I am with those who think being a house-wife or homemaker or whatever else they are called these days, requires balls – if you’ll pardon the expression. In this day and age, with so many other opportunities available, not many women want to or can afford to stay home to raise kids and run a household. Those who make the choice to do so deserve the respect, appreciation and support of the rest of the family. As do those who chose  not to stay at home. I do not look down on a woman just because she chooses to stay at home nor do  I look up at a women just because she chooses a professional career over being a house-wife.
 

“how can it be that we are a male dominated society, if we attribute so much power to the women in making or breaking a home?”

Homey Ji, I think you and I might have talked about this in another thread at another time, but I have never bought into the assertion that Nepal is entirely a male-dominated society. Power is shared much more evenly between men and women than some people, particularly activists and hardcore feminists, make out to be. The way a traditional family has worked, the man is the bread winner who brings home his earnings to his wife or mother depending on the type of household (nuclear or joint), and it is the women in the form of the wife or mother who controls the purse strings and makes major financial and social decisions in the family. More so in a joint-family where the mother wields far more power than all men in the family combined I dare say.

In the modern family, the role of women is even more central and powerful because she manages the house, in some cases with help from her husband, and she contributes financially to the budget often playing a far more crucial and balanced role than the man.

The situation also varies by family and socio-economic status et. It is true that in some parts of the country, and indeed the world, women do not have the same choices as men and the reason for denying them education and jobs is solely based on their gender. That is terrible and must stop. Kudos to those who are trying to change that. But if you look at families such as mine, and perhaps yours, where there are few if no restrictions on anyone and any restrictions apply equally to men and women (e.g thou shalt not cheat, lie, murder, steal or kick thy neighbor’s pesky dog), any women who tells me she feels discriminated against because of her gender is either badly hungover from the previous night's party or hatching a manipulative scheme to get something out of her husband or father by playing the gender/victim card. Nice try but I am not falling for it.