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The Role of a Housewife

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The Role of a Housewife
Views on the Role of a Traditional Housewife
Over the years women have tossed away the dust pans and baby monitoring, exchanging both for a career and a paycheck. Nowadays if you’re not economically contributing to the household you’re a waste of space and people begin to question what exactly you are doing to keep things running. When talking about housewives or stay at home moms, Terry Martin Hekker and Hope Edelman agree that they love being there for their children (i.e. getting their children ready for school, doing all the cleaning around the house, getting dinner ready, etc.). However, Hekker and Edelman hold opposing views on sharing responsibility economically with their husbands, handling the role of housewife differ in many aspects.
When one is getting married vows are being exchanged and amongst those vows there’s that line: “...for rich or for poor, in sickness or in health...no matter what I’ll be by your side. I DO.” Point is in a marriage it takes both the husband and wife to commit and make sacrifices for one another and for their family. Edelman, sets a great example of showing her commitments and struggles. Alongside her husband, she’s also considered the “working parent”. She has a job of her own not just “a kisser of boo-boos” (Edelman 409). She fights everyday to get her husband to appreciate all that she does to keep the house and their daughter in good shape while also juggling her work. She understands that his full attention and time is to his career but believes that he can make time for the small things (i.e. family, parenting, love, etc.) instead of her being “the whole damn circus, all three rings” (Edelman 409). On the other hand, Hekker doesn’t really have a problem with her husband working all the time and unlike Edelman she does not have a career. Instead she considers the stay-at-home mom as her career. If anything she wants to be glorified for it. Hekker states: “I shall demand enormous fees to go on talk shows, and I will
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