Housewives and Blue Collars - Essay Example

Housewives and Blue Collars The etymology of these words is as simple as their meanings. The word housewife was coined from the word wife who stayedhome and undertook all the household tasks while the word Blue Collar denoted the male workers in assembly lines wearing the common uniform of blue shirts with nameplates.(1) These simple words denoted gender roles that has been deeply ingrained in the minds of generations pasts that should be reassessed and reevaluated according to the current roles that males and females now play. The housewife is greatly exemplified in the essay written by E.S. Maduro wherein “E.S. Maduro tells the story of her mother and the typical "housewife" tale.   Her mother dated the same man her entire life, married right before college graduation, and stopped any working to pursue another career--motherhood.”(2) While the male of the household worked to support the family and did not contribute much to the running of the household. This social organization based on gender roles is vehemently attacked in the essay through the anger felt by the author: "I became angry at both of my parents: at my father that his chores (take apart and reassemble the kitchen sink, work in the garden, snow-blow the driveway) seemed interesting and challenging and were always impressive to friends and relatives, while my mothers endless chores seemed layered in routine and monotony."(3) The title of the essay itself is proof to this claim. The author wants to break away from the age-old concept that the woman should keep house, bear children and make everyone happy. This is the reason why she continued to work and did not stay home when she settled in with her boyfriend. She chose a man who knew how to do chores at home with the view of sharing the household tasks between them. She had it all planned but the irony of it all that brings her great anger is that she eventually took on the role of her mother: “So there it is. In trying to avoid a life of an overworked housewife that I see my mother as having occupied for more than thirty years now, in choosing a boyfriend partly for his willingness and readiness to share the “woman’s work,” I am freely walking closer and closer to everything I had wanted to escape, enraged with every step I take. Somehow, some part of this cycle seems unavoidable, unchangeable.”(4) Her anger arises from the fact that she had prepared to break away from the social norm but could not. She felt guilty of not fulfilling the “duty”. This feeling of guilt is a mere conditioning of the mind brought about by the generation upon generation of social organization dictating that this is a woman’s role. This is truly disadvantageous to the women sector. They are unable to grow and reach their potentials in careers of their choice. If a woman is able to breakaway and to work, she is still followed by the need to be the “supermom”. She has taken the task of earning to help support the family and, still, society continues to impose upon her the task of managing the household. It is only through fulfilling this new role or extended role that she can be accepted as a good wife and mother by society. This set up is totally disadvantageous and exhausting for the woman. Mental conditioning and pressure from society continues to shackle and put the woman in bondage. Many women, including the author, would not accept this reality and just mask this as a knowledge or sense of responsibility that only women have: “Rather than trying to impart to him some of the domestic knowledge and sense of responsibility that I have, I will, I fear, go on being angry that he wasn’t given it to begin with; angry that, unlike me, he was not closely observing, for his future, his own mother during the many hours she spent taking care of everyone in the family, and therefore now doesn’t have the voice in his head telling him he should be constantly aware of tasks that need to be done, of meeting everyone else’s needs before his own.(5) This mental conditioning has made the author accept in tolerance her role: I will, I fear, go on doing as much as I can, caught between pride and anger. At twenty four, living in this day and age, I still have years to figure things out; to try to learn how to feel pride and even power without running myself ragged; to be with a man without being angry for the rest of my life. I hope I can”(6) Despite the difficulty of the extended role that women now play, “Maduro contends that while being a good mom/wife/housekeeper, etc. can be frustrating, it is a source of pride for women.”(7) This sense of pride and self worth can be obtained through other channels other than child bearing and child rearing. This is the emphasis in the essay written by Bill McKibben, “The Case for Single-child Families.” McKibben eases the “guilt” that people feel when they find pride and self worth outside the home. He emphasizes that this is not being selfish. Choosing to undergo vasectomy or tubal ligation to ensure that one has a single or merely two children in order to pursue other goals is not being selfish. He seeks to awaken in the woman a sense to find herself and that there is a way: It’s wrong to ridicule such attitudes, at least in a culture that still assigns the work of raising kids mostly to women and allows men to continue their careers at full tilt. Sometimes people have to rescue themselves; in Toni Morrisons novel Solo, the heroine won’t marry or bear children in order to preserve her "Me-ness." When her grandmother wants her to have babies to "settle" her, Sula says, "I don’t want to make somebody else. I want to make myself." (8) McKibben further explains that God’s commandment to “be fruitful and multiply” must be taken off the list since we have done this already: “the first commandment we have fulfilled. There’s barely a habitable spot on the planet without a human being; in our lifetimes we’ve filled every inch of the planet with our presence...We can check this commandment off the list.”(9) But McKibben gives another meaning to life. He shows that pride and self worth is possible outside the usual role women by: “But when you check something off a list, you don’t just throw the list away. You look further down the list, see what comes next…Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, comfort the oppressed; love your neighbor as yourself; heal the earth.”(10) Both writers, McKibben and Marudo seek changes in how women see themselves and how they can find themselves – their pride and self fulfillment in other places other than the home. Marudo although accepts the womans “extended role” has at least shown that there is a life for the woman outside the home. She can balance a career and at the same time manage a household. A woman’s self identity is not lost. McKibben helps the woman to ease her guilt at partially leaving her traditional role as child bearer and rearer. He helps the woman to find a reason to cling to than just the usual economical and practical reasons for actively participating in planning a smaller family. A reason that frees her from the stigma being selfish, when such act is actually for the greater good: But now there are so many of us, and we have done such a poor job of planning for our numbers, that for the first time we can answer God back. We can say: we set the boundaries of the ocean. If we keep heating the planet at our current pace, the seas will rise two feet in the next century. Every one foot will bring the water 90 feet further inland across the typical American beach, drowning wetland and marsh. It’s our lack of planning that changes the rainfall, that means more severe storms and worse flooding. It’s not an "act of God." It’s an act of us.(11) (1)Rolando M. Gripaldo, R.M. “Transition from Industrial to Super Industrial Society”: International Journal of Philosophy 29 (2). Dela Salle University Philippines: 2000, p.2 (2) Maduro E.S. “Excuse Me While I explode: My Mother, Myself, My Anger”. Reviews: Feminism in the Workplace. Retrieved on 27 March 2010 from http://gray.intrasun.tcnj.edu/399/Maduro.htm (3) Maduro E.S. “Excuse Me While I Explode: My Mother, Myself, My Anger”. (4) Ibid (5) Ibid., p.11 (6) Ibid., p.12 (7) Op. cit., Maduro E.S. Reviews:Feminism in the Workplace (8) McKibben, Bill. The Case for Single-child Families. p.4. Retrieved on 3/27/10 at www.christiancentury.org. (9) Ibid., p.6 (10) Ibid (11) Ibid., p.8 Read More