Wages for Housework
Through evolution and biology certain sex roles have been established. In our early evolution men went out to hunt while women stayed to take care of the young. Biologically women were not able to go with the men to hunt because they were either pregnant or had young to take care of. Both jobs are equally as important. Sadly we have downgraded the importance of taking care of our future generations and other housework activities. We would not have been able to be such a successful species without both roles of hunters and gatherers. We glorify the men’s role of being the provider, but give no importance to the labor intensive role of being a stay at home mom. The government needs to acknowledge housework for what it really is, work. As Angela Davis states in Women, Race and Class, “During early eras of human history the sexual division of labor within the system of economic production was complementary as opposed to hierarchical. In societies where men may have been responsible for hunting wild animals and women, in turn, for gathering wild vegetables and fruits, both sexes performed economic tasks that were equally essential to their community’s survival.” Housework clearly is not as unimportant as society make it seem. We need to financially support individuals who want to stay home and raise their children and take care of their house. At the end of the day it is better for a society to have the chance to adequately raise future generations. Housework is as important as any other job and should therefore have compensation. Angela states, “The countless chores collectively known as “housework” — cooking, washing dishes, doing laundry, making beds, sweeping, shopping etc. — apparently consume some three to four thousand hours of the average housewife’s year.” Many women who have children have no other choice, but to get full time jobs to be able to provide for their children. With this they lose precious time of being able to raise their children. The have to pay someone else to take care of their young within less than a year of having their baby. It is sad to say that many child abuse cases comes from day care facilities. Children who endure such faith have to live with trauma that he or she may never overcome. Who better to take care of children than the person who gave them life. I believe at a minimum women or men should have the opportunity to raise their children at least to the age of five and get paid to do so. Working parents don’t have the time nor the energy to adequately take care of their children. Angela argues that Many women have jobs “As paid housekeepers, they have been called upon to be surrogate wives and mothers in millions of white homes.” Many women have to leave their children to go take care of someone else’s child. What better than for mothers to have the opportunity to stay home and get paid to raise their own children. The government needs to support parents to have the liberty to choose to either work at a regular job and get free day care or if the parent would rather stay and get paid for their housework. It is extremely depressing the lack of support we give to parents. A mother is supposed to go back to work only a few months after she has given birth and most fathers are expected to not take any time off to spend with their newborn child. Both mother and infant need the bonding time that breastfeeding provides. How is it right to only allow six months of this? There is no one more important to a young child’s life than the parents. We must allow parents the financial stability to be stay at home parents and get paid to do so. At the end of the day it is the most important job.
https://www.marxists.org/subject/women/authors/davis-angela/housework.htm
