The men who benefit from this system are not going to change their ways voluntarily in response to this cogent and accurate analysis. The benefits to them are immediate and attractive. The costs are not felt immediately and seem abstract. As long as there are willing laborers, the system will survive.
Consider the ‘professional’ mother/housewife. She is on-call 24-7. Her work is requires skill and creativity, at times, in some ways, but consists mostly of unskilled labor. She has great responsibility, overseeing the welfare, growth, and development of children, but meeting this responsibility does not require her direct personal attention all day everyday. Mostly, she’s a domestic servant, playing a subordinate role in her spouse/breadwinner’s life, and has the attendant social status, mythology to the contrary notwithstanding. Her ‘pay’ is room, board, and whatever expenses she negotiates with her breadwinner partner. The arrangement warps the couple’s relationship and limits the ‘professional’ mother/housewife’s possibilities and value. Want the gig, girls?
The men who benefit from this system are not going to change their ways voluntarily in response to this cogent and accurate analysis. The benefits to them are immediate and attractive. The costs are not felt immediately and seem abstract. As long as there are willing laborers, the system will survive.
Consider the ‘professional’ mother/housewife. She is on-call 24-7. Her work is requires skill and creativity, at times, in some ways, but consists mostly of unskilled labor. She has great responsibility, overseeing the welfare, growth, and development of children, but meeting this responsibility does not require her direct personal attention all day everyday. Mostly, she’s a domestic servant, playing a subordinate role in her spouse/breadwinner’s life, and has the attendant social status, mythology to the contrary notwithstanding. Her ‘pay’ is room, board, and whatever expenses she negotiates with her breadwinner partner. The arrangement warps the couple’s relationship and limits the ‘professional’ mother/housewife’s possibilities and value. Want the gig, girls?