Apu’s World

Is hiring out your housework a feminist thing to do? Over at ‘An Open Letter By a Feminist’ two interesting posts on this issue, 1 and 2 with a lot of useful discussion in the comments space.

I find the Western perspective on this quite different from our situation though. First of all, with a whole lot less dirt and much more labor saving devices, I don’t think the definition of housework is quite the same. It is perhaps possible then for full-time working people there to do all their own stuff.

Here, if we count the basic chores that any house needs on a daily basis - sweeping, swabbing, utensils, clothes wash (if there is no machine) plus the heavier weekend dusting and cleaning, it adds up to quite a bit of time. I would estimate about 1.5- 2 hours per day. This is apart from the cooking, since most Indian families (meaning, women) still do from-scratch cooking for most meals. When kids enter the picture, the requirements get even heavier.

To my mind, therefore, having house help allows women to go out and work. Here of course, we are referring to middle or upper class women, which is where the question emerges - Are you using your privilege and hiring someone else to do your ‘dirty work’?  In a sense, this is a consequence of viewing traditional women’s work as low value, easy to do, requiring no particular skill. Housework was traditionally done by the lady of the house - it has low economic value, since there is no external customer paying for it. It is therefore hired out to what is seen as ‘unskilled labour’. It is also a function of a large available labour base, which will take any work it can get.

On the other hand, I know from talking to maids that many of them do view this as safer work than what they find in factories. Plus, the (usually) part-time nature of work allows them to care for their own families as well. So, on the whole, I don’t believe it is any more wrong to hire out housework than it is to call in a plumber or electrician. Those jobs are of course seen as much more skilled, and skilled jobs are usually done by men. There is definitely an issue with ‘how’ we view housework and therefore how maids are treated. The issue is therefore with how ‘we’ perceive and allot an economic value to it, not with housework itself.

With families in metros gaining from double incomes, some of it is percolating down to hired help - and we do see the wages of maids going up. This may still not be in proportion to the inflation that is happening.  One solution would be to get more women to go in for vocational training that allows them to go in for skilled, better-paying jobs. Most of the ‘glass ceiling’ break throughs have been in white collar jobs. Most other occupations such as skilled construction jobs, electrical work, plumbing, painting, even gardening - remain the preserve of men. A start has been made in the retail area, where women have started managing floors and counters in large numbers.  As more such options increase, women from lower socio-economic classes have many more choices that don’t necessarily call for a degree, but still pay reasonably well. Currently, many of them are not trained for any other options - the conservatism of families also prevents them from getting trained.

Eventually, demand and supply has a big role to play.  As education levels rise, good house help is harder to get, people will be willing to pay them more, and will have to treat them better. Eventually, will it also be seen as a job with its own requirements and therefore deserving respect?

apu Women & Feminism