to their nearest female kin if they are unmarried.
Schaengold points out that this seems to be “more or less the division of labor proposed in Proverbs 31” which says (among other things):
A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.
Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.
She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.
She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.
She gets up while it is still dark;
she provides food for her family
and portions for her servant girls.
She considers a field and buys it;
out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks.
She sees that her trading is profitable,
and her lamp does not go out at night.
. . .
When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
Her husband is respected at the city gate,
where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
I don’t know if Scripture is really presenting this arrangement as normative, but a man could get used to it very quickly.
