>In other words, the industrialization of housework,
>along with the socialization of housework,is becoming
>an objective social need. Housework as
>individual women's private responsibility and as
>femal labor performed under primitive technical
>conditions, may finally be approaching historical
>obsolescence. (end quote)
Charles, who is this John Henry. Are you a two for one special?
Anyway, you know I understand the marxist feminist theoretical reasons for this call for the industrialization of household labor. And yet, it's not clear to me that this is an appropriate solution. Is there nothing to be said for refusing that such work be commodified? And exactly what kind of household labor are we talking about anyway? All too often that little point isn't exactly clear because under the heading of 'unpaid' labor associated with the 'home' we might include:
scrubbing toilets scrubbing fingernails, noses, bottems helping with homework cooking meals kin work (e.g., buying gifts for holidays, keeping in touch with family) throwing birthday parties cleaning out the fridge (which reminds me.....) teaching children how to dress and tie their shoes teaching children about sex lending a sympathetic ear making the bed balancing the budget and paying the bills
As much as I hate housework sometimes there is something to be said for doing this work. There is a kind of symbolic exchange that takes place in the doing of it that gives value to these sorts of social relations and this cannot be replaced by the paid labor of maids, therapists, teachers, personal shoppers, errand services, bakers, caterers, fast food restaurants, etc. Oh maybe I'm just falsely conscious, an ignorant subjectivity that has allowed myself to be deluded into thinking that such work *means* something and that meaning shouldn't be reduced to mere market exchange.
Also, it seems to me that we might miss something here if we encourage this sort of thing. That is, in het couples, the crisis over the second shift has to do with gender inequality and men's failure to take up their share of the work. (It also has a bit to do with the tendency of parents in the US to not expect their children to take up much of this work as well) By shifting the burden of the 'dirty' work (that we might agree can and should be 'industrialized') onto the paid labor force, without a shift in our understanding of the value, worth, and meaning of such work, then we are simply shifting the problem from the micro level of disputes between het couples to the macro level, a gendered labor market which clearly reflects the devaluation of this sort of work.
SnitgrrRl