@Itsnotpacific
Men are the reason women have to give up work.
Women have moved forward, so many men stuck in the " but I go to work" mentality.
Depressing.
This. I have no problem at all with women choosing to downgrade their careers while they look after small children, or for any reason really, as long as they are fulfilled and happy and have some financial autonomy to fall back on.
What I do have a big problem with is the assumption that the woman needs to arrange her life (and the care of her children) to facilitate the man's career and that any self fulfilment she wants has to play second fiddle to this.
This is why I find the term "housewife" disagreeable. It suggests a married woman whose sole function is to care for the "house" (which is really shorthand for house, man and children).
There's a bit of a categorisation error at work in a lot of these posts. Plenty of people always point out on these threads that not being in paid work doesn't mean you're not fulfilled or useful and they're right, of course they're right. I think if you're wealthy and choose to devote your time to volunteering, craft, politics, travel, study, whatever, that's admirable and probably a great life.
But that's not what being a "housewife" means. Being a "housewife" means spending all your time caring for the home and children and being available at all times at the disposal and pleasure of a man who essentially pays to "keep" you at his disposal. And essentially tailoring your life in every respect to put his needs first. Yes you may get to go to coffee mornings and get your nails done or even do some volunteering, but it's all on his terms.
Let's be honest about this: this may suit plenty of women and let them crack on if they want to. But what I can't stand is the suggestion that this is about better "freedom" and "choice". I can accept people saying they've chosen this life of their own free will because they prefer it, but not this bullshit rhetoric about how they have "freedom to avoid working for the man" and "no longer have to be corporate shills" or whatever.
If you're a housewife, you've exchanged paid work for an employer, where you are free to take your services elsewhere at any point if you choose, and you get to keep the fruits of your labour, for being paid by a man to look after his home and children, with no money to show for it and any security you do have totally dependent on his pleasure. And no freedom to move without severely disrupting your family's security. Give me working for the man and keeping my money any day.