Depending on your perspective, the image of a woman can bring about different interpretations. These can cover an entire spectrum from the positive things such as beauty, compassion and hope to the negative such as inferiority, worthlessness and incompetence. However, there is one main stereotypical view society has of women and that is their role as the ‘homemaker’. In fact, this stereotype is so etched into our way of thinking that even the dictionary on Mac provides the following definition for homemaker:
a person, especially a woman, who manages a home.
For many women around the world though this stereotype was and in some cases continues to be a reality. It might seem harmless, but it has been a major cause of injustice for women. In the past, this particular stereotype brought about severe restrictions on accessing an education and/or entering the workforce. In fact, anything besides being a mother was frowned upon and even when women were given access to education they were taught how to be better mothers and wives.
It has only been in recent times that a woman could be pictured as something other than that person who takes care of kids and a husband.
Whilst many may cringe at the thought of the word feminism, it really is thanks to their hard work that many women were and are still able to break free from the restrictions of the ‘homemaker’ role.
This is definitely an achievement that cannot be ignored, and is one that I’m sure many women are truly grateful for.
However, in all of this, there remains one occupation that has caught the raw end of the deal. The homemaker.
In this entire struggle for women to become more, the ‘homemaker’ role became worthless. It became inferior to any other option a woman could have. How many times have you witnessed, in reality or on TV, a stay at home mum being asked what she does for a living? The person asking is always left a little confused when the Mum says that’s all she does.
It’s no wonder why people are left confused though, the stay at home mum apparently does nothing all day. So not only is the homemaker role worthless, it’s also effortless.
Somewhere in all the arguing and fighting, we forgot the value of our mothers. We forgot the effort and time they put in raising their children that it has become so easy to define the role of the homemaker as simple. So simple in fact, that if there’s no other occupation in the picture, you might as well consider yourself incompetent.
We live in a time where being a mother is not enough. It’s underestimated and underappreciated.
There’s no doubt that it’s a woman’s right to be able to work, but shouldn’t it also be her right to choose if she wants to work or not without worrying about what people will think?
This might sound crazy, but how about we give women the choice to do what makes them happy without feeling bad about it… even if that means staying at home and taking care of their household.