LB- I think there is some confusion regarding the topic of conversation here. No one is against women working. In the Frum world, it is very accepted for women to work.
Joseph was comparing what goes on in the secular world today versus the way things are done in the Frum world. According to the Torah, women and men have different roles. If you want to say that women are more spiritual, that can only be the case if they have a different role. It is clear that women have different roles since they have different obligations and different physical and emotional make-ups.
The Torah world did not espouse (is that the right word) the Feminist movement, or at least not every aspect of it. There is an aspect to the Feminist movement that wants women to be like men (which I think is very demeaning to women). That is what the Torah world is against and has always been against.
Of course women can have careers, but they have to aware that in general, a woman’s main tafkid is to be a wife and mother. That is what distinguishes her from men and that is why Hashem created her as a separate creation after He finished creating mankind and could have stopped there. That is why He gave her certain gifts – the Bina Yeseira and elevated spirtual level, the greater capacity for understanding emotions and relationships, her greater ability to be nurturing, etc. That was all so that she could fulfill this tafkid of being wife and mother.
Of course, in addition to being a female, she is also a person, and she has to develop the person side of her as well (and maybe first). In order to be a good wife and mother, she may need to have a career, whether for economic support of the family or for her own fulfillment. But she has to realize that her family comes first and that her main role is as wife and mother. Even women who don’t have husbands and children have to remember that they have a unique role and potential as women and they should try to find a way to fulfill that potential in other ways.
While there may have been some positive changes that came about in the not-Jewish world as a result of the Feminist movement, it did cause a decline in the appreciation of the importance of women’s role in the not-Jewish world.
In the Frum world, even though women work, they generally realize that their main purpose is to be wives and mothers and the family is greatly valued. Of course, even in the Frum world, it can be tricky to maintain the right balance in the modern world, and there probably are those who do struggle with this issue as well. But that is not what Joseph was talking about. I believe he specified that he was talking about the secular world.
I could be wrong, but I don’t think that you disagree with anything I wrote here. I think there was some confusion regarding what the topic of conversation was,imho. And I do understand why you may have thought what you thought. But having read through many of the posts that were written on the topic, I reached a different conclusion.
btw, I have noticed that many of the disagreements in the CR on this topic are based on misunderstandings.