Working Woman

Amma...please accept my pranam...A homemaker is always on her toes...she's in no way a lesser person...kudos to you!!!

 

Periamma, job of home- maker comes with work of a life-time with no sick leave or paid vacations. Sometimes monatony kills. I have been a SAHM too for sometime. Days seem so long and never-ending. It's more tiring. Atleast at work we get sometime to sit but not at home. Not everybody can play that role well. You are such a loving mother and grand mother who works non stop for your family

Congrats for FP nomination

 

@periamma
Kindly do not get me wrong. Actually what you asked in your post , is a hotly debatable issue that are discussed amongst economists also. There are two ways of looking at things, spiritual and material and it is upto each one to think in their own ways.

Regards !!

 

This is quite true. Unfortunately, a working person is usually perceived as one who earns money for the family. But quite obviously, this leaves out the housewife's services from the total quantum of work done in an economy. This is an old problem in economics. Ignoring the services rendered by the housemaker from the measure of GDP. One way of accommodating it in the statistics at least is to find out how much one would be charged if the service were bought in the market. The so called Chicago school of thought took this idea to its logical extreme. Unfortunately.

oj

 

Periamma, by any standard you are a working woman. You are not only saving domestic expenses on hiring help for every job but you also bring a lot of love and care to it. Yes, it brings you a lot of satisfaction and happiness. Count that as job satisfaction. As for the monetary aspect of it, every housewife is worth the amount of help she saves on outsourcing jobs and the love and care with it is done should qualify as VAT (for which no one would be able to fix a value). As of now, you are still a working woman, though may be in semi-retirement as compared to earlier.

A housewife is answerable for doing her job; it is not as if she can do the work if she likes or ignore it if she doesn't. It is a 24X7 job.

 

Dear periamma,
Before marriage I was working at Chennai Telephones for three and half years. After marriage though I could have got a transfer easily as for my mil's wish I resigned the job. Then again out of nessesity I took a job though my mil told me that if I were able to manage both house work and the job I could go ahead. I took it as a challenge and I worked for sixteen and a half years till my children completed their education and we got our daughter married.
In my opinion homemakers have a full time job without emoluments and retirement. But everything can't be measured by material value. The satisfaction and happiness derived from selfless service to the family is the true award. It is more than material value.
PS

 

Periamma, my heartfelt salutations to you! And the innumerable women, past and present, who quietly keep the family running. Like Mother Earth, you'll provide the sustenance in which your family, and society, thrives. And like Mother Earth, are often taken for granted, not appreciated, sometimes even exploited..
So many thoughts this piece has provoked...
Is it not work? Because it does not directly lead to direct monetary benefits, it is often not considered work...Add to it a notion that it has a lot of flexibility aka relaxation potential. Unfortunately, only the women involved know what a never-ending duty it is.
I think the question you have asked is the fundamental idea behind the feminism ideal..This notion that the woman at home doesn't 'work'..(and hence is somehow inferior, or doesn't deserve the same rights as the man who goes to work.)
It boils down to societal norms, where men work, provide for their family - their duty - and are appreciated for that, and are allowed to relax/take a break with a sense of entitlement. Women take care of home, but are only rebuked when their efforts are not on par with expectations. Forget about real relaxation : serving the family is a full time business, and more work than any timeboxed 'job'.
If the rest of the family are sensitive to her needs and are appreciative, this becomes what every woman wants to do.. Else it remains a major shackle, pushing her to either fight for what is a human right, or suffer in silence..
When both man and wife are acting like two sides of the coin in caring for the family in different ways, why is it that one of them gets more privilege than the other?
Why doesn't the woman get these privileges even when she is both 'working' and taking care of home?

'Going to work' is just one aspect of raising a family - providing the means. Why is this glorified at the expense of the actual caretaking?

Periamma, I don't think there is anything wrong in accepting that we don't go to work - it just means we don't go out and work to earn money. However, I resent this mindset where that is taken to assume that one is doing no worthwhile work!
I wonder whether women themselves unwittingly have downplayed their contribution to the family...