I agree with Jaisely Dominguez SnapShot. Basically, it tells us that women are like robots who can do a lot of things for men back and forth and they can help to take care of their own kids. It isn’t so easy for us women. We are not a robot and house chores aren’t so easy when also they have to take care of kids and look out for them. They don’t have three hands or so but only have two hands. Plus writing down a full list of chores and doing all of them can be tiring. Most of the time we know for men going to work and coming home is hard but not as much as what women needed to do. Women need to do chores while also going to work just to help the family and their kids. And when they come home their already drained and tired but men just tell women that it isn’t even hard to do these. Since men don’t experience things like chores and taking care of the home they never know how women felt. Unlike men, they don’t have that much to do if they only work and can just get home and take a break. A lot of time men think a stay home mom they are lazy because they just do chores and complain that they are tired. It is simply not as simple as you think waking up very early cooking breakfast and there’s a whole list they needed to do without taking a break. And for men, they only want to think that they are doing most of the work working hard but don’t see how women did a lot to hold up the entire family. And also women can’t do anything they want and what they are interested in doing like hobbies and other stuff because they took the time to do chores and take care of their family. Only if something like men would also help or try doing chores it would be a lot less than stressing out over them every single day. Or they could ask if they don’t know how doing chores are like. And even so, they can learn something new and help their wives. And not only that women would have been happier and loved their men a lot more. Since this shows that men tried to put in more effort to help out women from stressing out and can do something they like. In Mainardi Pat the Politics of HouseWork ”Man’s accomplishments have always depended on getting help from other people, mostly women”. This quote really stands out to me because without women they’ll have to do all the house chores by themselves and for them, it would also be hard because they had to work at the same time. And can’t only focus on their jobs since too much stress is put upon them. And their success is from women since even then women helped them out a lot by supporting the family and building a family. And when men understand women the divorce rate wouldn’t be high.

I love the picture posted by MeiQi Chen, it does a great job of depicting just how much women are ‘supposed’ to do in their life. According to society, women are supposed to not only cook but also serve others, clean up the home and raise the children. It seems like women also carried a vice like drinking, smoking, or even shopping to somehow self-soothe from their hectic life. Even now after so many years while things are slowly changing it isn’t by much. Women still take the bulk of the responsibilities spending twice as much time in the domestic work in the home than men even though nowadays women are working 1 to 2 jobs just like men are in our ever-growing economy.

In The Myth Of The Vaginal Orgasm by Anne Koedt “Foreplay is a concept created for male purposes, but works to the disadvantage of many women, since as soon as the
woman is aroused the man changes to vaginal stimulation, leaving her both
aroused and unsatisfied.” It shows just how much women were somehow supposed to cater to men and their needs.

In The Politics of Housework, Pat Mainardi wrote “I know that men have caused
that sore-if anyone visits and the place is a sty–they’re not going to leave and say,
“He sure is a lousy housekeeper.” You’ll take the rap in any case.” She talks about how women are guilted into doing the housework and how women have something called “Guilt over a messy house”. We sometimes forget that people have different personalities, society push women to clean up the home while the men go out and work. But we as a society forget that some men genuinely like a cleaner home to they clean it themselves or they don’t mind cleaning so they do it themselves. Yet we push it on women when some women are workaholics and love what they do so they put it ahead of ‘keeping the house’. Something that simple shouldn’t be pushed on either gender when it has nothing to do with it.

I would have to disagree with Betty Friedman when she says “The mistake, says the mystique, the root of women’s troubles in the past is that women envied men, women tried to be like men, instead of accepting their own nature, which can find fulfillment only in sexual passivity,  male domination, and nurturing maternal love.” Unless I am understanding wrong I don’t believe the root of women’s trouble was the envied men or women who tried to be like men. All women want is to be equal to men, seen as equal. We want to be valued in the workplace, in the government, and even in our own homes as equals and not have to fight and defend our positions.

In the 1950s and 1960s, many women stayed at home and did not work, especially if they were married and had children; instead, they stayed at home to support their children and maintain the house in order. In all matters about the household, including mortgages, legal documents, and more. On the other hand, men were regarded as the head of the family. The husband’s role as the main provider for the family gave men a lot of influence in their households and contributed to masculine superiority ideas. Instead, the man could work and keep the family out of poverty. In the mid-1950s, many men would head out to work, ready to return home to the wife’s dinner. A snapshot that stood out to me was Genawangs’, in which a woman is hanging laundry and a towel or sheet behind her says, “End gender inequality in the home.” This is significant since women handled the majority of the housework, whether it was cleaning or preparing meals for their families. In The Feminine Mystique (excerpts) By Betty Friedan, it states “Experts told them how to catch a man and keep him, how to breastfeed children and handle their toilet training, how to cope with sibling rivalry and adolescent rebellion; how to buy a dishwasher, bake bread, cook gourmet snails, and more.” This is important because it wasn’t uncommon for women to drop out of school and go straight to work till they married. Cooking, home management, darning, sewing, and even how to iron a shirt properly were all taught in secondary schools – to prepare ladies for this life. Girls were taught how to care for their husbands, children, and the home. From personal experience, I was frequently told that if I did not always cook and clean, I would not be able to have or keep a spouse. I was also advised that I would have to stay at home and look after my children. As I got older, I used to think to myself, I could cook, clean, and do more for my home, but I could also get a job and earn something of myself instead of having to stay at home.

_____________

For many years, society has taught us that cooking and cleaning are women’s jobs, not men’s. Instead, I believe families must work together to maintain their homes or keep their spaces clean, rather than women handling the majority of the task. It is also important that we teach future generations about gender roles and that anybody can clean, cook, shop for their family, and do a variety of other activities.

As a female I feel like we been through a lot such as facing many issues and the fact that we ourselves have to speak up so that we can be heard. While I was reading one of the article’s which was The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan one part that stood out to me was when it said “women are still treated as second-class citizens”. When I read this it made me think about as if we belong to like a different part of group meaning like a group in society. It shouldn’t be that way because we are humans and we should received equal rights To me a second class citizen is when both genders are being treated differently in society. In the article that i just mention about talks about feminine mystique, and how feminine has been not been valued enough of what they do such as washing dishes, ironing and that it’s an issue without having a name but we know that it’s an issue that need to be fixed. The politics of house work article talks about how women complain of there own husbands some are the house chores. According to the article “Pat Mainardi, The Politics of Housework” states, “Here’s my list of dirty chores: buying groceries, carting them home and putting them away; cooking meals and washing dishes and pots; doing the laundry digging out the place when things are out of control; washing floors. To my understanding these types of situations are still happening in the present and it shouldn’t be happening because if it’s wife and husband living in the same household then they should be working together as team and not just the wife working on the house chores such as washing dishes or the husband just working. I honestly don’t understand how this is still happening. It’s always best to help out each other instead of just focusing on only working on certain thing. The more you help out each the better communication or lifestyle you’ll have, that’s just my opinion that I’m putting out there. Another part that stood out to me from the article “Pat Mainardi, The Politics of Housework” was when it said, “Unfortunately I’m no good at things like washing dishes or cooking. What I do best is a little light carpentry, changing light bulbs, moving furniture.” This part of the article is telling us how one person may not know how to a certain chore in the house hold. Either the wife or husband should do one of the chores or instead split the chores this way everything that needs to be done gets done and everything should work out fine. I personally think that doing chores in half would be the best option because it’s showing a form of god communication. The term house work to me means getting things done in your house, it’s important because if both wife and husband chose to live together then it’s a responsibility that should be done.