I remember when I was 18 and had a summer job working at an insurance company. Several of us 18-21 year olds were sitting at lunch one day and the discussion came up of whether it is better to be male or female. It was bandied around that males had it easier because they could ask women out (remember, this was the 60's and in the Midwest, which always was five years behind California and New York), and men had cars (refer to previous statement), etc., etc. The final point that we all agreed on was that it was better to be a woman, because who would want to be a man and *HAVE TO WORK FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIVES*? After all, we were all going to work only until we got married and had kids and then we were going to stay home in our three-bedroom two-bath bungalows with the white picket fence, the collie dog and the 2.3 perfect and beautiful children and make good homes for our hard-working husbands to come home to in the evening after working all day.
Yes, we really were that young and stupid. We really thought WE weren't going to have to work the rest of our lives. Ah, the dreams of youth.
Reminds me of the time I was ferrying around my daughter and a friend and I overheard the conversation in the back seat about marriage. The other girl's mother was on her third (rapidly-disintegrating) marriage and the girl said "I'm never going to get married!". My daughter said something to the effect that she was definitely going to get married and that she just couldn't imagine not being married. I was waiting to hear something flowery from my daughter about "not being complete without a husband" or "can't imagine not spending my life with someone"; instead I heard, "Of course I'm going to get married.....you can't get by these days without two paychecks!" I about drove off the road laughing. That's my little hard-hearted Hannah.