Wages Against Housework Silvia Federici Analysis

The article “The Approaching Obsolescence of Housework: A Working-Class Perspective” by Angela Davis addresses on the liberation of women from their socially regarded functions in society. She explores the idea of capitalist critique and feminism, and she argues that housework is annoying as much as it is disempowering women in the society and women need to be released and discharged from these duties (Angela, 2011). Angela's unique perspective on women's roles as housewives and history of house works gives us a clear perspective on the plight of women in society. The article shares a different perspective to the traditional view of women as housewives in the community. Instead of judging women on their femininity and history of their work

The stereotyping of women is quite common in today 's society and throughout history. In the past, women have taken the full time job of being a mother and a housewife. The 1930s initially started the ideal image of a woman. A woman was often represented as a maid-like being who would serve to their husband and children. In Richard Alleyne’s article, “Advice for women in the 1930s: Nothing Destroys the Happiness of Married Life More than the Lazy, Slovenly Wife,” he discusses the frequent expectations of a housewife. Common assumptions included; “Don’t argue with your husband; do whatever he tells you and obey all his orders” (1) and “Nothing destroys the happiness of married life more than the lazy, slovenly wife” (1). These rules have often been published into past newspapers that were

As the millenniums pass and years go by, the world continues to evolve each day. Across the world, in every society, men and women have specific roles that they carry out. During ancient times, in most cultures, women were inferior to men. This is still true in many countries today. It has taken American women many centuries to have gained the rights and privileges they have today. Women have made many immense achievements, fought for their rights and stood up for what they believed in during the past century. It is very important to understand the role of women in history because they have played an imperative part of how each society functioned. In Classical Athens, women and men were citizens however men were superior to the women.

While social change has brought on more changes than what women are a custom too, at one point in history women actually felt a form of importance in fulfilling their roles not only in the home; but outside as well. “These demographic shifts account for many new or altered roles, such as increased number of duel-earner families, later and fewer marriages, fewer children, increased life expectancy, and the massive migration shifting employees across a nation and across the globe” (Lindsey, 2011, pg. 275).

Society has told us for the last hundreds of years that the woman’s job around the house as shown in Figure 1 is to cook, clean, and take care of the family. One man, Tom Junod, who

Dating back throughout history woman were often considered to be too soft or docile to work. In the early 1800’s, as well as the 1950’s, it was thought that woman should not only be pure in heart, mind and body, but that they should be submissive to their husbands and not work outside the home, this was known as the Cult of Domesticity (Keister & Southgate, Inequality: a contemporary approach to race, class and gender, 2012, p. 228).

Women for years have been automatically given the role of the domestic housewife, where their only job is to cook, clean, and take care of the children. Men have usually taken the primary responsibility for economic support and contact with the rest of society, while women have traditionally taken the role of providing love, nurturing, emotional support, and maintenance of the home. However, in today’s society women over the age of sixteen work outside of the home, and there are more single parent households that are headed by women than at any other time in the history of the United States (Thompson 301.)

All throughout history, women have been thought of to be “weaker” and “not as capable” as men have always been thought to be. Due to this, gender roles were

Although females had push into the right direction, they still did face some adversity. “Many fully employed women defined themseleves as ‘homemakers’, outside the sphere of wage work” (Abelson, 117). This shows that even with all these changes for the better women did not shy away from their traditional roots.

Women throughout time have experienced position changes more times than can be counted. Not just in modern times, gender roles began in the B.C.E era. In Egypt and India, gender roles were a huge part of society. In both locations, male’s word was law. What they said was the final answer and a woman could not change that. The gender distinctions were similar in ways that women had minimal power in familiar locations, like their homes. They had a small opinion about certain subjects, but they never ventured out of the comfort zone of subjects they were allowed to discuss. Men were treated better than women, yes, but the power women held was used for some of the most important topics.

The society we live in accepts us for what they think we need to be a housewife. Whose only job is to take care of the children, cook, and clean. Some people may think we are flaunting ourselves but in all reality we just want to stand up for what we believe. The right to

Mohanty also stated how, in India, women’s “definition as housewives make possible the definition of men as 'breadwinners'” (13). We see that in Nasarpur, India the woman’s role in society is somewhat restricted. Her restricted role of being a housewife increased the man’s status in that society as the sole provider and the hardest worker. Although this concept of men’s and women’s roles in society is not totally true in America, I still think it occurs in our society. I feel that most men accept women working outside the home in America because it has become a norm over the years, but I do not think all men are comfortable with the idea of women working outside the home. The fact that women are no longer just simply housewives makes some men feel as if they are being robbed of part of their masculinity, which is tied to being a sole provider for a family. Women have proven during the past few decades that they can be housewives and manage to handle an outside job as well. I think this proves that women are strong dependable laborers. A good worker is one who can handle multiple tasks such as managing a household and having an outside job.

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.

From the beginning of time men were the ones that held the power. We never had anybody to challenge that power. Even through the events of the eighteenth century and through the nineteenth century men did everything. Women was the one that stayed at home and made sure that the house was kept up and there was cooked food on the table. Only recently in this last century has women made the charge to change that outlook. It took world war two for people

Bowman and Cole say that the maid debate had two distinctive features. It began from the state 's interest to provide tax relief for service employment, but became a debate about the morality of this domestic employment. The debate revolved around several questions regarding who would benefit, what are the citizenship rights of house cleaners (since they were often undocumented), should household work be commodified, and whether or not the employment relationship was exploitative. Women are accused of exploiting one another and of sustaining inequality due to the boundary that exists between employee and employer when hiring household workers, that doesn 't exist in other labor markets. In other words, women are improving at the expense of other women.