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Monday, December 8
Because I said I would write a (terrible, pointless, sidetracked) essay on this.
Should housewives be paid?
Do housewives do enough to justify payment? Sure, they do sweeping and ironing and dishwashing and cleaners and maids get paid for doing exactly the same things. Some might have extra responsibilities with kids and might eventually turn out to be some sort of super-mom, juggling household chores and taking care of kids. Prof. Kelly Chai argues that "doing housework is a chore and not a hobby" and thus should be paid and also (bizarrely) uses the scientific formula force x distance = work. In addition, housewives provide pleasure or a sexual nature in the bedroom too and rarely get to spend money on themselves, with most of the money spent on kids.
My mom does nag at me whenever she sees me buying new clothes. She gives me money one day, and I promptly spend it the next few days on clothes. She claims she bought a tee from a pasar malam for $5 and has been wearing it for years, while I fritter money away mindlessly. The main reason I do this is because I don't want to appear "wooden", or give people the impression that I've only 5 clothes in my wardrobe. At the end of the day though, you still see that my mom doesn't bother about herself, and rather give me money to spend.
One might argue back that husbands do their fair share of work. They might slog at the workplace the whole day and come home all tired and weary, but they still are the people who bring money home. The work husbands do are of a professional nature, and household chores would seem rather menial and elementary compared to more sophisticated jobs such as engineering. One might also argue that housewives can choose not to do household chores or are already getting money for doing practically what everybody can do, including husbands. Some husbands do help out in household chores too.
You might say that household chores are not exactly pleasing or perhaps, simple tasks to perform, and coupled with demanding kids, do use a considerable amount of energy and work. But would that apply to swinging singles and bachelors? These people, maybe not bachelors though since they're stereotyped as having messy rooms, do their housework too and they're not paid for it too. You don't see woman's rights people arguing for people who live on their own to be paid too.
Mr Roszaimy offers a somewhat practical and etymological answer to this question. If one breaks up the word housewife, it becomes house-wife. The wife of the house. Which implies that she is on her own accord, supposed to do chores without payment in exchange of living in it. I did receive an email sometime ago that mentioned that we should be thankful that we have household chores to do as it means we have a roof over our heads. It is in this retrospect that some might say that the housewife should be thankful.
It must be noted that the wedding ring does not signify payment for household chores. A wedding ring is a symbol of love and commitment to each other, or as realists might say, a small expensive piece of decorated metal. Some chauvinistic and insensitive husbands might imply that after the wedding, the ring would suggest that he be able to order his wife around and take for granted that the house is spick and span and meals done clothes ironed et al when he reaches home daily. It is probably based on this that some housewives demand they be 'paid' for household chores.
One might be able to put all this down to the middle ages or possibly the start of life. Women, being smaller built and gentler, were made to stay at home and do general, simple chores, while men, being physically stronger and more boorish, went out to hunt. Perhaps it can be said that this has evolved over centuries and housewives' work has been taken for granted.
The modern women however, would rather work then stay at home. "why bother to stay at home and do housework, ((OH, so fun)) and get $-less" Prof Guice Lynn says. She also points out that taking care of the house is a 24 hours task, where every little thing has to be taken care of.
Housewives are not in the same class as maids however. They are at liberty to enter and leave the house as and when they feel like, they can use the phone freely, they do enjoy privileges that a maid doesn't. They can take a break whenever they feel like unlike a maid.
I have tried to be objective and relevant in this sea of words, but at the end of the day, I didn't do any research on this and most of the points here are merely opinions brought up by a few people. An interesting observation though is that all guys I asked (not including me) say that housewives SHOULDN'T be paid while all girls I asked say they SHOULD. Apparently guys still have a feeling of superiority in them while girls appear to feel that they are of a slightly lower status than men, thus demanding equal treatment through payment for housework. I choose to sit on the fence for the time being though, and I leave you to decide based on your own intuition. Or just marry a bloody rich guy.
I know this essay appears inadequate and some people probably wont be happy with me because I choose not to give my stand. Should maids be paid in the first place you might ask too. But that's a different case altogether though.
[add]
see comments for follow-ups.
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