Women should stay home! Women should get to work!

New proposals have brought out some of the same old arguments, and the irresistible urge to tell women what to do.

When both parties proposed child tax credits as part of the recent stimulus plan, a funny thing happened. Liberals and conservatives alike started to wring their hands: What if giving parents money discouraged women from working outside the home??

This reaction was most surprising coming from the left, and I first noticed it when certain feminists came o…