Gendered Division of Labour
Women have been fighting for equal rights ever since the establishment of the constitution, which had to establish equal rights for all Americans, but for women they were only false ideals of freedom and equality. In order for the women to achieve equal rights they needed to get the right to vote and in order for that to happen they needed to establish their civil rights within the constitution. In the mid-19th century, the woman suffrage movement established the foundation for women to receive fair treatment and eventually gain their ability to participate in the political spectrum. The 19th amendment allowed women to vote, however, a particular group of women were relinquished from those rights due to their color, African American women. African Americans were victims of slavery regarding their inferiority that they had because of the white supremacy, but women, either black or white, were slaves to men. Slavery is a system were women enjoyed “equality” in terms of oppression by men and the inferiority they had due to their position imposed by the system. Men were using women, not only as a source of household duties, but as a resource for their emotional and physical needs. Women take on the hard job of constantly washing clothes, doing the dishes, attending their children and their husband, etc. in order to fulfill their position of a wife. However, times eventually changed for women and they were given the opportunity to succeed among this men world monopoly. There is no doubt that women up to this date still struggle with succeeding among the men that dominate the industries, but they have learned ways to deviate those obstacles and triumph in their own way.
In the book, “Women, Race and Class” by Angela Davis analyzes the reason why women were viewed as an object of the household work. Since then, men have this ideology that women are the means of production regarding reproduction, attending their children and their basic needs. Women have to abide into their labor work of household duties by implementing ways that their houses are well-organized and clean. Women were also given such tasks because they abide to their work and were glad to have those duties. They agreed that there should be no compensation whatsoever for taking care of their own family and the basic household duties simply because it was a task that had to be done. Davis reiterates this idea that, “housework, after all, is virtually invisible: ‘No one notices it until, it isn’t done- we notice the unmade bed, not the scrubbed and polished floor’” in order to focus on this idea that women are devoted to do such hard labor work around the house with no compensation (Davis). Although it is a task that should be done, women should not be responsible for doing such work and it should be a collective task for both men and women. According to Angela Davis housework is not noticeable because they do not get awarded for it. There is a gender difference between women and men since women are expected to spend their time by doing chores at home while men are there without helping their partners. How do men spend their time while women are doing housework? How is it possible that men earn money for working outside home, but women do not earn money while working on the house?
Women that choose to stay at home make it possible for men who are part of the family leave their home and work, isn’t this aspect should be valuable? Women take care of the children and do chores at home in order for the men to be able to work. They provide the opportunity for men to work giving a laborer to capitalism. Should giving a way for laborer not be awarded equally as the laborer itself? Capitalism needs to realize that women that tend to work on home are a big part of the production of labor since they help lightening the load of their partners. If there is no support of women to their partners there would be far less people working as hard as they do. Housework for women in their homes should be valued as equal as labor outside the home. Housework should not be the only responsibility for women, but as for men too. Eventually it has decreased over time but it will always be part of the historical work.
