Golda Meir, 1898-1978, former prime minister of Israel was the first female head of state in the western world.⠀ ⠀ She lived a life full of battles and conquests and was known for her strong will and determination as well as her warmth and caring towards her closed ones. ⠀She got married fairly young and convinced her husband to immigrate from Milwaukee to Israel with her. He took the backseat to her career aspirations and often took care of the house and kids whenever she travelled for work. ⠀ When asked about motherhood, Golda wrote the following, sometimes around 1928: ⠀ ⠀ "Taken as a whole, the inner struggles and the despairs of the mother who goes to work are without parallel in human experience. But within that whole there are many shades and variations. There are some mothers who work only when they are forced to.. In such cases, the mother feels her course of action justified by the compulsion. But there is a type of a woman who cannot remain home for other reasons.. Her nature and being demand something more... She cannot let her children narrow her horizon. And for such a woman, there is no rest..⠀ ⠀ She of course has the great advantage of being able to develop.. Therefore, she can bring more to her children than if she were to remain at home.. But one look of reproach from the little one when the mother goes away and leaves it with a stranger is enough to throw down the whole structure of vindication.. ⠀ ⠀ Having admitted all this, we ask: Can the mother of today remain at home all day with her children? Can she compel herself to be other than she is because she had become a mother? .. Can we today measure our devotion to husband and children by our indifference to everything else?.. If a woman does remain exclusively with her children and gives herself to nothing else, does that really prove that she is more devoted than the conventional mother?"⠀
Source: Golda by Elinor Burkett⠀
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