lol sis
There's a difference between 'not allowed to step out of the house' and being encouraged to minimise going out for no reason.....
personall i think some sis's have this inferiority complex where they think that the only way to be 'accepted' in society is to have a job and do what a man does... i think that's very childish and foolish and shows alot of low self-esteem.
It's funny how the responsibility of managing the household is so huge, and the responsibilty of looking after the kids and bringing them up is a complex thing in itself, yet for some reason some people seem to underestimate it and think it's more improtant to be a male copy cat...
Now.. having said that:
So what if she wants to have a life? Like maybe...a job or a career? A passion in life? Art? Nursing? Computers? Journalism? Writing? Etcetera?
If the husband is struggling and not bringing in enough cash to take care of the family's needs n wants... and if the wife is happy to help out financially (because it's her right to keep her earnings and tell the husband to do the family expenditure)... then by all means, so long as the job is OK islamically (same goes for guys btw!)
If the husband is managing the financial side well... the first priority for the wife is to make sure the household is under good care, the kids are being educated properly and brought up properly etc.
If that responsibility is being fulfilled, and the wife wants to take on some form of commerce, by all means... Even though i find that hard to imagine, coz alot of sisters do find taking care of the house a massive load in itself. But if there's no kids n things like that.. yeh as long as what she's diong is halal.
What about visiting art galleries? Seeing plays? Shopping for clothes & other things? Taking a walk outside and smelling some fresh, God-made air? Interacting with other human beings? Enjoying life?!
The first two are probably prohibited for both sexes in general lol.
The last 3 things, who said sister's cant go catchup with their friends and go out to places and stuff... the whole thing about encouragemetn for women to remain at home is basically "dont just go out for no reasonable reason"...
Oh yes, and what about women who have absolutely no "male" company whatsoever? I am not married, I have no father, and my brother is away in college. So since I'm not married I'm aloud to go out or something? I'm confused, lol.
If you're not marreid and you don't have responsibilities, fine go ahead and be like Khadijah if you want, or Hend (Abu Sufyan's wife) when she got divorced... (They where both biz people and very successful at it) the key thing is, make sure it's all under Islamic guidelines...
but to get back to the topic...
The wife has her responsibilities, the husband has his responsibilities, technically speaking, it's the husband's job to go out and do the shopping and all that... the wife's got a tonne of thigns to do, why should she be burdened with that? If she says to the husband "look i've got enough on my plate, you can take care of that" it's absolutely her right.
salams