I've pointed this out before, but the majority of modern day "women's work" is simply the same old and much-hated "traditional women's work" but this time it's not rearing, raising or educating your own children, it's rearing, educating and raising OTHER women's children through a state job.
I linked to her in the "ladies night," but Judgy Bitch's post was so succinct, precise and thorough I wanted to link to it on its own.
Throughout world history most women have worked outside the home. Only the very financially well off have not.
ReplyDeleteOK what is it you have against teachers? This is the 3rd post I've seen since discovering your blog the other day that takes a jab at them?
Education is what you make of it. Its not meant to be a cure all or panacea.
it's not that women have always worked outside the home, it's which women, and for how long or under what circumstances, and also which jobs.
ReplyDeletesingle, childless women of any socioeconomic status would frequently work, then retire to husswifery upon marriage, and perhaps return to work after the nest was empty.
Yes, women have 'always' worked, but neither in the numbers we now see nor, en masse, during the critical child-rearing years.
And the point of JB's excellent article is that (married) women are, by and large, doing exactly what they could be doing at home for other people, and paying someone else to raise her kids while she makes enough money to...pay someone else to raise her kids.
I was a lad of ten or so. My grandfather was relaxing in his easy chair, smoking his pipe, while the women bustled about in the kitchen.
ReplyDelete"Why don't you help?" asked my sister.
"That's women's work!" he scoffed.
Later, he explained: "Men's work is dirty, dangerous, outdoors, and requires great strength or technical skill. If it's inside or near the house, simple, and easy, it's women's work. I do men's work."
Starting off the article by criticizing the grammar of a freaking URL is stupid.
ReplyDeleteThe title in the article itself is "America Is Doomed Unless Women Start Having More Babies. How Convenient."
The title at the window's border is "It is not up to the female reproductive system to save America."
A URL is not supposed to be grammatically correct. In this case it is just a fragment of a sentence which *is* grammatically correct.
By all means, tear the actual content of her article apart, but trying to find fault with a supposed grammar mistake in a URL is just stupid.
Amy, "single, childless women of any socioeconomic status would frequently work, then retire to husswifery upon marriage, and perhaps return to work after the nest was empty."
ReplyDeleteThat does not comport with actual world history, nor even with most women in socially conservative family oriented areas of the world today, such as South Asia.
Practice! Practice! Practice!
ReplyDeleteThat wasn't my experience when I lived in South Asia...unless we're talking about bare-subsistence environments, where the kids, too worked.
Stay at home parenting is not a luxury afforded only to the rich. The better the overall standard of living in a country, the more that is the case. You can't leave the kids with a salt lick and a bowl and go to work all day without a care.
Anonymous, "That wasn't my experience when I lived in South Asia..."
ReplyDeleteWhere in South Asia did you live?
In India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan you may have noticed that all middle class families have "servants" (hired domestic help) and these servants are both male and female.
You may have noticed that women as well as men are carrying bricks on their heads at constructions sites.
You may have noticed women as well as men toiling in the rice fields.
The only women that do not work outside of the home in South Asia are, like I originally said, women who can afford not to, and choose not to.
They are not the majority percentage of women in South Asia.
and if you suggest you'd like a woman that stays at home and does the laundry/housework or raises the kids you get accussed of being a mysoginist or wanting being immature and wanting a mommy. What a crazy idea that a woman you support with your hard work and money should actually do the dishes or your laundry!
ReplyDeleteMust be sexist.