The Issue Of Middle Class Women Who Hire Household Help For The Expenses Of Domestic Workers

The distinction Mainardi makes between the ‘liberated woman’ and ‘Women’s Liberation’ in “The Politics of Housework” is that the liberated woman is only liberated to the extent of male pleasure, while Women’s Liberation focuses on creating true equality between men and women. The liberated woman is a “new commodity”, and is open to new expressions of sex and housekeeping. When a man wants a liberated woman, it gives him the illusion of being aware of the oppression faced by women and wanting to fix it. It makes him feel socially intelligent and acceptable, while not thinking about the actual effects of equality. Women’s Liberation is the actual source of equality. The idea is that since both spouses have careers and lives, both should do housework, but men “do not have such conditioning”. As women had been raised their whole lives to know how to do housework, and men have not, it can be a challenge to integrate equality into our personal lives. I agree with Mainardi in that the idea of a liberated woman is different than the reality, but it is clear to me that a true liberated woman is the result of Women’s Liberation.

Social reproduction refers to the continuous intergenerational physically and emotionally exhausting household labour that is needed to maintain life (Trotz, lecture, Jan 13, 2016). This kind of labour though is considered to be a woman’s duty. Since an economic activity happens where there is a market, social reproduction is not considered as one as it doesn’t have a visible market. Even though, it doesn’t have market value, domestic work greatly contribute to the economy (Waring, 2013). Since this work is done in homes and by women who are usually marginalized, it remains invisible and thus not considered for pay. This kind of work depends on the traditional division of labour in which women are seen as housewives while men, breadwinners. Thus, the gendering of social reproduction is a result of “doing gender,” where women’s abilities to be mothers are naturalized (Coltrane, 1989); in other words, women are made to fit into the simplistic “domestic = family = heterosexual woman = care and love” equation (Manalansan & Martin, 2008, p.2), while any man who does the caring work in a family is feminized and considered a lesser man (Coltrane, 1989).Thus, a woman’s femininity depends on her motherhood while a man’s masculinity depends on “not doing mother’s work” (Coltrane, 1989, p.473).

However, “all work makes an economic contribution, but the unpaid work activities related to the home have been marginalized in economic rendering of production” According to Riane Eisler (2007:16 as cited in Lindsey, 2011, pg. 277). Meaning that for human survival, and human development to be successful women’s work needs to be valued, while women are taking on the responsibilities of caregivers to others; as well as their own. In addition to the many task these women provide such as their contribution to their household chores, managing the household income, childbearing; and caring for the elderly; these jobs are all considered unpaid work to which these women will never receive any form of income for the work they provided. In the United States alone more than 40, 000 dollars annually would be paid out yearly, if these women were being paid for services rendered in those areas; such as cooking, cleaning, ironing, care givers; and financial advisor. Meaning, “at the global level, if the unpaid work of women were added to the world’s economy, it would expand by one-third, but on the positive side, the economic reality of women’s unpaid productive work is gaining public and government attention (Lindsey, 200. Pg.

On the other hand, when both partners share the breadwinner role men are more likely to increase their core housework tasks in companion to men in the ‘new traditional’ and male-breadwinner families. Consequently, many studies found that gender attitudes are still primary indicators of who does housework, thus women still do two-thirds of housework where men do two-thirds of paid work. It is noticed that there have been significant changes for women over the last 6 decades to participate in the labour force, yet there was hardly any change to the division of core household work between men and women.

As part of the larger movement for equal rights, this feminist mobilization focused on a broad spectrum of economic, political, and cultural dimensions of the distribution of power that entailed the discrimination of women. Political struggles targeted the stigmatization of women as caregivers and the devalorization of this role in relation to that of the male breadwinner, a mainstream culture of sexism permeating all spheres of life and cutting across income and educational levels, as well as women’s unequal access to and unequal positioning within the labor market. (Azmanova 751)

Being a country who is ran by men, it is still hard for a woman to compete with men. A woman could have a 4 year degree at Harvard and a man with a two year degree will still get the job. Even if a woman is hired, her male counterpart will still make more money than she will. Sad, but true. When it comes to gender roles, although now days women work out side of the home, women are still the ones who come home to work their second jobs. Pick up the kids from school, clean, cook dinner and get the kids ready for bed. Some men may help out with the second shift job, but not often. Our textbook refers to Susan Moller Okin who talks about making family roles fair and just by reconstructing family and gender roles in her book entitled “justice, Gender, and the Family”. I agree with this, women and men will not be able to share house hold work until men and women or forced to rethink family responsibilities.

History has proven that even in the early rural communities, along with the traditional role, women would do work outside with men on farms. At the end of the 19th century, in Canada, when factories started replacing the family as the main productive unit, women comprised of thirteen percent of the labor force (“Women in”). During WWI women replaced many men who had to join the army. After the WWII, during the great depression, women were hired to do men’s jobs (“Women in”). Even today women continue to contribute economically through their domestic and professional work. In fact, it has been found that a homemaker’s work alone is worth approximately 100,000 dollars in the job market (Moran). Their area of expertise varies from being a teacher, finance manager, cleaner, gardener, chef, driver, to personal child care provider (Moran). Women have proven their capability and shown their multi skills, but they are still the victim of gender wage

Women are known to be the nurturing part of human nature. It is women who birth and generally care for the young of human kind; however, the roles of women have progressed to be so much more in today’s society. Now women are looked to not only as a homemaker, but a breadwinner as well. In many families, the women provide a major source of income and are responsible for the wellbeing of the family. “More than a quarter century has passed since Arlie Hochschild’s The Second Shift powerfully made the case that women cannot compete fairly with men when they are doing two jobs and men are doing only one.” (Moravcsik). He goes on to say that women’s roles have shifted to being able to balance a job and a family at one time. Despite the many jobs that

In addition to defining gender, Padavic and Reskin coin the term “gendering” to describes circumstances or outcomes that, like gender, are socially constructed and tend to give males certain advantages over females. Three key components—the assignment of tasks based on workers’ sex, a higher value placed on men’s work than on women’s work, and employers’ and workers’ social constructions of gender on the job—make up gendering. (Padavic and Reskin, 6). It allows males to maintains certain advantages over females, thus maintaining the force and coercion dimension of inequality. Sex and gender differentiation have existed since the beginning of the labor force, and have paved the way for the assignment of different tasks to men and women throughout the years. When the labor force first emerged following the Industrial Revolution, it was comprised of people who either worked for pay or were actively seeking paid work. The labor force split working people into three different groups—wage workers, unemployed, and nonemployed. This distinction between paid work in the labor market and unpaid domestic work by the “nonemployed” has had important consequences for gender inequality. Since then, men have been more likely than women to belong to the labor force, and women have been more likely than

Women and men have had certain roles in society that were understood amongst them to be specified for their particular gender. Males were known to have the leading role as head of the house hold and the bread winner while the woman’s duty was to stay at home and take care of the house and children. While many people years ago deemed this way of life and practice to be the right and ethical thing to do, times have changed and so this kind of treatment towards a woman’s equality must be questioned. Even though times have changed, this mindset of a woman’s ability to be as good as a man has not completely gone away. In today’s society a woman contributes to the economy and her family as equally as that of a man. Therefore, women should share equal rights and opportunities as their gender counterparts.

Women’s unpaid labor in maintains a systems of oppression in many ways. In Susan M. Shaw and Janet Lee’s Women’s Voices Feminist Visions unpaid labor done by many women is, “undervalued as women’s formal productive paid labor in the workforce is prioritized” (Shaw & Lee, 2015, 471). Shaw and Lee are saying that women work at home is devalued because it is viewed as informal and as work that is done out of love or is natural work. Since the work being done is viewed as natural work, it further reinforces gender stereotypes by stating that women are supposed to do the household work which is deemed more as feminine. This thought process follows patriarchal thinking, where women are expected to do the

The generation now has made it easier to equalize men and women but there is still a substantial amount of places where gender inequality is still happening in the workplace and where females still face discrimination. Women are often discriminated in the workplace and are usually not promoted as quickly as men are and they also receive less pay. History shows that women have not always been defined as property and thought of as second class citizens. But in the 21st century many have seen a drastic change in the so called “traditional” family ways where women are suppose to stay home and take care of the household chores, food, and children and men are suppose to work to support their family and provide financial stability. Many assume that in the workplace women are more vulnerable and less competent than men because women 's instincts are to put their family before work or anything else. Whereas men are the ones who will usually stay the late hours to work. People on both sides of the political spectrum and everywhere in between seem to be fearful of what is to come and more fearful of others than they are often willing to admit.

Conventionally, females played a very insignificant role in the paid work force of a society as many times they were expected to be home taking care of their family. Their roles at home can often include grocery shopping, meeting all the needs of her children and husband. As time moved on, our society became more accepted of sharing housework between the couples, but even so, the traditionally more feminine housework such as cooking, caring for sick children, and shopping for the entire family are mostly done by the females of the house. It is argued in a research journal Work and Occupations (Witkowski & Leicht, 1995) that in an average North American family, females take on roughly three-quarters of the housework. Even though we are in a democratic society, parenting roles in the household are assigned based on gender rather than in a democratic fashion (Winslow-Bowe, 2009). Because of the many responsibilities and obligations that are associated with the female gender, their career paths are eventually affected for the worse. According to Statistics Canada (2001), for every dollar a man earns, a single woman earns 93 cents and a married woman earns 69 cents. These statistics

As of December 2008, “Swedish citizens can apply for a tax deduction amounting to 50% of the labor cost for renovations, repair, cleaning, and maintenance work on homes” (European Monitoring Centre on Change). In other words, this policy encourages families to hire help such as cleaning, maid and nanny services for domestic duties. As a result, the domestic workload for women decreases as it is fulfilled by hired services. Of course, not every family is going to want to hire help but the tax deduction increases the chances of using such services. In fact, Sweden has had much success with this policy as “90% of the surveyed companies felt that the ROT-deduction had a positive impact on reducing undeclared [domestic] work” (European Monitoring Centre on Change). Integrating this policy in the United States would theoretically have the same effect on gender inequality at home. By monetizing domestic work, it not only boost employment projections for that category of employment but encourages women to transition away from household duties to other work opportunities in the outside labor market which would also help with gender inequality present in the workforce.

This economic contribution, argues Baxter (2002:406) essentially translates to an increase in bargaining power within the household, which is actualised by decreased involvement in domestic duties. Curtis (1986:180, as cited in Brines, 1994:657) suggests that the power differential occurs because women are expecting an ‘unspecified benefaction’ to be decided, and provided by their partners at a future date. This use of housework as a ‘social exchange’ (Brines, 1994:657) is problematic, in that the amount of accumulated housework performed by a wife outweighs the monetary benefit provided to the household by the husband (Sullivan, 2000:442).