Working Mother Vs Housewife Essay

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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...

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... 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.

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