Document 27.4 PAT MAINARDI, The Politics of Housework (1970)

DOCUMENT 27.4 | PAT MAINARDI, The Politics of Housework (1970)

Author Pat Mainardi, who was a member of the radical feminist Redstockings group, recognized that the politics of gender went beyond the voting booth or the workplace. Patriarchy influenced every aspect of society, perhaps none more so than the home. In the following excerpt, Mainardi satirizes her husband’s evasive responses to the idea that he share the burden of housework. “The Politics of Housework” reveals that work inside the home held as much relevance for advocates of women’s liberation as work outside it.

On the other hand is women’s liberationand housework. What? You say this is all trivial? Wonderful! That’s what I thought. It seemed perfectly reasonable. We both had careers, both had to work a couple of days a week to earn enough to live on, so why shouldn’t we share the housework? So I suggested it to my mate and he agreedmost men are too hip to turn you down flat. “You’re right,” he said, “It’s only fair.”

Then an interesting thing happened. I can only explain it by stating that we women have been brainwashed more than even we can imagine. Probably too many years of seeing television women in ecstasy over their shiny waxed floors or breaking down over their dirty shirt collars. Men have no such conditioning. They recognize the essential fact of housework right from the very beginning. Which is that it stinks. . . . The longer my husband contemplated these chores, the more repulsed he became, and so proceeded the change from the normally sweet considerate Dr. Jekyll into the crafty Mr. Hyde who would stop at nothing to avoid the horrors ofhousework. As he felt himself backed into a corner laden with dirty dishes, brooms, mops, and reeking garbage, his front teeth grew longer and pointier, his fingernails haggled and his eyes grew wild. Housework trivial? Not on your life! Just try to share the burden.

So ensued a dialogue that’s been going on for several years. Here are some of the high points:

“I don’t mind sharing the housework, but I don’t do it very well. We should each do the things we’re best at.”

Meaning: Unfortunately I’m no good at things like washing dishes or cooking. What I do best is a little light carpentry, changing light bulbs, moving furniture (how often do you move furniture?).

Also Meaning: Historically the lower classes (black men and us) have had hundreds of years experience doing menial jobs. It would be a waste of manpower to train someone else to do them now.

Also Meaning: I don’t like the dull stupid boring jobs, so you should do them.

“I don’t mind sharing the work, but you’ll have to show me how to do it.”

Meaning: I ask a lot of questions and you’ll have to show me everything every time I do it because I don’t remember so good. Also don’t try to sit down and read while I’m doing my jobs because I’m going to annoy the hell out of you until it’s easier to do them yourself.

“We used to be so happy!” (Said whenever it was his turn to do something.)

Meaning: I used to be so happy.

Meaning: Life without housework is bliss. (No quarrel here. Perfect agreement.) . . .

“I hate it more than you. You don’t mind it so much.”

Meaning: Housework is garbage work. It’s the worst crap I’ve ever done. It’s degrading and humiliating for someone of my intelligence to do it. But for someone of your intelligence . . .

“Housework is too trivial to even talk about.”

Meaning: It’s even more trivial to do. Housework is beneath my status. My purpose in life is to deal with matters of significance. Yours is to deal with matters of insignificance. You should do the housework.

“This problem of housework is not a man-woman problem! In any relationship between two people one is going to have a stronger personality and dominate.”

Meaning: That stronger personality had better be me.

“In animal societies, wolves, for example, the top animal is usually a male even where he is not chosen for brute strength but on the basis of cunning and intelligence. Isn’t that interesting?”

Meaning: I have historical, psychological, anthropological, and biological justification for keeping you down. How can you ask the top wolf to be equal?

“Women’s liberation isn’t really a political movement.”

Meaning: The Revolution is coming too close to home.

Also Meaning: I am only interested in how I am oppressed, not how I oppress others. Therefore the war, the draft, and the university are political. Women’s liberation is not.

“Man’s accomplishments have always depended on getting help from other people, mostly women. What great man would have accomplished what he did if he had to do his own housework?”

Meaning: Oppression is built into the System and I, as the white American male, receive the benefits of this System. I don’t want to give them up.

Source: Robin Morgan, ed., Sisterhood Is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings from the Women’s Liberation Movement (New York: Random House, 1970), 447–51.