Standing on the Shoulders of Women
Every Shakespeare had a woman cooking for him and making his bed
Image Credit — Paul Signac / Flickr / Detail from “The Dining Room, Opus 152”
One of the first college courses I took was a survey covering schools of philosophical thought from pre-Platonic to the present day. Tricky to cover in 12 weeks. Within the first month, I noticed that the only philosophers philosophizing according to our textbook were men. That held true throughout the course and when I asked the professor about it at the end of the course, this was his response:
Historically, women were having children and caring for households so they wouldn’t have had the luxury of time to think and write.
Putting aside — for the moment — that there have always been educated women who did write (but seldom got published) let’s look at that fact.
Because it is a fact.
Even educated women with the luxury of time to sit quietly and think and write had to be cared for…by other women. Who has been preparing the food, cleaning the home, raising the children (and keeping them away from that hard-thinking philosopher), and generally ensuring that the Great Thinkers could concentrate on their Great Thoughts? Women.
It’s not surprising that women and other essential workers (Yep, I went there) were not allowed to learn to read and write for centuries. I do still find it shocking, however, that it was illegal for women in this Land of the Free and Home of the Brave to vote until only a hundred years ago. WTF?
A certain subset of humans, white men to be precise, in this country would still prefer that women and BIPOC remembered their places. It’s so hard to find good help anymore, you know?
In my years working in housekeeping departments in hotels, motels, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities I fantasized about what would happen if we all just put the mop in the corner and walked off the job. Visualize for just one shining moment what this world would look like if Warren Buffet had to stop investing in order to wipe his grandchildrens’ backsides and Jeff Bezos had to make breakfast and clean up after.
Entire societies would collapse. The great and mighty would be completely helpless without their nannies and personal assistants. Think of the utter chaos that would erupt if all the “essential” women in every home and every office just stopped caring for the whole damned world.
Let’s take one small example: child care.
The women — and eight men worldwide — who care for children are paid the least and expected to do the most. And I’m just talking about the professionals here. Since the dawn of time women have been the ones responsible for maintaining a stable, healthy, well-run home. And what are these heroic women called?
Stay-at-home-moms.
Actually, that’s a fairly new term. The women who gave up their own dreams and ambitions to bear and raise children and care for the man who impregnated them were usually just called housewives. Or wives. The old lady.
According to one source, that woman should be earning upwards of $178,000 annually for her work. Like that’s ever going to happen.
In 1975, 90% of the women in Iceland walked off the job to protest unequal pay. That got their government’s attention and Parliament passed legislation guaranteeing equal pay for equal work. But who’s paying the women who don’t work outside the home? And, you’ll forgive my skepticism, but since 1975 the women of Iceland have had to go on strike every ten years.
Why? Because it ain’t happening.
The work women do, both in their own homes and those of others, is not valued. Even though without the work these women do, society as we know it would collapse, there is no move from any quarter to ensure that these people are equitably compensated for their work. Women who spend their lives raising children and maintaining homes aren’t paid and thus don’t have the option of contributing to Social Security.
The poorest people in this world are women in every country who work in the home.
So birth rates are going down across the industrialized world. Who can possibly be surprised? Who in their right mind would want to sentence themselves to a life of 24/7 work that’s not acknowledged or appreciated only to find themselves in poverty if the father of their children decides to upgrade to a younger model? Screw that.
Don’t do it, young women! Ignore that biological tyrant. Don’t breed more tax-payers and consumers and then spend all the limited days of your life caring for them.
And as for all those potential Shakespeares and Einsteins? Let them make their own meals and do their own laundry.
It’s well past time for the rest of the damned human race to learn how to feed themselves and clean up their own messes. Women have better things to do with their lives. Many of us have figured that out.
Put that mop in the corner and walk away, sister.
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