Is 'Housewife' an occupation?

[Soontobe60]

First contestant on Mastermind tonight has given her occupation as housewife. Does that mean she is employed by her husband? She looks too old to have children that need looking after, and if she had an adult disabled child then her occupation would be carer.
Surely in this day and age no one claims that their occupation is housewife?

Unemployed is not the same as not-employed!

No man ever described himself as a something plus father.

As for the original question, yes it’s an occupation! I think for most working women the idea of being at home all day is the same as the time they spend at home now. It isn’t, a full housewife does it all, all the shopping, cooking, cleaning, laundry, kids stuff

It all just feels very 1950's Doris Day
So bloody what! This woman appears comfortable in this description of herself. My friend is severely disabled and can't do much and refers herself as a housewife as it gives her a sense of status. My mother is a housewife. She may be older but she is happy this way.

If asked my occupation I say “Housewife”. To be fair that’s partly because some people look so horrified

A woman after my own heart! I love doing this to people. So many people expect you to feel the need to justify this and it's wonderful to just confidently say "housewife" and then let it hang there.

Yes to the occupation question being pointless. Why is it even asked?
The issues are twofold:
Capitalist society only seeing paid work as work
Misogyny. The work that women have done/ tend to do being seen as not work somehow, rather a natural thing that they just automatically do and there's no need to recognise it. See also, roles that women traditionally do/ or are female dominated attracting low pay

The problem isn't the word, it's the attitude to women, combined with capitalism.

Agree fraggling. Perhaps Mastermind should proceed with the following Capitalist Categories for simplicity:

In proper full time paid employment
Pisstaker In part time paid employment
Parasite Not in paid employment

I actually suspect the reason that mastermind makes them give their job is a bit grim and patronising - it's so we can all be astonished when a bus driver or a housewife turns out to know something

Of course an occupation can be unpaid.

Why is this even a question.

Student is unpaid...?

Of course it can be an occupation! Even if your children are in school full time or even if you havent got any children... sometimes relationships are set up so that one us free to bring in as much money as possible and focus on their career whilst the other takes care of the household.
I mean I have very young children so it's pretty full on anyway (I'm a housewife) but even if i didnt, my husband works very long hours and sometimes nights, so hes very little time to do anything to do with this house. He will be gone from 6am and not back until 8.30pm some days. So I am doing all the cooking, cleaning, and general maintenance on the house... not to a high standard to be honest because im also doing the majority of child care and admin! But if I fudnt have children or they were older and at school all day I would certainly still have a reasonably full day taking care of the house.... if I wasnt doing it he would need to work less in order to take care of things this side more... my work enables him to earn more and become more successful (hes also doing a masters at the moment... he wouldnt be able to do that on top of working long hours if I wasnt here taking care of his home)
Never would I class myself as 'unemployed' or say I had no occupation.

The problem isn't the word, it's the attitude to women, combined with capitalism

I think there is also something of a negative with the word itself, in that it defines the woman's role in relation to her spouse - usually a man. As a bit of an aside, I'm curious to know if a woman in a same sex marriage would be likely to call herself a 'housewife'?

from etymonline:

housewife (n.)

early 13c., husewif, "woman, usually married, in charge of a family or household; wife of a householder," from huse "house" (see house (n.)) + wif "woman" (see wife (n.)). Compare husband (n.).

husband (n.)

Old English husbonda "male head of a household, master of a house, householder," probably from Old Norse husbondi "master of the house," literally "house-dweller," from hus "house" (see house (n.)) + bondi "householder, dweller, freeholder, peasant," from buandi, present participle of bua "to dwell" (from PIE root *bheue- "to be, exist, grow," and compare bond (adj.)). Beginning late 13c. it replaced Old English wer as "married man (in relation to his wife)" and became the companion word of wife, a sad loss for English poetry.

It is an occupation - if a marriage/partnership, she is supporting the joint venture of family/home with labour and time while the partner/husband is supporting the venture with finance/wages. At least, that's how I see it in my head.

Sorry, failed to enclose dictionary def with quote marks. The last para is my own thoughts.

The man is the 'master', the 'householder' in that etymology though, it's not defined as a partnership of equals.

A housewife is a self-chosen role/identity above all - and can be said to be an occupation in the form of "a regular activity/a way of spending time", which is one aspect of the definition of 'occupation' in the dictionary. However, a housewife is not an occupation in the context of a "job/profession".

my SiL would probably describe herself as a housewife. OK fine that's up to her. But, she has no dependent children or other caring responsibilities. She literally does all the housework and I assume most of the admin while her able bodied husband works full time.
I find it very hard to understand that as a choice. In the old days maybe when there were no hoovers, central heating, all food cooked from scratch, clothes made and/or repaired by hand....then housewife is an occupation. I don't think it is now.

I have an acquaintance who has been unemployed for years and makes all the excuses up under the sun not to seek work. He is well known in my peer group for being lazy, tardy and selfish. However, he doesn’t just sit around all day- he does housework daily, gardening, looking after his pet dog, admin, cooking, DIY (the sort of tasks housewives would constitute as being ‘full time work’).

So tell me, what’s the difference between this unemployed guy and a ‘housewife’?

what’s the difference between this unemployed guy and a ‘housewife’?

Maybe not a lot - except that a housewife is generally looking after at least one other person not just herself.

Sure the word has problems

But if you change it, the new word will be seen as per op

Because of capitalism + misogyny.

For the man, if he's looking for work then he's unemployed. If the couple have agreed that his partner will earn and he will look after the house etc, then he could choose househusband or homemaker.

I think homemaker was invented because of the issues with housewife but lots don't like it.

Househusband is a thing, a term people recognise as well.

Can't we think of a different word to describe a person who can afford to stay at home because they are supported by their partner?

Or maybe she supports herself, she doesn't have to work currently to be supporting herself.

The difference is that he’s not doing something for anyone other than himself.

I could stand all day explaining maths to thin air. It wouldn’t make me a teacher.

Erm also re unemployed guy i assumed kids?

I don't know any women who have given up work pre kids. Plenty who have gone part time after. Some at school who don't go back, even when kids are older they generate a lot of work, school finishes 330, where one is earning a lot and needing to travel, if they want to set up so one stays at home that's up to them surely. And then when kids leave home and woman has been out of workplace for 25 years and is 55 or something... i mean going back to work isn't on the cards unless she wants to?

Situation for women in society who take this route is shaky due again to things being set up around men and capitalism... that's another thread though.

Women with kids usually say SAHM rather than housewife. You don’t need a partner to be a SAHM.

Not if the kids are older i don't think?

The partner point is interesting.

This is language from a different time.

However i do think, that whatever is come up with, won't get around attitudes like op.

I like housewife. It reminds me of my own childhood.

@StillWeRise
Yes, that's what I think too. Of course everybody has the right to choose what they do with their lives, and if a woman chooses, and is able to not go out to work then so be it. I just can't see calling that person a 'housewife' to be something I'm comfortable with. It feels like you're saying I am there to look after my husband so that he can go out to earn our money. It just doesn't feel equal. It's not the role that bothers me so much, it's the name associated with it.
Maybe it's because I had such strong female role models in my mother and grandmother who drummed into me and my sisters that we should always strive to have an equal partner, and a career to support ourselves, that the chosen noun of housewife strikes me as odd.

@Fraggling

What do you perceive my attitude to be?