in 1963 60% of all women who obtained BA's in 1958 were clessified as full-time
nousewives

It 1s quite clear that. in spite of a woman's skills and talents, she is: chan-
nelled through a-social | process: which leads in one direction—wife and mother, This
4

lcaas us to the myth about women that has probably caused more eure Cuene and sel ite
hatred than any CU Socially accepted myth—-"

A vomens Ss Piace Is in ‘the Home

SORRY tame ners

Whet makes this myth so terribly damaging is the constant lifelong, intense
ressure which is placed on all women to become what the myth says they ought to be
is ke well! if a woman doesn't, she is "unnatural, "unfeminine" -and..
MEG Uy) Duo chably mewro Done.

It is perceived as nowmal, natural and right that women should need and be
Gependent upon a man and that they shoule feel she. ives incomplete without children.
Joseph Rheinhold, a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist says, ‘Anatomy decrees the
life of a woman..." and Professor Bettleheim of a ce Le of Chicago says, "We
mist start with the realization that, as much as women want to be. ‘good. scientists or
engineovs, they want first and pe ioe to be womanly | gonne anions of men and to be

AR re te
iQ UO IS hs

nm uddition to the eccnomic value discussed above, in maintaining women as a
carpus. pool ‘of trained: Labour, there amore basic reason for defining women
cimarily as wives and mothers —’ The work must be done and despite attitudes to the
the housework ‘is’ ‘drudgery. "A good many arguments about the joys of housewifery
have been aoe Tea by. Ghove who | have never had to work at a ae

fa

(The average work weck for 4 woman with one bord is 90 hours.)

‘The amount ‘of. non-paid “Labour oneuicea | in ihe) hone TES ee Lot. us:

ese thaw the gross national prodiict ofall industrialized ‘countries is naget
voimated by 44% because it does not-include. work done in the hore. )

We find a self-reinforcing systém then: women are socialised to have wife-and-
Cer as their priority. This makes it nearly impossiblé in most women to.
nen areers or even to work continuously Since families.come first. and, conversely

KES ie very casy for women to:be restrictéd to low paying, low stetus Fay, Since
se then become the oniy jobs open to women, there is little incentive to challenge
a system which says ‘that Le and-motherhood is the best "option": The value of. |
wemen's work in the home plus the value of this flexible. cheap labour force: are two.
reasons ny a society ach boasts of its technological achievemént and progress”
cannot find a way for women to have a family without giving up other work, even if
>that work is Be a, ' Gos sauna oe au

A third reason is that the ieee also Puneet one as a massive consumption unit.
Sales in home goods are a multi-billion dollar industry. My

_ Why, one asks, if women are so oppre ssed, do they not involve themselves: more in
Te for social change which would Pomedy many of eee nel use :

Women are conservative and with good reason. When their lives’ are so narrowly.
cefined, they are afraid of any change that may threaten their position in the one
area this society allows them to reign. Women feel empty, unimportant and incompetent
to deal with: a world: ay has never trained them ‘to deal with hens ay a