Housewife is a term used to describe a married
female who is not employed outside of the home.
Multicultural norms
In
agriculture studies, the word
"housewife" is occasionally used referring to the person who does
the majority of the chores within a farm's
compound, as opposed to field and
livestock work.
India
Being a diverse country, India has different approaches in
different demographic groups.
In a Hindu family, the head of the family is the
Griha
Swami and his wife is the
Griha Swamini. The
Sanskrit words
Grihast and
Grihasta perhaps comes closest to describing the entire
gamut of activities and roles undertaken by the householder or
housewife.
Grih is the Sanskrit root for House or Home;
Grihasta and Grihast are derivatives of this root, as is
Grihastya. The couple lives in the state called
Grihastashram or family system and together they nurture
the family and help its members (both young and old) through the
travails of life. They are a housewife team. The woman who
increments the family tree and protects the procreated wealth of
the family is described as the
Grihalakshmi (the wealth of
the house) and
Grihashoba (the glory of the house). The
elders of the family are known as
Grihshreshta. The
husband or wife may engage in countless other activities which may
be social, religious, political or economic in nature for the
ultimate welfare of the family and society. However, their unified
status as a householder or housewife is the nucleus from within
which they operate in society. This 'status', as housewives,
anchors them in society and provides meaning to their activities
within the social, religious, political and economic framework of
their world.
In
Muslim families, use of the term housewife
(or its equivalent) is uncommon, even though housewives are very
common and stay-at-home husbands are extremely rare. Muslim society
sets different expectations from the husband and wife, but respects
their individuality. Families are generally viewed as sets and not
units.
China
In
imperial China
(excluding periods of the
Tang dynasty
when women had higher status in society), women were bound to
homemaking by the doctrines of
Confucianism and cultural norms. In most cases,
the husband was alive and able to work, so the wife was almost
always forbidden to take a job and mainly spent her days at home or
doing other domestic tasks. As Confucianism spread across
East Asia, this social norm was also observed in
Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.
After the
founding of the Republic of
China
in the early 20th century, these norms were
gradually loosened and many women were able to enter the workforce
(a growing number of women, beginning at this time, also began to
receive education). Starting with the rule of the People's
Republic of China
, all women were freed from compulsory family
roles. During the
Great Leap
Forward and
Cultural
Revolution, some women were required by the government to do
heavy work that they were not physically suited for. This policy
was later abolished.
In modern China, housewives are no longer as common (particularly
in urban areas). Nearly all women work simply because one person's
income is insufficient to support the family, a decision made
easier by the fact that it is common for Chinese grandparents to
watch after their grandchildren before they are old enough to go to
school or are very young.
Formal education
In previous decades, there were a large amount of mandatory courses
for young women to learn the skills of homemaking. In high school,
courses included
cooking,
nutrition,
home
economics,
family and
consumer science (aka F.A.C.S) and
food and cooking hygiene. This last
one can be the reason of a traditional housewife is always
portrayed wearing an
apron. More recently,
these courses have been mostly abolished, and many younger women in
high school and college would be more likely to explore resources
on the topic of child development and managing children's
behavior.
Modern mothers
Some contemporary women are leaving the paid workforce and
concentrating full-time on parenting. Many of these women have left
the paid workforce so that they can focus on raising their
children, particularly through the children's early years before
entering kindergarten. There is considerable variability within the
stay-at-home mother population with regard to their intent to
return to the paid workforce. Some plan to work from their homes,
some will do part-time work, some intend to return to part or
full-time work when their children have reached school age, some
may increase their skill sets by returning to higher education, and
others may find it economically feasible to not return to the paid
workforce.
Similarly, there is considerable variation in the stay-at-home
mom's attitude towards domestic work not related to caring for
children. Some may embrace a traditional role of housewife, cooking
and cleaning in addition to caring for children. Others see their
primary role as that of child-care providers, supporting their
children's physical, intellectual, and emotional development while
sharing or outsourcing other aspects of home care.
Feminist critique
Many
feminists, such as
Betty Friedan, have criticized the
marginalization of women as 'housewives '. Feminists generally
suggest that 'housework' should be an appropriate role for a parent
of either sex, believing that gender roles do not have any basis
other than social conditioning. Also, they maintain that women can
become socially isolated by being tied to their home. Some
feminists would argue that the goal of feminism is not to close off
any options for women, but to create opportunities for women to
pursue careers in traditionally male occupations, as well as
providing males an option to pursue roles that so far have been
perceived as "strictly female". Indeed, the role of the
stay-at-home dad or househusband has become more socially
recognized as an available option.
Some feminists as well as certain non-feminist
economists (particularly historical materialists)
also point out that the monetary contribution of housewives' work
to society is ignored in standard formulations of economic output,
such as
GDP or
employment figures. Housewives work many
unrecorded hours a week, while depending on their partner's
employment to provide
health
insurance and household income. Proponents of collective
economics argue that housewives' work does not contribute to the
general economy, and should not be rewarded with
tax breaks. However many feminists have refuted
this idea, citing the staggering costs (e.g. childcare) that the
state or individuals would be forced to assume in the absence of
unpaid homemakers.
See also
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