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106-440: A housewife (also known as a homemaker or a stay-at-home mother/mom/mum ) is a woman whose role is running or managing her family's home — housekeeping , which may include caring for her children ; cleaning and maintaining the home; making , buying and/or mending clothes for the family; buying , cooking , and storing food for the family; buying goods that the family needs for everyday life; partially or solely managing

212-500: A clothes line and clotheshorse . Laundry starch is used in the laundering of clothes . Starch was widely used in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries to stiffen the wide collars and ruffs of fine linen which surrounded the necks of the well-to-do. During the 19th century and early 20th century, it was stylish to stiffen the collars and sleeves of men's shirts and the ruffles of girls' petticoats by applying starch to them as

318-574: A grocer 's. Another important purchase handled by homemakers is the power source used for appliances. Home or other building heating may include boilers, furnaces , and water heaters . Compressed natural gas is used in rural homes without connections to piped -in public utility services, or with portable grills . However, due to being less economical than LPG , LPG (Propane) is the dominant source of rural gas for natural gas-powered ranges and/or ovens, natural gas-heated clothes dryers , heating / cooling and central heating . The amount of usages

424-568: A prenuptial or postnuptial agreement is followed, most marital households in the US operate as a joint financial team and file taxes jointly. The method, necessity, and extent of educating housewives has been debated since at least the 20th century. In imperial China (excluding periods of the Tang dynasty ), women were bound to homemaking by the doctrines of Confucianism and cultural norms. Generally, girls did not attend school and, therefore, spent

530-399: A sink with hot and cold running water, a refrigerator and kitchen cabinets . Many homemakers use a microwave oven , a dishwasher and other electric appliances like blender and convection cooker and automatic appliances like rice cookers . The main function of a kitchen is cooking or preparing food but it may also be used for dining for a casual meal such as lunch . Cooking is

636-490: A "Domestic Consumption" category in national accounts . The International Wages for Housework Campaign was a global, social movement co-founded in 1972 in Padua , Italy, by author and activist Selma James . The Campaign was formed to raise awareness of how housework and childcare are the base of all industrial work and to stake the claim that these unavoidable tasks should be compensated as paid, wage labor. The demands for

742-564: A DIY project, also useful is the established limits on time and money investments before a repair (or list of repairs) become overwhelming and discouraging, and less likely to ever be completed. Homemakers that have a lawn responsibility adhere to seasonal lawn care practices, which vary to some extent depending on the climate zone and type of grass that is grown (whether cool season or warm season varieties). Various recognized method used by homemakers in lawn care are observed in any area. In spring or early summer, homemakers seed, sod, or sprig

848-411: A home, others in giving care to adults, the preparation of meals as well as clothing and laundry. The total unpaid work at home was valued at £38,162 per UK household in 2014, according to ONS. Two British magazines for housewives have been published: The Housewife (London: Offices of "The Million", 1886[1900]) and Housewife (London: Hultons, 1939–68). "On a Tired Housewife" is an anonymous poem about

954-434: A house. House organization or home organization includes interior design to make the home aesthetically pleasing by arranging furniture, plants, blinds, and so forth. De-cluttering means removing unnecessary things from the house. Household de-cluttering involves putting things in their proper place after they have been used. "Cleaning up your mess" might involve removing glasses, eating utensils or gadgets i.e. toys from

1060-508: A household or home is also an aspect of de-cluttering. Objects can be given away to friends or charitable organizations, sold as second-hand , recycled or thrown away . Extreme forms of an inability to de-clutter is a behavioral aspect of compulsive hoarding . On the other end, a society that relies overly much on generating and then disposing of waste is referred to as a throw-away society . Household purchasing refers to homemaker's attempt to acquire goods or services to accomplish

1166-527: A human habitat , refers to a cluster of buildings in an enclosure, having a shared or associated purpose, such as the houses of an extended family (e.g. the Kennedy Compound for the Kennedy family ). The enclosure may be a wall , a fence , a hedge or some other structure, or it may be formed by the buildings themselves, when they are built around an open area or joined together. According to

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1272-428: A knowledge of math – arithmetic , fractions , and ratios . Cookbooks and household manuals were written for women, therefore, eliminating the idea of men participating in domestic duties. In most cases, women chose to work in the home. Work outside of the home was deemed unattractive, difficult, and daunting. Since the female was heavily involved with her children and domestic duties, certain risks were associated with

1378-627: A load of clothing and other textiles , generally shortly after they are cleaned in a washing machine. Most dryers consist of a rotating drum called a tumbler through which heated air is circulated to evaporate the moisture from the load. The tumbler is rotated relatively slowly in order to maintain space between the articles in the load. In most cases, the tumbler is belt-driven by an induction motor . Using these machines may cause clothes to shrink, become less soft (due to loss of short soft fibers/ lint) and fade. For these reasons, as well as environmental concerns, many people use open air methods such as

1484-450: A middle class housewife, typical duties consisted of organizing and maintaining a home that emphasized the male breadwinner 's financial success. Throughout this time period, the role of the housewife was not only accepted in society, but a sought-after desire. Eventually, women, due to the difficulty and consuming nature of these tasks, began to focus solely on one profession. By focusing on a particular niche, women spent more time outside of

1590-451: A modern North American household. There is another definition of clutter, which refers to having simply too many things and not enough room for all of it. Sometimes as happens in Asian households, the items are necessary, but the home is simply too small, and ingenious methods are needed to organize everything to minimize unsightly clutter. Removing unneeded or no longer necessary objects from

1696-484: A peaceful space to provide to her husband and children. For women in a pre-modern environment, "it is the duty and privilege and solemn responsibility, which make this art of home-making more interesting and important to her than any other art in the world." Author of these statements, Annie Swan was not alone in the late 1800s viewpoint that women were encouraged, if not required, to maintain the home solely themselves. In 1875, Harper's Bazaar published an article outlining

1802-402: A result of government action. Women's entry into the labour market was encouraged by the abolition of joint taxation and the expansion of childcare facilities. Joint taxation of spouses was abolished in 1971. The report of the so-called "childcare inquiry" ( barnstugeutredningen  [ sv ] ) on pre-school education in 1972 was the starting point for the expansion of public childcare in

1908-462: A study performed by Hochschild in 1989, concluded that even when wives contributed more than 50% of the household income they often still performed more household labor than their husbands. Hochschild's study directly debunked the previous theory that women performed housework because they contributed significantly less to household income. Instead, the results of the study indicated that even in marriage dynamics where women contributed more than half of

2014-403: A surveyed day, 49% percent of women and 20% of men reported doing housework. Men and women's perception of household responsibilities differ. Pew Research Center 's 2014 Religious Landscape Study found that fathers were more likely than mothers to say that chores were evenly split between both partners (56% vs. 46%). When asked, 50% of mothers reported they handled more responsibilities around

2120-470: A thickening agent for food can also be applied to laundered fabrics (requires boiling). Homemakers that follow predictive maintenance techniques determine the condition of in-service equipment in order to predict when maintenance should be performed. This approach offers cost savings over routine or time-based maintenance, because tasks are performed only when warranted. Homemakers that follow preventive maintenance methods ensure that household equipment and

2226-410: A woman as a homemaker anchors them in society and provides meaning to their activities within the social, religious, political and economic framework of their world. However, as India undergoes modernisation, many women are in employment, particularly in the larger cities such as Mumbai , Delhi , Kolkata , Chennai , Hyderabad and Bangalore , where most women will work. The role of the male homemaker

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2332-478: A woman's absence. For example, a life in the labor force doubled a women's average workload. Not only was she expected to financially provide, but she was fully responsible for caring and raising her children. If the mother chose to work, child care costs began to add up, therefore, decreasing the incentives for the woman to hold a demanding job. If a working mother could not afford to pay for child care, this often resulted in her appointing her older children to act as

2438-444: A yard when the ground is warmer. In summer lawn mowers are used at high cutting for cool season grass, and lower cutting for warm season lawns. In autumn, lawns are mown by homemakers at a lower height and thatch build-up that occurs in warm season grasses are removed. Homemakers do add sandy loam and apply fertilizer, containing some type of wetting agent. Cool season lawns are planted in the autumn with adequate rainfall. Lawn care in

2544-461: Is an ancient and very common laundry aid. Modern washing machines typically use powdered or liquid laundry detergent in place of more traditional soap. Once clean, the clothes are dried. Washing machines and dryers are now fixtures in homes around the world. In some parts of the world, including the US, Canada, and Switzerland, apartment buildings and dormitories often have laundry rooms, where residents share washing machines and dryers. Usually

2650-424: Is described as, "the housewife's tasks 'have never an end', combining a daily cycle with seasonal work". In 1911, 90% of wives were not employed in the work force . Ann Oakley , author of Woman's Work: The Housewife, Past, and Present , describes the role of a 19th-century housewife as "a demeaning one, consisting of monotonous, fragmented work which brought no financial remuneration, let alone any recognition." As

2756-445: Is determined by factors such as natural gas prices . Homemakers may manage household workers or " domestic workers ". In sociology , household work strategy is the division of labour between members of a household, whether implicit or the result of explicit decision–making, with the alternatives weighed up in a simplified type of cost-benefit analysis . It is a plan for the relative deployment of household members' time between

2862-690: Is excluded from GDP statistics since it is not exchanged in the market. Some economists state that housewives frequently work long hours doing a variety of tasks such as cooking, cleaning, childcare, eldercare, and managing family finances. These chores are critical for maintaining families and supporting other family members' productive activities, such as paid jobs. Contrary to a common belief that in hunter-gatherer societies men typically hunted animals for meat while women gathered other foods such as grain , fruit , and vegetables (as asserted, for example, in Richard B. Lee and Irven DeVore 's 1968 book Man

2968-421: Is not necessarily the same as home improvement , although many improvements can result from repairs or maintenance. Often the costs of larger repairs will justify the alternative of investment in full-scale improvements. It may make just as much sense to upgrade a home system (with an improved one) as to repair it or incur ever-more-frequent and expensive maintenance for an inefficient, obsolete or dying system. For

3074-630: Is not traditional in India , but it is socially accepted in urban areas. According to one sociologist's study in 2006, twelve percent of unmarried Indian men would consider being a homemaker according to a survey conducted by Business Today . One sociologist, Sushma Tulzhapurkar, called this a shift in Indian society, saying that a decade ago, "it was an unheard concept and not to mention socially unacceptable for men to give up their jobs and remain at home." However, only 22.7 percent of Indian women are part of

3180-540: Is the Sanskrit root for house or home; Grihasta and Grihast are derivatives of this root, as is Grihastya . The couple lives in the state called Grihastashram or family system and together they nurture the family and help its members (both young and old) through the travails of life. The woman who increments the family tree (bears children) and protects those children is described as the Grihalakshmi (the wealth of

3286-574: The Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution , some women even worked in fields that were traditionally reserved for males. In modern China, housewives are no longer as common, especially in the largest cities and other urban areas. Many modern women work simply because one person's income is insufficient to support the family, a decision made easier by the fact that it is common for Chinese grandparents to watch after their grandchildren until they are old enough to go to school. Nonetheless,

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3392-701: The Oxford English Dictionary , the word compound in this sense is thought to be etymologically derived ultimately from the Malay - Indonesian word kampung or kampong , meaning 'enclosure' or 'village', probably entering English via Dutch or Portuguese. In the United Kingdom , "compound" is not generally used in the sense of an unfortified enclosure, and not for homes. There, as in North American English , if used for

3498-609: The Pew Research Center , more than one in four mothers are stay-at-home in the U.S. Housewives in America were typical in the middle of the 20th century among middle-class and upper-class white families. Black families, recent immigrants, and other minority groups tended not to benefit from the union wages, government policies, and other factors that led to white wives being able to stay at home during these decades. A 2005 study estimated that 31% of working mothers leave

3604-578: The Song dynasty , many women lost the ability to work outside. After the founding of the Republic of China in 1911, these norms were gradually loosened and many women were able to enter the workforce. Shortly thereafter, a growing number of females began to be permitted to attend schools. Starting with the rule of the People's Republic of China in 1949, all women were freed from compulsory family roles. During

3710-523: The family farm , in addition to the work they did at home. At this time many big factories were set up, first in England, then in other European countries and the United States. Many thousands of young women went to work in factories; most factories employed women in roles different from those occupied by men. There were also women who worked at home for low wages while caring for their children at

3816-461: The feminist movement in the latter 20th century to allow some women to choose whether to be housewives or to have a career. (However financial barriers such as expensive childcare or disability can impede either). Changing economics also increased the prevalence of two-income households. Some feminists and non-feminist economists (particularly proponents of historical materialism , the methodological approach of Marxist historiography ) note that

3922-407: The household income , they still completed the vast majority of homemaking tasks. Married women who are economically and emotionally dependent on their husbands are less likely to report the division of household labor as unfair. This significant group of married women felt that household labor reinforced their female gender identity and connection to femininity. Sex and gender continue to shape

4028-425: The housework , gardening, cooking, and children without working outside the home. Women were often very proud to be a good homemaker and have their house and children respectably taken care of. Other women, like Florence Nightingale , pursued non-factory professions even though they were wealthy enough not to need the income. Some professions open to women were also restricted to unmarried women (e.g. teaching). In

4134-595: The labor force , compared to 51.6 percent of men; thus, women are more likely to be caregivers because most do not work outside the home. Mahila Shakti Samajik Samiti is a women's society composed mainly of housewives. Sadhna Sinha is current president of the samiti. Until around 1990, the North Korean government required every able-bodied male to be employed by some state enterprise . However, some 30% of married women of working age were allowed to stay at home as full-time housewives (fewer than in some countries in

4240-463: The parental insurance program  [ sv ] . Traditional housewives are now quite rare in Sweden. An example of a person described as a "house wife" (spelt as "huswyfe") can be seen in a record of 1452, where Elizabeth Banham of Dunstable, Beds, is thus described. In Great Britain , the lives of housewives of the 17th century consisted of separate, distinct roles for males and females within

4346-533: The 1800s performed about 50–60 hours of work per week, and that this is the same as the 1990s. She says that, rather than reducing the amount of time devoted to housework, labor-saving devices have been used to make the same amount of time do more work, such as by vacuuming a rug instead of sweeping it, or washing fabrics more frequently. Modern parents also more frequently transport their children to after-school activities, and doctors no longer make house calls. Compound (enclosure) Compound , when applied to

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4452-432: The 1930s and 1940s, nine out of ten Swedish children had a mother who worked at home while they were growing up; by the 1980s, fewer than one in ten children had a mother who was a housewife until they turned 16. However, women with children up to pre-school age generally continued to work at home until subsidized daycare was introduced on a larger scale from around the mid-1970s. Developments from 1960 onwards were very much

4558-449: The 20th century, the women working on a family farm , no matter how much work they did, would be counted in the US census as being unemployed , whereas the men doing the same or (even less) work were counted as being employed as farmers . A research based on 7733 respondents who were aged 18–65 and legally married women in 20 European countries showed men and women share less housework in countries that publicly support gender equality. On

4664-808: The Hunter ), ethnographic studies of recent and current hunter-gatherer societies show women actively participating in hunting, as among the Agta people of the Philippines, where women hunt even while menstruating , pregnant , and breastfeeding . Fossil and archaeological evidence also indicate that women have a long history of hunting. In addition, evidence from exercise science shows that women are better suited to endurance activities, which might have been conducive to pursuing prey over long distances. However, an attempted verification of this study found "that multiple methodological failures all bias their results in

4770-425: The US kept working after giving birth. Homemaker Homemaking can be the full-time responsibility of one spouse, partner, or parent, shared with children or extended family, or shared or traded between spouses/partners as one or both work outside the home. It can also be outsourced partially or completely to paid help. In previous decades, there were a number of mandatory courses available for students to learn

4876-711: The Wages for Housework formally called for economic compensation for domestic work but also used these demands to more generally call attention to the affective labors of women, the reliance of capitalist economies on exploitative labor practices against women, and leisure inequality. Many home appliances have been invented that make housework faster or more effective compared to before the industrial revolution. These include: Utilities can potentially eliminate work like gathering and chopping firewood, shovelling coal, fetching water from outdoors, and heating cold tap water. Historian Ruth Schwartz Cowan estimated that homemakers in

4982-492: The Women's Co-operative Union was established. Margaret Llewelyn Davies , one of the organization's key female leaders, spoke out on topics regarding divorce , maternity benefits , and birth control . Similarly, Clementina Black helped establish a consumer's league, which attempted to boycott organizations that did not pay women fair wages . Compared to earlier centuries, women found a voice in politics and began understanding

5088-433: The basic tasks. Safety is a consideration because some cleaning products are toxic and some cleaning tasks are physically demanding. Green cleaning refers to cleaning without causing pollution or chemicals that may cause bodily harm. The history of house cleaning has links to the advancement of technology. Outdoor housecleaning chores include removing leaves from rain gutters, washing windows, sweeping doormats, cleaning

5194-413: The boiling of liquid in a receptacle have been practised at least since the 10th millennium BC, with the introduction of pottery . House cleaning by the homemaker is the systematic process of making a home neat and clean. This may be applied more broadly than just an individual home, such as a metaphor for a similar "clean up" process applied elsewhere such as at a hotel or as a procedural reform. In

5300-454: The budget and control of expenditures, preparing meals and buying food, paying the heat bill, and cleaning the house. Most modern-day houses contain sanitary facilities and a means of preparing food . A kitchen is a room or part of a room used by the homemaker for cooking , food preparation and food preservation . In the West, a modern kitchen is typically equipped with a stove , an oven,

5406-408: The burden of daily sustenance – and developing specialized gender niches – humans not only ensured their continued survival, but also paved the way for later technologies to evolve and grow through experience. In the 19th century, more and more women in industrialising countries stopped being homemakers and farm wives and began to undertake paid work in various industries outside the home and away from

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5512-437: The clean clothes were being ironed . Aside from the smooth, crisp edges it gave to clothing, it served practical purposes as well. Dirt and sweat from a person's neck and wrists would stick to the starch rather than to the fibers of the clothing, and would easily wash away along with the starch. After each laundering, the starch would be reapplied. Today the product is sold in aerosol cans for home use. Kitchen starch used as

5618-560: The concept of feminism. Instead of focusing purely on household and childcare duties, women slowly merged into the public sector of society. In recent years, accompanied by the respect of housewives, the UK is paying more attention to the value created by housewife. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), childcare accounts for 61.5% of unpaid work's value at home, the rest includes 16.1% in transport, 9,7% in providing and maintaining

5724-496: The contrary, women did more housework than men. Full-time homemakers in modern times usually share income produced by members of the household who are employed; wage-earners working full-time benefit from the unpaid work provided by the homemaker; otherwise, the performance of such work (childcare, cooking, housecleaning, teaching, transporting, etc.) could be a household expense. US states with community property recognize joint ownership of marital property and income, and, unless

5830-487: The day doing household chores (for example, cooking and cleaning ) with their mothers and female relatives. In most cases, the husband was alive and able to work, so the wife was almost always forbidden to take a job and mainly spent her days at home or doing other domestic tasks. As Confucianism spread across East Asia , this social norm was also observed in Korea , Japan and Vietnam . As foot binding became common after

5936-422: The division of household responsibilities in the United States in the twenty-first century. According to the 2018 American Time Use Survey , 84 percent of women and 69 percent of men reported that they spent some time performing household duties, which included "housework, cooking, lawn care, or household management." Women reported spending an average of 2.6 hours a day on household activities, and men 2.0 hours. On

6042-404: The duties of a housewife and the esteemed respect those duties deserve: "but if one only staid to think how countless and how onerous those duties really are, more respect would be paid to the faithful effort to perform them, and an added reverence extended to the mother who is also the housekeeper." Harper's Bazaar recognizes that women do the majority of the work within the home, pointing out that

6148-473: The early 20th century, both world wars ( World War I , 1914–18; and World War II , 1939–45) were fought by the men of many countries. (There were also special roles in the armed forces carried out by women, e.g. nursing, transport, etc. and in some countries women soldiers also.) While the men were at war, many of their womenfolk went to work outside the home to keep the countries running. Women, who were also homemakers, worked in factories, businesses and farms. At

6254-561: The early and middle 20th century, such as the Soviet Union, Cuba and China, encouraged married women to keep working after giving birth. There were very few housewives in communist countries until free market economic reform in the 1990s, which led to a resurgence in the number of housewives. Conversely, in the Western World of the 1950s, many women quit their jobs to be housewives after giving birth. Only 11% of married women in

6360-501: The early years. By the end of the 1970s, 350,000 children had been enrolled in daycare centers. The fact that women were gainfully employed was described by leading commentators as a win-win situation for children too. The idea was that children had more difficulty developing independence if they spent their days in an overprotected home environment than if they were in a daycare center with qualified staff. The reformers were opposed by more conservative groups, who believed that women's role

6466-489: The end of both wars, many men had died, and others returned injured. Some men were able to return to their previous positions, but some women stayed in the workforce as well. In addition to this surge in women entering the workforce, convenience food and domestic technology were also rising in popularity, both of which saved women time that they may have spent performing domestic tasks and enabled them to instead pursue other interests. The governments of communist countries in

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6572-543: The family budget —and who is not employed outside the home (e.g., a career woman ). The male equivalent is the househusband . The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a housewife as a married woman who is in charge of her household . The British Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (1901) defines a housewife as "the mistress of a household; a female domestic manager [...]". In the Western world , stereotypical gender roles, particularly for women, were challenged by

6678-422: The family policy reform proposals. The organization published books of debate in polemics with reform advocates during the early 1970s. One of the group's leading figures was Brita Nordström . Nordström rejected the idea that gender roles are learned behaviours and argued that women's role as housewives was natural. While the woman was the emotional leader of the family, the one who instilled harmony and stability,

6784-491: The family. In an influential 1961 article entitled Kvinnans villkorliga frigivning ('The Probation of Women'), Eva Moberg , one of the most influential commentators, described the idea of the stay-at-home wife as an outmoded remnant of peasant society. Moberg pushed for political reforms to improve women's conditions in order to liberate women. By working professionally, women's identity would change. She would become economically independent, which would also liberate men from

6890-426: The goals of the household. Though there are several households that attempt to set standards in the purchasing process, processes can vary greatly between households. Typically the word "purchasing" is not used interchangeably with the word " procurement ", since procurement typically includes other concepts. Home makers decide the market goods that the household will buy, such as the groceries which have been bought at

6996-404: The heavy work involving farming that a traditional housewife in a rural society would do are: In rural studies, the word housewife is occasionally used as a term for "a woman who does the majority of the chores within a farm's compound ," as opposed to field and livestock work.. Whether the productive contributions of women were considered "work" varied by time and culture. Throughout much of

7102-533: The home, where they could flourish independently. As a housewife in the United Kingdom , females were encouraged to be precise and systematic when following duties. In 1869, R. K. Phillip published a household manual, titled, The Reason Why: The Domestic Science. The manual taught women how to perform certain duties, as well as the necessity behind their household chores. Cookbooks and manuals provided exact measurements and instructions for baking and cooking, written in an eloquent manner. Complicated recipes required

7208-433: The home. Although men have generally been thought of as the primary or sole breadwinners for families in recent history, the division of labor between men and women in traditional societies required both genders to take an active role in obtaining resources outside the domestic sphere. Prior to agriculture and animal husbandry , reliable food sources were a scarce commodity. To achieve optimal nutrition during this time, it

7314-493: The home. Typically, men's work consisted of one specific task, such as ploughing . While men had a sole duty, women were responsible for various, timely tasks, such as milking cows, clothing production, cooking, baking, housekeeping, childcare, and so on. Women faced the responsibility not only of domestic duties and childcare, but agricultural production . Due to their long list of responsibilities, females faced long work days with little to no sleep at busy times of year. Their work

7420-418: The homemaker is the care and control of property, ensuring its maintenance, proper use and appearance. In a private home a maid or housekeeper is sometimes employed to do some of the housekeeping. Housework is work done by the act of housekeeping. Some housekeeping is housecleaning and some housekeeping is home chores. Home chores are housework that needs to be done at regular intervals. Housekeeping includes

7526-412: The house are in satisfactory operating condition by providing for inspection, detection, and correction of incipient failures either before they occur or before they develop into major defects. Home maintenance involves the diagnosis and resolution of problems in a home, and is related to home maintenance to avoid such problems. Many types of maintenance are " Do it yourself " (DIY) projects. Maintenance

7632-577: The house than their partners; only 12% of fathers reported they did more household tasks. Despite this difference in perception, a majority of married U.S. adults (56%) said that sharing household chores as "very important" to a successful marriage. In a 2008 article, social scientists Susan L. Brown and Sayaka Kawamura reported that the unequal distribution in housework was attributed mainly to time availability. They concluded: "wives typically work fewer hours than their husbands, [so] they have more time available to perform household tasks." Housekeeping by

7738-420: The house) and Grihashoba (the glory of the house). The elders of the family are known as Grihshreshta . The husband or wife may engage in countless other activities which may be social, religious, political or economic in nature for the ultimate welfare of the family and society. However, their unified status as joint householders is the nucleus from within which they operate in society. The traditional status of

7844-421: The housewife's lot: Here lies a poor woman who was always tired, She lived in a house where help wasn't hired: Her last words on earth were: "Dear friends, I am going To where there's no cooking, or washing, or sewing, For everything there is exact to my wishes, For where they don't eat there's no washing of dishes. I'll be where loud anthems will always be ringing, But having no voice I'll be quit of

7950-644: The ideas of the economist Per Holmberg, as expressed in the book Kynne eller kön? in 1966. From the late 1960s onwards, the number of housewives steadily declined. Many took paid work in schools, health, and social care as the public sector expanded. More than 500,000 housewives entered the workforce between the late 1960s and early 1980s. Between 1968 and 1970 alone, the number of newly employed women in Sweden increased by 100,000 each year. A combination of labour demand and gender equality concerns led to several policy reforms that made it easier for women to work and for families to care for their children together. In

8056-625: The late twentieth century. They concluded that "all wives benefit equally by their husbands' greater involvement in household labor." The division of labor within the home promotes a healthy relationship between husband and wife. Concluding, that likelihood of increased happiness within marriage is vastly improved when homemaking is shared with the husband. West and Zimmerman, concluded an analysis of over 487 couples and found that "women were rewarded for performing feminine behaviors, such as housework, whereas men receive positive reinforcement for engaging in masculine tasks, such breadwinning." In contrast,

8162-405: The living room if you have eaten a meal there in front of the television. If several people have done that over a few days and not removed their glasses, dishes and utensils from the living room, the living room is considered to be "cluttered" with dishes. The dishes are out of place because they belong in the kitchen, washed and put away in the cupboards. That is the most common example of clutter in

8268-421: The machines are set to run only when money is put in a coin slot . In other parts of the world, apartment buildings with laundry rooms are uncommon, and each apartment may have its own washing machine. Those without a machine at home or the use of a laundry room must either wash their clothes by hand or visit a commercial laundromat . A clothes dryer is a household appliance that is used to remove moisture from

8374-560: The man's job was to provide and defend and to establish the family's position in society. Psychologist Kristina Humble was another leading figure in the movement. In a chapter of the debate book Rätt till familjeliv 'The Right to Family Life', Humble argued that the housewife's desire for paid employment was based on naive demands for the satisfaction of desire. She argued that differences in gender roles were caused by genetic differences, through which men were more predisposed to struggle and self-assertion. Humble paid particular attention to

8480-458: The most diverse and nutritionally complete foods available. For example, in the context of daily foraging, childcare itself was not a hindrance to women's productivity; rather, performing this task with her children both increased the overall efficiency of the activity (more people participating equals a greater yield of edible roots, berries, nuts, and plants), and functioned as an important hands-on lesson in survival skills for each child. By sharing

8586-587: The number of Chinese housewives has been steadily rising in recent years as China's economy expands. In a traditional Hindu family, the head of the family is the Griha Swami (Lord of the House) and his wife is the Griha Swamini (Lady of the House). The Sanskrit words Grihast and Grihasta perhaps come closest to describing the entire gamut of activities and roles undertaken by the homemaker. Grih

8692-580: The paid workforce. Research has linked feelings of "maternal guilt and separation anxiety" to returning to the workforce. Similarly, there is considerable variation in the stay-at-home mother's attitude towards domestic work not related to caring for children. Some may embrace a traditional role of housewife by cooking and cleaning in addition to caring for children. Others see their primary role as that of childcare providers, supporting their children's physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual development while sharing or outsourcing other aspects of caring for

8798-505: The plight of children as more women entered the workforce, and argued against the expansion of public childcare, believing that staying in daycare would cause an increase in juvenile delinquency and mental illness among children. In today's Sweden, where most women are educated and gainfully employed, there is seldom talk about being a housewife without being on parental leave (or maternity leave, and for men, paternity leave). During this period, parents receive financial compensation through

8904-449: The pool, putting away lawn furniture, and taking out the trash. Laundry refers to the act of washing clothing and linens , the place where that washing is done, and/or that which needs to be, is being, or has been laundered. Various chemicals may be used to increase the solvent power of water, such as the compounds in soaproot or yucca-root used by Native American tribes. Soap , a compound made from lye (from wood-ash) and fat ,

9010-676: The process of house cleaning general cleaning activities are completed, such as disposing of rubbish , storing of belongings in regular places, cleaning dirty surfaces, dusting and vacuuming . The details of this are various and complicated enough that many books have been published on the subject. How-to sites on the internet have many articles on house cleaning. Tools include the vacuum cleaner , broom and mop . Supplies such as cleaning solutions and sponges are sold in grocery stores and elsewhere. Professional cleaners can be hired for less frequent or specialist tasks such as cleaning blinds, rugs, and sofas. Professional services are also offered for

9116-434: The process of preparing food with or without heat , making, selecting, measuring and combining ingredients in an ordered procedure for producing safe and edible food. The process encompasses a vast range of methods, tools and combinations of ingredients to alter the flavor , appearance, texture, or digestibility of food. Factors affecting the outcome include the variability of ingredients, ambient conditions, tools , and

9222-486: The rounds in Pyongyang goes: 'What do a husband and a pet dog have in common?' Answer: 'Neither works nor earns money, but both are cute, stay at home and can scare away burglars.' The term hemmafru ('housewife') emerged in the 1920s, when it was used in contrast to yrkeskvinna , 'professional woman'. Between 1930 and 1960, the number of housewives in Sweden increased from 930,000 to 1,148,000. This development

9328-407: The same direction...their analysis does not contradict the wide body of empirical evidence for gendered divisions of labor in foraging societies". In rural societies where the main source of work is farming , women have also taken care of gardens and animals around the house, generally helping men with heavy work when a job needed to be done quickly, usually because of the season. Examples of

9434-574: The same region like South Korea , Japan and Taiwan ; more than in the former Soviet Union , Mainland China and Nordic countries like Sweden, and about the same as in the United States). In the early 1990s, after an estimated 900,000-3,500,000 people perished in the North Korean famine , the old system began to fall apart. In some cases women began by selling homemade food or household items they could do without. Today at least three-quarters of North Korean market vendors are women. A joke making

9540-404: The same time. Being a housewife was only realistic among middle-class and upper-class families. In working-class families, it was typical for women to work. In the 19th century, a third to half of married women in England were recorded in the census as working for outside pay, and some historians believe this to be an undercount. Among married couples that could afford it, the wife often managed

9646-557: The singing. Don't mourn for me now, don't mourn for me never, I am going to do nothing for ever and ever." About 50% of married U.S. women in 1978 continued working after giving birth; in 1997, the number grew to 61%. The number of housewives increased in the 2000s. During the Great Recession , a decrease in average income made two incomes more necessary, and the percentage of married U.S. women who kept working after giving birth increased to 69% by 2009. As of 2014, according to

9752-417: The skill of the individual doing the actual cooking. The diversity of cooking worldwide is a reflection of the aesthetic, agricultural, economic, cultural, social and religious diversity of people across the globe. Applying heat to a food usually, though not always, chemically transforms it, thus changing its flavor, texture, consistency, appearance, and nutritional properties. Methods of cooking that involve

9858-460: The skills of homemaking. In high school, courses included cooking , nutrition , home economics , family and consumer science (FACS), and food and cooking hygiene . In North America, early 19th-century ideals required homemaking be the responsibility of the woman; "the wife is properly supposed to be the light and centre of the home." Traditional wives who stayed home and did not work for pay were required by social ideals to create and maintain

9964-638: The three domains of employment : Household work strategies may vary over the life-cycle, as household members age, or with the economic environment; they may be imposed by one person or be decided collectively. "Household production" is an economic category for activities including homemaking. It is defined as "the production of the goods and services by the members of a household, for their own consumption, using their own capital and their own unpaid labor . Goods and services produced by households for their own use include accommodation, meals, clean clothes, and child care. The process of household production involves

10070-430: The traditional male role. Another debater, Monica Boëthius  [ sv ] , described the fact that many women did not work as economically indefensible. In a book of debates, Boëthius posed the question "Can we afford wives?" Women, Boëthius argued, represented an underutilized reserve of labor that, if tapped, could significantly increase the purchasing power and standard of living of households. Boëthius built on

10176-472: The transformation of purchased intermediate commodities into final consumption commodities. Households use their own capital and their own labor." There are efforts to construct estimates of the value of household production in a way analogous to GDP , though the category is not usually included in GDP. Goods and services created by households are generally consumed within the same country, and hence contribute in

10282-434: The value of housewives' work is ignored in standard formulations of economic output , such as GDP or employment figures. A housewife typically works many unpaid hours a week and often depends on income from her husband's work for financial support. The importance of housewives' work is sometimes disregarded in standard economic figures such as GDP or employment data because of how these metrics are measured. Housewives' work

10388-401: The winter is minimal, requiring only light feedings of organic material, such as green-waste compost, and minerals to encourage earthworms and beneficial microbes. Household management by the homemaker is the act of overseeing the organizational , financial, and day-to-day operations of a house or estate. It differs from housekeeping , which consists of the physical maintenance and cleaning of

10494-529: The work is detailed and at many times, difficult. The 20th century began with similar homemaking roles as the 19th; however, the century concluded with a much different perception. In the late 1990s, marriage consisted in most cases of both wife and husband participating in homemaking. Darlene Piña and Vern Bengtson who are anthropologists and professors at the University of Southern California , extensively researched marriage dynamics and household labor in

10600-727: The workplace for an average of 2.2 years, most often precipitated by the birth of the second child. This gives her time to concentrate full-time on child-rearing and to avoid the high cost of childcare, particularly through the early years (before school begins at age five). There is considerable variability within the stay-at-home mother population with regard to their intent to return to the paid workforce. Some plan to work from their homes, some will do part-time work, some intend to return to part- or full-time work when their children have reached school age, some may increase their skill sets by returning to higher education, and others may find it financially feasible to refrain from entering (or re-entering)

10706-569: The younger children's caretakers. While this was financially efficient, it was looked down upon by society and other housewives. In this time period, many believed that younger children were at risk for injuries or other physical harm if cared for by older siblings. Within this time period, women became involved with consumer politics, through organizations such as the Co-operative Union . Organizations allowed women to get involved, as well as develop an understanding of feminism . In 1833,

10812-438: Was a housewife, that didn't do any work at home, but rather let hired people cook, clean, take care of the children, and so on. Common in the upper class, rarely seen today. A common attitude was to accept the gender roles of the time as self-evident, but to advocate different kinds of improvements for women working at home. More radical people argued that the housewife was trapped in her economic dependence on her husband, that it

10918-476: Was imperative that both men and women focus their energies on hunting and gathering as many edible foods as possible to sustain themselves on a daily basis. Lacking the technologies necessary to store and preserve food, it was critical for men and women to seek out and obtain fresh food sources almost continuously. These nomadic tribes used gender differences to their advantage, allowing men and women to use their complementary adaptations and survival strategies to find

11024-512: Was linked to the transition from an agrarian to an industrial society. From the 1930s onwards, the number of people employed in agriculture declined, and more and more people moved from rural areas to the cities. At the same time, the number of married couples increased. More and more people, mainly men, were earning a living outside the household, primarily through wage employment in industry. Women became housewives, with special responsibility for children. A lyxhustru ('luxury or pampered wife')

11130-567: Was to look after the home, bring up children and support the working man. One organization that sought to raise public opinion against the reforms was Rädda familjen , 'Save the Family'. It began its work in January 1970, protesting what it saw as an attempt to dismantle the structure of the family through Marxist reforms. In the 1970 petition campaign, Rädda familjen collected 63,000 signatures to which it attached its letter of protest against

11236-461: Was unfair that she was not paid for her work and that she was deprived of opportunities to stimulate and develop her abilities. They argued that the housewife, the woman, was seen as a person without her own understanding and capacity and was prevented from participating in society at large. In the early 1960s, there were lively discussions about the role of women in society, their right to education and work, and their importance in raising children and

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