"Relinquishment has always been a part of women's work" (Stiehm 217). Women invest their time in children, who eventually grow up and leave home. They also invest in housework, which continually comes undone. By contrast, men invest in more permanent, immortal institutions, like governments. Men also invest their time, money, and energy in objects that they protect, secure, and bequeath. Like moose heads they have hunted, train sets they have collected, cars they have bought. The need to protect these items and make them immortal can give rise to defensiveness and violence. (Stiehm 218).
