[True_Moose]

Most of what I think can be summed up in Kaltia's, Mel's and Harley's posts.

While it is perhaps true, Firestorm, that females/males' differences are not as purely aesthetic as that between races (as you imply,) and there is definitely some different things happening within the body (testosterone, estrogen, all that stuff), it's yet to be proven that that has anything to do with sheer intelligence levels. I personally think that the intellectual differences between the two are minimal, when compared at equal levels. Sure, Joe Trailertrash is going to look bad when compared to Marie Curie, but likewise is someone like Britney Spears going to look equally deplorable as compared to, say, Abraham Lincoln. The vast majority of the differences IMHO are aesthetical, and really, until it is proven otherwise, male and female are identical to me intellectually.

As to whether a woman should stay home: someone sure as heck should. I know of both male and female teachers at my school who are on parental leave, and I agree with that. I think that forcing women to stay home is wrong, as is doing the same to men. However, someone must stay home, if purely for the child. The reason that this tends to fall towards the woman is threefold: women usually take at least substantial amounts of time off of work while pregnant (ultrasounds, checkups, all that) so their employers have already compensated, women have usually been stereotyped into the role, but also, they do (deny it as much as you want, it's true) have natural maternal urges. I don't think they should be forced to, and it's not wrong for the father to stay home (and would help in a lot of cases.) So I guess what I'm saying is: mother or father, who cares, as long as one of them home. [img]smile.gif[/img]