In this day and age, it is becoming more and more popular for women to spend more time in the workplace, and less time cultivating homes and raising families. With the rise of feminist and womanist movements, we are breaking boundaries in every area from politics all the way to Hollywood. Seeing women break stereotypes and achieve their personal goals is a beautiful thing, but is this new wave of empowerment proving to be detrimental to those on the other side of the spectrum?
Similar to modern day songs that promote messages about men preferring curvier women at the expense of slimmer ones and promote it as “self love” (check out the last minute of Nicki Minaj’s song "Anaconda" or just about any Meghan Trainor song), I’ve noticed a shift in the movements that are supposed to be empowering all women.
My concern is that in an attempt to empower, often times we degrade the roles that other women place value in. We fight so hard against the “barefoot and pregnant” stereotypes in an attempt to broaden our horizons but neglect to include those who feel like their presence would be better served in the home rather than in the workplace. It is true that women are fully capable of doing jobs that were previously regarded as “man’s work” but it is also true that being a “housewife” does not always have to be a bad thing.
I think that if people really examined the work of a “housewife”, they would see how much of a respectable role woman who take on that responsibility have and people would stop viewing it as demeaning.
Housewives hold themselves accountable for so many things. The job is so hard that it is comparable to being a small business owner. Aside from creating life itself and carrying it around inside of themselves for nine months (or sometimes even longer when babies elect to postpone their debut), they also hold themselves responsible for raising good human beings, coordinating and planning the lives of multiple people, being a teacher, meal preparer, accountant, counselor and human vending machine just to name a few.
The work of a housewife is unparalleled and does not stop at 5 o’ clock or whenever everyone else decides to leave and go home. The responsibilities often last far more than 18 years and if they mess up, the consequences could be far more detrimental than 30-day suspension.
Now, I understand that many people feel the need to make their marks on the world in other areas, but I think that this can be achieved without shaming the lifestyle of another human being. In the progressive world, we are taught that everyone should have equal rights to live the way they choose, I believe that women who want to be homemakers should have that very same right without the negative stigmas attached to it.
