Meaning of そのままにする


I came across a sentence I don't understand. The essay it's from has a
feminist theme about the roles of women in Japan. It's the second sentence
below:

> それは尊敬すべき努力ですが、主婦はすべてそうするべきだというのには、賛成できません。 男が時代の進歩を理解しないのを、そのままにしているからです。

What I'm guessing is "That's because _women_ keep the status quo of men
failing to grasp the _social_ progress of time."

What is the exact meaning of そのままにする, and what is the role of its object
marked by を? Who is the subject performing the action of そのままにする in that
sentence?




まま means something to the effect of 'the way something is', and so そのまま is
'the way that it/that is', sometimes better as 'the way it/that already is'.
XをYにする means 'make X Y' (or 'put X at/on/in Y', but not here), but Xをそのままにする
translates better to 'leave/keep X the way it is'.

It seems like the subject of the sentence is neither men nor women, but _the
state of women having to work hard_. You could loosely translate those two
sentences together into one English sentence as something like this: 'Their
hard work deserves praise, but I can't say that all women ought to do the
same; since that would allow men to continue ignoring the progress of the
times.'




まま means something to the effect of 'the way something is', and so そのまま is
'the way that it/that is', sometimes better as 'the way it/that already is'.
XをYにする means 'make X Y' (or 'put X at/on/in Y', but not here), but Xをそのままにする
translates better to 'leave/keep X the way it is'.

It seems like the subject of the sentence is neither men nor women, but _the
state of women having to work hard_. You could loosely translate those two
sentences together into one English sentence as something like this: 'Their
hard work deserves praise, but I can't say that all women ought to do the
same; since that would allow men to continue ignoring the progress of the
times.'

