In today’s class, we had a heated discussion about whether it should be regarded as a human right for housewives to get paid from the government. As far as I am concerned, they are not supposed to be paid. I do not mean that they should not be respected or their work is meaningless, but it is still not practical enough to define “housewife” as a job to be paid.
First, I think housework is not a unique thing only done by housewives. Women with full-time work also have to do the cooking, cleaning, washing after work. It will be unfair for them if only housewives are paid. Second, when being housewives is paid, there will be more women who choose to quit their jobs which will finally become a severe problem to the society. In addition, it is hard to judge whether they should be paid equally or differently. It is definitely impossible for the government to measure how much work they have done and then decide their salaries.
Actually, housework is considered as the duty of each family in our society. Some women choose to treat it as their major work to do it better, they do contribute to the society by making their family a more harmony one and should be acknowledged by us. But I don’t approve the idea to pay for their work.
I would agree with you that it's not practical to expect the government to pay housewives for the 'work' they do; it's impossible to quantify how much each person does! Each family needs to decide how best to manage their own family; should both work, or just one? Or should the wife/husband work only part-time, while the other works full-time? And the solution will probably need to be adjusted in different phases of life. If one has a young child or an elderly parent to look after, different sorts of arrangements need to be made.
ReplyDelete