Women’s Web is saying Goodbye! Please make sure you read this important notification.
Women who choose to stay at home have multiple responsibilities over them. Yet they are unpaid and constantly overworked.
How many of you have heard this phrase – ‘You are a nobody, just a housewife?’ I am sure more than enough women have heard it over the years and continue to hear it even today.
Sadly, even in this day and time, people who claim to be the cool and educated ones manage to remain uneducated in their minds. Calling someone ‘just a housewife,’ seems like an insult, doesn’t it? But, trust me, it isn’t! It’s just the other person trying to pull you down while not realising what a strong term ‘housewife/homemaker’ is!
I spoke to a few people who said that they did feel sad when someone called them a housewife or a homemaker to insult them. Every time something like this happens, I am sure you start feeling like you are incapable of doing other things. It isn’t because people are trying to insult you and feel better about themselves. I think it is because you definitely are affected by what the people are saying. It still amazes how shallow people can get to insult someone else.
Being a homemaker doesn’t mean you don’t work! Work, work and more work are all that a homemaker does. You are the first one to wake up every morning and the last one to go to bed and you do it all without a single leave or an off!
In my opinion, it is certain women and men who make a hue and cry about women being homemakers. Equality is being misunderstood by these people. They seem to misunderstand feminism and believe that being a feminist is all about dominating men. But that isn’t what it is!
Feminism is and has always been all about wanting equality for everyone, regardless of their gender. It isn’t about dominating men or being the superior gender. And I believe it is this belief that makes people dislike feminists.
Feminism doesn’t ask you to hate men or say that women are superior to men! I am a feminist but it doesn’t mean I don’t have a husband and a family. Neither does it mean that I only care about myself. I am a feminist and I am completely against society’s belief that women are only child-bearing machines who must only cook and clean the house!
Also, why can’t men be feminists too? There are several men I know who are feminists and are proud of their wives and daughters for everything they do. These are the men who don’t just ‘help’ women with household chores but actually divide the work and make it an equal division of tasks.
I have always loved Maya Angelou’s poems on women and their power:
“You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise.”
This is for those men who always put women down and try to stick them under their shoes.
Being a housewife doesn’t mean that anyone can put them down. They may never express it but the feelings of the homemakers are just as valid as yours! These are the women who silently do it all and often have to crush their own ambitions to fuel yours!
The only problem in choosing to be a homemaker in the 21st century is the judgement that comes with it! Why is it so insulting to be a stay-at-home mom? And why is one perceived as an uneducated woman if she chooses to stay at home and take care of her own family?
Just because we stay at home, doesn’t mean we are uneducated or illiterate! Some of us have left our jobs in order to stay at home and take care of our families, on our own will. Everyone has their priorities and preferences. Some prefer staying at home while others prefer balancing their home and work life.
We really need to respect every woman and her choice to choose what she wants to do – whether it is staying at home or going out to work.
I believe people will treat you how you let them treat you. Women who choose to stay at home have multiple responsibilities over them. Yet they are unpaid and constantly overworked.
A woman cannot be defined by her position, job, salary or even duties. Just like ‘working women,’ we also have new challenges every day. Women have the ability to work wonders both at her house and at her workplace. It’s time we respected her and her choices. And treated her as an equal, irrespective of what she does!
What do you think?
Picture credits: Still from Marathi TV series Agga Bai Sasubai
Writer, Mehak Varun, is the author of three books - THE HUMANE QUEST(volume-1,2 &3), published by Authorspress, New Delhi. It is a QUEST for HUMANITY. She is born and brought up in read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
Please enter your email address