As a woman born in the 80’s, I experienced the latter evolution of the working mom; often taking pause after hearing of the abuses women experienced in the workplace from being underpaid, overworked, overlooked (for promotion) and/or sexually harassed and said to myself “why would any woman choose to work outside the home if this is what was greeting her everyday” and “on top of all that bullshit, she STILL has to come home and take care of the household unassisted?” Why put yourself through all that just to end up right back in the kitchen at the end of the day?!. Literally! Enter: the debate of whether the cost is worth the sacrifice…
Let’s be real, lack of technology made being a housewife an intense job — as labor intensive as a man’s working outside the home, sometimes more so. Think about it: back in the day hand washing and line-drying clothes for a family of more than 2 alone would have been a full-time job, not to mention slaughtering and feathering chickens, or the journey to market to get the day or the week’s household goods on foot or saddling up the horse and cart. And don’t be a chick who lived on a farm because you’d add tending to a slew of animals as well! Then, war and the industrial age gave women options: “you’re needed in the workplace because men were being sent away” (and corporate interest supersedes misogyny this time); “hey, you get manufactured food, microwaves, dishwashers, and washing machines!”
After hundreds of years of the hard manual labor of taking care of home, women finally had some time. And what were we expected to do with all this time? Entertainment execs decided to busy us with television and radio programming while their buddy ad agencies decided to ante up their opportunities to sell us things. Somewhere along the line, women began wanting more…out loud. But of course, they were labeled freaks that no decent woman would associate with because there was nothing worse than a woman who wanted to be more than a good wife and mother (or teacher, secretary, or professional concubine)…well maybe…like the thought of having to compete with women in the workplace…and losing.
Fast forward to now: with the #MeToo movement, the failure of Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid, the ever-present shadow of income inequality, and other daily misogynist micro-aggressions women’s rights have hit the closest to home for this generation as ever. And no matter what side you are on — at-home or working mom or career-focused single woman, we have to pay our respects to the housewives. They were the ones who fought the fights that brought us here, not so that we can compare and contrast pros and cons, but give us options and to obligate men to view, employ, and pay us as equals.
And remember, no matter how technologically advanced we are, with our Doordash and self-vacuuming devices or how many businesses we run or own, folding fitted sheets is still a bitch of a task…no matter how many times you watch the Martha Stewart tutorial on YouTube…and THAT we all contend with.
