Women can choose to work or not, the same as a man can choose. If the terms of employment, compensation or ownership of property are not agreeable or secure, there is little incentive to work. No father wants his daughter to be faced with either marriage or death, so he will fight to secure her rights over the fruits of her labor.
The problem comes in marriage and the imbalance of power. All partnerships, whether intimate or platonic are fragile. If all legal rights are held equal, the woman has more power in the relationship than the man, not only over her body but over the minds of the children and sympathy of the community. This is how it came to be that men's rights are seen superior to the woman's in a marriage. To maintain order, the woman must yield to the man. It is in his nature to preserve and provide for what is his. It is in his interest to defend his property, and if the woman siezes this through her wry ways, he loses his incentive to provide. Interfere with this 'sacred' institution then the family and subsequently the population will collapse as will women's rights.
It's a debate about privileges, not rights, really.
Humans all have the same rights (life, property, association, speech, movement, contract, ...), and those can only be infringed-upon, not removed. Forcing a woman to marry would infringe upon her right to choose who she associates with, who inherits her property, whether she enters into a contract, etc.
Priveleges (like voting) are supposed to be dispersed in accordance and proportion to duties (like securing a common defense), but they no longer are, and that produces much bitterness.
Forcing other mens' wives to stay at home and refrain from commerce, would infringe upon those women, but also their husbands, who have contractual duties to fulfill (ensuring his family is provided for) and therefore should also have the privelege of determining how those duties are fulfilled. The state shouldn't be involved in any manner, either to restrict her commerce or to encourage it.
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