SJS, you mention short term learning (for a few years).
This is part of the problem, IMO. If you look at many middle aged roshei yeshiva/maggidei shiur/even future moetzes members, you will find that many of them were only learning full time for about five years, then they took their first positions. Now out of town kollelim are full of families that came back from E”Y after a few years. Not my business how they’re making it but boy am I curious.
And kol hakovod to the girls who are getting the degrees and working hard. I should say that some families do need the girls to be somewhat independent – clothes, other expenses – due to their financial situations, and the girls may not be able to save as much as they’d like.
I just read a reprint of the Betty Friedan Good Housekeeping article that started it all, reprinted in honor of its 50th anniversary. My friends, they won!!! We’re not raising our girls to want to stay home. We’re raising them to feel guilty and inadequate if and when they want to stay home. Because these wonderful girls who have the degrees and are doing well may still find themselves reaching that point at some point sooner than they’d like. And unless the young men are getting good hadracha and have a real exit plan, they’ll still need major support while they’re in school or getting training. “Business” isn’t for everyone.
I’m tempted to just delete this all. There are no chiddushim here. (If anyone found anything I said to be a chiddush do let me know.)