The debate on domestic work is predicated on unjust gender roles. Women have been expected to maintain the house and raise children from antiquity. Any woman who resisted would find herself alone or dead in the past. In modern civilization, there exists the opportunity for women to be their own familial leaders or single people; to have careers, etc. and do the things all of humanity ought to have the freedom to do.
The problem? Men (and a lot of women) still believe in the old gender roles. So whereas a man gets to go to work, then come home and do whatever he wants for a few hours until sleeping, women must go to work, then come home to maintain the house, do the laundry, pay the bills (yes, even if men earn some of the money, most of bill paying is handled by women), get the groceries, take the children to their obligations, raise the children, etc., etc., etc. This is the "second shift" of work for women. And it's unpaid and often thankless. Men defend themselves by claiming their mechanic work and utility work around the house (like building a tree-house, or working on cars) is work, but it doesn't approach the level of work that women must do, and most men enjoy being crafty. Some men also claim defense in that their work is "more important" than house duties; that they're out there making the world go around with their magnificent contributions to civilization, and have thus earned respite at home.
Second wave feminists weren't able to get the victory they desired—a splitting of domestic duties and responsibilities between men and women. For that reason, hiring of maids and domestic workers is now on the rise in today's society. Women, unable to get men to help, have taken to hiring domestic help like nannies or illegal migrants. And this is often an exploitative relationship, etc. etc. etc. But really, as a woman who's expected to maintain the entire house and everything else, how can you have a career at the same time? How can you raise one or more children while being a high-powered businesswoman?
Anyway, the problem is that men need to fucking help around the house and split duties with women. Gender roles can go fuck themselves. I know two women who are bearish on getting married because they know it'll probably be an exploitative domestic relationship like that. They don't want to consign themselves to do all the fucking work in the house just because tradition dictates it. Add a life of that on top of child-rearing and the pain of being a baby factory, and ugh.
Anyway, none of this may apply to Boo, but I had to take the opportunity where I saw it to highlight this injustice. Extra problems come in with the realization that the "second shift" is
unpaid work for women. Stay at home moms with many kids might do great work raising children, but they don't have an employer—so there's no pension, benefit plan, insurance break, or even social security for them. It boils down to slavish dependence on the husband.
We are going to fucking change that.
