Do men not realize that women are expected to give up their lives for men?

I get that I'm a guy and can't completely understand what you go through at the hands of old fashioned patriarchal mindsets that are deeply entrenched in society, and perhaps my comments might be unwelcome. I'm going to share my perspective anyway. My partner didn't take my last name. We aren't going to have children. She takes birth control which can wreak havoc on women, so a vasectomy is in my near future.

She thinks chivalry is annoying, and the idea that I'd ever have to put my life on the line outside of a home invasion or other serious incident is kind of outlandish. And if I did, it wouldn't be out of some sense of duty because I'm a man, I just believe any decent person would/should try to protect people they care about. I never hear any mature adult men making an assertion like "well men are expected to fight, or get on the lifeboat last, so your ladies just gotta deal with the shitty parts of being a woman, like be our baby makers and maids" maybe I'm just blessed to have progressive minded, decent friends/family.

Is it that you don't want children and are forced (or strongly encouraged) to have them by your spouse? Or that it's an unfair expectation of society placed on women? An unfortunate result of biology? A combination of these things or others that I'm leaving out? It seems to me like if you don't want children, you wouldn't want to be with someone who does. It's a huge commitment, and if the shoe were on the other foot, I certainly wouldn't want to change my life like that for my partner. It sounds like a lot of your experiences are with men that want a family and have conservative values, or sexist beliefs. It sucks that women feel like there's so much pressure to give up their aspirations for their partners.

/r/TwoXChromosomes Thread