Dear Friends,
I have a new essay out in Fairer Disputations, arguing that we need to provide better “on-ramps” for homemakers to return to the paid workforce. Homemaking is both a skilled and critical occupation. Employers, governments and society should make it easier for homemakers that want to return to paid work to do so.
I also criticize American second-wave feminists for (often) failing to recognize the work of the home, in a way that undermined homemakers—even as they rightfully fought for women to be recognized as full and equal persons:
Many second-wave feminists actively denigrated the work of housewives and home in their pursuit of achieving equality for women. Betty Friedan famously argued that suburban housewives—rather than playing important, needed roles—were harming themselves, their husbands, their children, and their communities. She argued that women with “an exclusive role of wife and mother” were the cause of numerous alleged social ills, including “latent or overt homosexuality,” “Battered-Child Syndrome,” and “schizophrenic children.” In a chapter entitled Progressive Dehumanization: The Comfortable Concentration Camp, Friedan wrote: “the women who ‘adjust’ as housewives, who grow up wanting to be ‘just a housewife,’ are in as much danger as the millions who walked to their own death in the concentration camps.”
Friedan would later walk back her concentration camp analogy, but the damage was done. With friends like Betty Friedan, what enemies did American housewives need? It is unsurprising that after the second-wave feminism of the 1960s and 1970s gained traction, efforts to support homemaker mothers essentially died.
You can read the entire essay here, if you are interested: https://fairerdisputations.org/protecting-the-home-front-why-we-need-a-g-i-bill-for-homemakers/
You may also be interested in a recent article by Elliot Haspel in The Atlantic, “The Paradox of Stay-at-Home Parents.” Haspel writes: “The decision to exclude stay-at-home parents from traditional economic metrics has largely walled them off from society’s attention and inclusion in social policies.” I agree, and hope that we will see greater recognition that the work of homemakers is valuable and important, even if it is not captured by the GDP or recognized by many economists/policymakers.
Finally, I was honored to appear on a podcast by the Center for Child and Family Policy. Among other things, I discussed how and why our society undervalues the work of the home. The link to that podcast is here: https://www.ccfp.org/ccfp/why-homemakers-matter-with-ivana-greco.
As always, please let me know of any interesting articles, interviews, etc. you may come across on homemaking and homemakers. I’m so delighted to read about new ideas and people in this area, and am grateful for suggestions.
In hope,
Ivana
I’m so glad you liked the article! I find it is hard to discuss motherhood and home, because people often feel criticized…even if you definitely do not intend to be critical.
After graduating from college, I started working for a big company, and had all kinds of aspirations for my engineering career. Then I had my first child. By the time my maternity leave was over, I was lucky enough to have arranged for him to be with a friend, a stay-at-home mom who had a 5 year old boy of her own. I will never forget one morning after I dropped him off, when I looked at her standing in her doorway, waving as I was backing out of the driveway, my son in her arms and her son’s arms wrapped around her leg. The thought came over me that moment that her job was much more important than mine. Of course I was too young and too selfish to act on it, but the feeling never left me. If I could do it again, I could think of a million sacrifices that would be worth making just to be the one to be there for his first words, his first steps and to watch him grow. 2020 hindsight.