Essay On Housework

Generally speaking, the term ‘housework’ is used to refer to the managing of the home involving a range of domestic and often unpaid activities, ‘the purpose of which is to maintain household members’ (Hatt, 1997). According to Hatt, social events such as the rise of capitalism and the industrial revolution produced a surge of change throughout society causing the separation of the home and the workplace, as well as the shift from household work to factory work. As society gradually altered to reflect this, the home became the place of the ‘reproduction’ of labour, a predominantly female-gendered role shaped by social policies and ideologies which maintain the gendered division of labour. However, since the mid-20th century we have seen many significant changes in housework and who is responsible for its implementation, following the feminist movement and social changes which have allowed women to have access to equal opportunities with regards to paid employment. Although women were finally able to engage in paid work with less prejudice and similar opportunities as men, they were also expected to complete household tasks on top of this, regularly performing what Hochschild (1989) describes as ‘the second shift’, or the ‘double shift’. It was not until the early 21st century that middle class families began to seek paid domestic workers to perform their household management activities for them, eliminating the issues that arose with the double shift. A huge rise in demand for this service has led to the commoditisation of domestic labour, although some sociologists such as Ehrenreich and Hochschild (2003) argue that ‘as class polarization grows, the classic posture of submission makes a comeback’, with many domestic cleaning...

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...rastically in the past ten years especially, ‘housework’ has become more of a choice than a necessity for many households, especially as labour costs are subject to negotiation and many workers are willing to accept very low pay in return for very hard work.

Conclusively, the definition of what constitutes as ‘housework’, as well as who is responsible for completing it, has changed throughout modern history and differs from culture to culture. Domestic work is arguably a terribly complex concept and by no means a natural gendered process. The work of feminists as well as changes in social policy have indisputably made for a more equal in terms of reproduction work and whose responsibility it is, yet it is still considered by some that it is the woman of the house who is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the household is kept in an acceptable condition.