Samantha Torrence- Tales from an exhausted housewife - Gloria Steinem is a name that I have particularly loathed during my time as a devoted mother. In my idealistic phase I wanted nothing more than to concentrate all my love and energy on my children until they were in school, then I would attend college and get a job. That is what mother’s should do right? They should sacrifice their ambition for their children and have them while they are young and have the energy to take care of them. That was my plan A until the economy and poverty made me face Plan B; working part-time jobs and attempt to go to school. Plan B failed and here is why.Steinem seemed to degrade women like me defining our position as idiot, bon-bon eating, leeches who needed the support of a superior man. She also equated the housewife’s job with that of a low-skilled laborer.
“No more men who are encouraged to spend a lifetime living with inferiors; with housekeepers, or dependent creatures who are still children… When society stops encouraging men to be exploiters and women to be parasites, they may turn out to be more complementary in emotion as well. ”
Honestly, that insinuation not only hurt me but many women in the 80’s, 90’s and today. I placed the blame of how little a housewife was thought of squarely on her shoulders. When I went to fill out job applications, despite my over qualification for most jobs since I have extensive experience as a cook, maid, secretary, chauffer and LPN, I was repeatedly seen as unqualified for my position. I think the only other class of citizen in the United States whose qualifications are this misunderstood is the Military.
I still don’t really like what she stands for which seemed to be some form of androgynistic communal society, but after re-reading her article in Time titled “ What It Would Be Like If Women Win” I realized that maybe she did place value on housewives in her own very misunderstood way. Ms. Steinem demanded that the difficult jobs women did needed to be paid for in some way, or that the communal society she envisioned would be set up to take care of the “mundane” work with professional businesses so that people could be fairly compensated and respected for their work. So in essence I do agree with Ms. Steinem that we need appropriate compensation for the sacrifice we make as housewives. I can even take her suggestion is viable and worth being considered. I certainly respect her position considering what she had been through in her life that led up to her involvement in the Womens’ Liberation movement. I still need to be sold on her solution.
What this entire issue is for me is one of respect. Women still are fighting for respect. We have been making great strides in equal pay for jobs, we are allowed to own property and vote, and we have been able to make headway into the political arena. Still what good are these laws which grant us the possibility of equal rights if we have not addressed the root problem? Women still need to be respected, yes even us exhausted, overworked, underpaid, housewives who are constantly taken for granted. Until we can be respected for what we do and our roles thought of as important, even if we achieve the androgynistic communal lifestyle we will simply switch from sexism to a caste system and continue to disparage service workers.
Maybe it would help if we quit saying women are housekeepers, secretaries, LPNs, and chauffeurs and simply call them overworked executives. That’s right, we are executives. Now we just need money for an ad campaign and to enlist the help of a propaganda machine. Perhaps Gloria Steinem could hook us up.
