The woman who does housework is known as a housewife. This is a person who is responsible for developing those tasks that are necessary for the daily operation of a home.
According to DigoPaul, a housewife cleans the house, does the laundry, cooks, does the shopping and, if she has children, takes care of them and helps them study, among many other tasks. Despite assuming these obligations, their effort is not remunerated, unlike what happens with any individual who has a job or carries out a work activity.
For many years, the figure of the housewife was associated with the woman who dedicated herself exclusively to household chores, while her husband went out to work and earn the money that allowed the family to support themselves financially. Nowadays, it is common for women to assume jobs equivalent to those of men: that is, to work in a paid way, whether or not they dedicate themselves to housework. In the same way, it is increasingly common for men to carry out tasks at home that in the past they did not assume, since they were done by the housewife.
It is important to mention that the idea of a housewife is only valid in a context in which it is the woman who is responsible for performing the aforementioned tasks, since the opposite case can always exist: a heterosexual family group in which the man stay at home while the woman assumes a paid job.
On the other hand, a man who lives alone will have to take care of domestic duties even when he works outside his home. Thanks to greater mental openness on the part of society, it is now possible to speak of housewives to group all those men who make purchases, prepare food, clean the house and look after their children, among all the obligations that in the past were associated with the role of women.
Leaving machista concepts behind is a very arduous task, which becomes especially difficult when the authorities of a nation have interests opposed to this search for freedom. The term housewife is one of the ones that has caused the most damage to women, since for a long time it was considered her obligation once she reached adulthood and fulfilled her other mandate: to marry.
We are in an era in which we have more than enough information to understand that we are first of all people, before men and women, that we are not born with a sexuality linked to our physical appearance, that we should not follow a pre-established path in life but choose ours at every step; However, despite having access to so many open ideas, we are still rooted in machismo, which filters through the media and keeps these obtuse ideas alive.
Being a homemaker or housewife indicates an exclusive dedication to maintaining the home, and that may apply to both men and women, as mentioned above. It has no negative connotation nor is it demeaning; likewise, it has no relation to the person’s gender or sex: we can all be homemakers.
However, this role is increasingly rare, at least “full time”, since at present the economic independence of each member of a family is very normal. Thanks to the Internet, today we can work without leaving our house, and for this reason many people who used to be housewives dedicate several hours a day to a paid job.
