Don't forget, until white feminists dreamed of entering the workplace, it wasn't done in the West:
“To begin with, then, I should say that more than two-thirds of the negroes of the town where I live are menial servants of one kind or another, and besides that more than two-thirds of the negro women here, whether married or single, are compelled to work for a living,--as nurses, cooks, washerwomen, chambermaids, seamstresses, hucksters, janitresses, and the like. I will say, also, that the condition of this vast host of poor colored people is just as bad as, if not worse than, it was during the days of slavery. Tho today we are enjoying a nominal freedom, we are literally slaves. And, not to generalize, I will give you a sketch of the work I have to do--and I'm only one of many.”
"Nominal freedom":
A good description for how American History's taught today, too,...
That would apply to a fair number of white women too -- both my grandmas, their sisters, my great grandma that I remember all either did outside work or took it in.
ReplyDeleteReason: either needed the money to survive, or wanted a little extra cash to provide for something more than subsistence level existence.
A lot of women (and let's be honest here, it's women from families where women have never had to really work, not even in their own homes) seem to have this notion that they "liberated women from being 'just' housewives". Dumb bitches -- a lot of us had moms, grandmas, great grandmas, great-great grandmas that worked outside of 'just' housechores, were more than "just housewives" long before a bunch of privileged ladies waved their magic wands -- as though agreeing that they weren't fully human or some shit prior to getting "emancipated" (emphasis on on being fully human until their "saviors" showed up -- I want to emphasize that).
PW
(which by the way, unless you have used one of those old fashioned clothes irons -- I have...great granny had this thing about using shit if it still worked; she also saved torn clothes and dishrags and turned them into rugs, and collected string...ah, the good ol' days! -- never call it "just housework"; those women had muscles on them...could probably make a good account of themselves with most modern guys; not many people in America work like that anymore)