For Sale: Independence and a voice

The notion that women are the ones in charge of a household has taken on new meanings as time has transpired. Since private property came about, so has sexual inequality. This is not to say it did not exist before, but it was when the woman was trapped in the cage and had the door locked on her. Private property essentially means something that a person can own, protect, control, and can restrict others from having access. Women have been seen as private property for as long as one can think. In the article, Women, Race, and Class: The Approaching Obsolescence of Housework: A Working-Class Perspective, written by Angela Davis, there is claim by the bourgeois, that a housewife is simply a lifelong servant to her husband. Regardless of a woman’s class, she is not in charge, it is only a matter of to what extent she is controlled. The working class woman has what is essentially known as two shifts: one at work and one at home. We are able to see this in television shows such as Roseanne, where this working class white woman has to juggle work, her children and their education, and house work all at the same time while her husband does little to nothing to contribute. As an upper-class woman in society, the role of a housewife is almost always strictly enforced. The husband goes off to work, while the wife is responsible for maintaining the home and their children’s well-being. Whether or not she is assisted by others such as maids and nannies is not of relevance, as long as the husband is not made to be in charge of anything but work. If the husband was to be responsible for anything else, it would be chaos, it would not make sense or be seen as “right”, even though that is exactly what working class women do.

The way in which some sort of change has taken place is in the way that the issue is approached. For a long period of time, men have always been noted as the ones responsible for women being tied down to certain roles. For example the 1975 version of Stepford Wives, where “unreasonable” feminists are killed off by their husbands and replaced by their ideal, robot versions of their wives- quiet, obeying housewives. However, the new take on this role is seen in the most recent version of the movie filmed in 20o4. In this version, it is not men who kill off their wives in order to control them, it’s a woman. A woman programs other successful women around her to fit what she sees as the ideal woman for her community. In this version, it is women taking away any glimpse of independence from one another. Regardless of who is in charge of the oppression, the issue is still that women are being oppressed and forced to fit the image of being a housewife regardless of her class and race. Regardless of whether she has to work 2 jobs on the side or pays people to do the work for her, she has to be in charge of the home. Why? To help create the perfect worker- her husband. It does not matter if a woman has two jobs, 3 children, and is struggling to pay the rent. Her image to society will always be a mother first, that is what concerns everyone. What is she doing to be a good mother? For men, it is his work. Women are supposed to take on everything else so that men can focus on being the best worker he can be, so he can succeed to his full potential. Her work at home helps her husband be a better worker in the capitalist society.

There are current arguments against the notion that women who believe in staying at home are not oppressed. Some claim women are no longer oppressed when they end their professional careers to take care of their families, because they’re choosing to instead of being forced to, like they used to be. However, I would like to argue that the thought in itself is a result of oppression. If it has always been “tradition” for women to be the ones who sacrificed themselves for their families, it is no surprise that one may think that is what is right. Staying at home and being a housewife is not what the oppression is all about, it is about the fact that they feel they should be the ones to do it, they never once consider that the man can do it as well. It should not be automatically the woman who works until she gets pregnant and then that becomes her life, because if that is the case the issue is still there: that women’s ultimate goal should be to have settle with a successful man, have children, and stay home to help her husband be more successful.