Working Mother Vs Housewife Essay

656 Words2 Pages

Housewifery vs. Working Mothers
When discussing housewifery and working mothers, some women have very different opinions about the two. In the articles “Letter to Working Mothers: Stop Feeling So Guilty” by Margie Warrell, written in 2013, and “The Satisfactions of Housewifery and Motherhood” by Terry Martin Hekker, written in 1977, this is shown to be true. While author Margie Warrell gives advice to working mothers, author Terry Martin Hekker gives her personal life story of being a housewife. From 1977 to 2013, marriage has changed quite a bit. Ms. Hekker discusses her views of being a house wife in 1977 as an over-conservative marriage. Ms. Warrell gives advice to working mothers to help with guilt of not being a housewife, which is a more nontraditional marriage. Both articles have creditable views regarding each topic due to both authors’ personal experiences.
“The Satisfactions of Housewifery and Motherhood” was an interesting and informative article of what life was like when living in the shoes of a housewife in 1977. That was a time when women were going off to work in order to help support their families due to The Women’s Rights Movement. Society frowned upon those women who remained a housewife. They were viewed as blood sucking leaches living off their husbands. Terry Hekker believed that she would be one of the last housewives before their extinction. Some of the main beliefs that Ms. Hekker wanted to explain is there are misunderstandings about the role of a housewife, benefits can be gained and that the occupation of a housewife is an acceptable job for women. Terry Hekker proves that society back then left some women affected negatively by the “do-your-own-thing” philosophy. The author brought up a few arguments...

... middle of paper ...

... very defensive. The tone felt bitter but at the same time sarcastic which served Terry very well and allowed her to make her point in an effective manner. She had a problem of controlling her tone in certain points of the article which make readers defensive themselves. Her point would have been made much better if an informative tone was used rather than sarcasm. The over use of sarcasm only made her seem offensive in certain points. When Terry said “For years of fetching other women’s children after they’d thrown up in the lunchroom, because I have nothing better to do, or probably there’s nothing I do better, while their mothers have careers” (Hekker, 1977). The expression comes off as not conservative. Terry also didn’t seem to take into account that many women were forced to work in order to support their husbands and to provide their kids with better living.

Show More
Related

  • Clear Springs, By Bobbie Ann Mason

    635 Words  | 2 Pages

    Prior to World War II women were expected to be housewives by cleaning, cooking, and taking care of children. Women were discouraged to work outside of the home and often judged by the rest of society. Bobbie Ann Mason gives great examples of the duties expected by women of the time period and her grandmother is a perfect model of domesticity. At one point Mason talk about a conversation between her grandmother and mom. Mason’s mom, Christy, decides to go back to work, but her grandmother disapproves and says she should be home taking care of her girls (Mason, 116). Christy on the other hand is an example of the modern woman. A woman willing to go to work outside of the home to help support her family when needed. Christy gets a job at a clothing company. Mason says that many women were leaving the farm and taking work in factories (Mason, 83). During and after World War II many women began to work outside of the home changing the idea of what it meant to be a women and the duties that accompanied.

    Read More

  • The Pastoralization Of Housework By Jeanne Boydston

    798 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The Pastoralization of Housework” by Jeanne Boydston is a publication that demonstrates women’s roles during the antebellum period. Women during this period began to embrace housework and believed their responsibilities were to maintain the home, and produce contented and healthy families. As things progressed, housework no longer held monetary value, and as a result, womanhood slowly shifted from worker to nurturer. The roles that women once held in the household were slowly diminishing as the economy became more industrialized. Despite the discomfort of men, when women realized they could find decent employment, still maintain their household and have extra income, women began exploring their option.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In The Simpsons

    1734 Words  | 4 Pages

    ideologies of the women 's roles in society because it represents a typical housewife. On the

    Read More

  • 1950s Women Research Paper

    708 Words  | 2 Pages

    Contention (Introduction): At the beginning of the 1950's women faced the expectation that they must become a housewife. Towards the end of the 1960’s, women started to believe that

    Read More

  • How Does Men Control Women In The Yellow Wallpaper

    1290 Words  | 3 Pages

    Women in this era had just begun to secure some freedom from their typical cultural expectations. They were expected to take care of the children, cook, clean, sew and be presentable to society. As jobs were made available to women, only a low percentage of these women started to work outside of the home. This means that many women had chosen to stay inside the home to remain in the role of “house keeper”. Even though the woman attained some freedom they were still considered inferior to men. Men still had the most authority in the household and

    Read More

  • Why Men Still Can T Have It All By Mari Anne-Marie Slaughter

    1360 Words  | 3 Pages

    At what point does work life start interfering with family life to an extent that it becomes unacceptable? Is it when you don’t get to spend as much time with your family as you would like, or is it the point where you barely get to see your family due to long hours at work? Is it even possible to balance work with family life? Anne-Marie Slaughter, the author of “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All”, believes this balance is impossible to achieve in this day and age. In contrast, Richard Dorment, the author of “Why Men Still Can’t Have It All”, believes that there will never be a day when someone will have it all, certain sacrifices will always have to be made. Both of these articles are similar in the respect that they both examine balancing a demanding career with raising children. The two authors’ views on the subject differ greatly, especially regarding how gender roles have a significant impact on our society.

    Read More

  • Market Revolution and Women's Quest for Equality

    1382 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the article, Cult of True Womanhood, the underlying theme is of what society thought was the ideal woman. Women of that time where thought of as homemakers “deeply shaped by the so called “cult of womanhood” a collection of attitudes that associated “true” womanhood with home and family.” Women were supposed to stay home and clean and take care of the children while men worked and provided for their families. The misconception that housework was not hard and that even these women didn’t work as hard as paid labors was a strong opinion of the time. “With economic value calculated more and more exclusively in terms of cash and men increasingly basing their claims to “manhood” on their role as “breadwinners,” women’s unpaid household labor went largely unacknowledged.” Many married women ran their households and took on extra work to support their families and many in underpaid positions. Many of these were even in the service of other’s houses working in “true womanhood”

    Read More

  • Shirley Chiisholm's Patriarchy: Race, Revolution And Women

    703 Words  | 2 Pages

    This source provided the unique perspective of what was thought to be the perfect household, with a man who worked and a wife who cooked and cleaned. However, it also showed how a woman could also do what a man can do, and in some cases they could do it even better. This work is appropriate to use in this essay because it shows how men talked down to their wives as if they were children. This work shows the gradual progression of woman equality and how a woman is able to make her own decisions without her husband’s input.

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper: Women’s Rights in the Nineteenth Century

    2676 Words  | 6 Pages

    A house is not a home if no one lives there. During the nineteenth century, the same could be said about a woman concerning her role within both society and marriage. The ideology of the Cult of Domesticity, especially prevalent during the late 1800’s, emphasized the notion that a woman’s role falls within the domestic sphere and that females must act in submission to males. One of the expected jobs of a woman included bearing children, despite the fact that new mothers frequently experienced post-partum depression. If a woman were sterile, her purposefulness diminished. While the Cult of Domesticity intended to create obliging and competent wives, women frequently reported feeling trapped or imprisoned within the home and within societal expectations put forward by husbands, fathers, and brothers.

    Read More

  • The Significant Decrease in Marriage Markets

    743 Words  | 2 Pages

    Bergmann, B. (1981). The Economic Risks of Being a Housewife. Women and the Economy: A

    Read More

  • Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media by Susan Douglas

    647 Words  | 2 Pages

    As early as the nineteen fifties women were identified and targeted as a market. In a consumer culture the most important things are consumers. Advertisers convinced homemakers that in order to be a “good” wife and mother you must have their products and appliances to keep a clean and perfect home. The irony of this ploy is that consumers must have money to buy, and so trying to improve their quality as homemakers, off into the workforce women went. This paradox left women ...

    Read More

  • Sociology Of Family In The Family

    1527 Words  | 4 Pages

    Marriage was once for the sole purpose of procreation and financially intensives. Living up to the roles that society had placed on married couples, more so women, is no longer the goal in marriage. Being emotional satisfied, having a fulfilled sex life and earning money is more important in marriage (Cherlin, 2013). Couples no longer feel the obligation to put the needs of their partner in front of their own needs. In the 1960’s and later it was the woman’s job to ensure that the house was clean, the children were bathed and dinner was prepared before the husband came home work. However, once more and more women began to enter the workplace and gain more independence, a desire for self-development and shared roles in the household lead way the individualistic marriage that is present in today’s society (Cherlin,

    Read More

  • “Working Parents” Synthesis Essay

    779 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Industrial Revolution and the Suffrage of woman it’s an “earth- shaking revolution” in every aspect of a person faces trying to balance family and work in modern life. In the early 1920s, the Industrial Revolution transformed America society, created a middle class; but social conditions did not always get better and in many cases they got worse. Instead of going to school, children were expected to work more than ever and for very little pay. Parent was not much concern of providing them with education or stability. Before, laws were passed to regulate industry many of the conditions inside factoring could be both dangerous and exploitation of child. While, traditionally a woman’s role in society was to stay at home and care for her family. Often, woman weren’t considered educated enough in local or national affairs touted.

    Read More

  • Family Today

    896 Words  | 2 Pages

    Today, in a vast majority of families, both the wife and husband have a job. Many working parents are under stress as they have to try to balance the demands of their work, children and relationship. Over the past 25 years, women's and men's roles have changed dramatically. In fact, the world of work and home are not separate, research indicates a profound impact on work and home life.

    Read More

  • Working Women Versus House Wife

    1364 Words  | 3 Pages

    As women we are always looking for a way to be better versions of ourselves. On a very broad spectrum we are supposed to be the superwoman of every aspect of life. Women were so called created on this earth to be submissive and a housemaid to their families. During the 1900s women began to feel trapped and lead to believe that they needed to follow in the footsteps of their ancestors, but on other terms they began slowly transitioning into becoming working women stepping out of the role of being only a house wife and mother.

    Read More

More about Working Mother Vs Housewife Essay

Open Document