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?

If you are looking after your own adult disabled child your occupation isn't carer (i mean unless you want to say that) as back to your own point, who is paying her top be a carer the Government, but that doesn't invalidate it. I'm a "carer" and when they're allocating 3p hours childcare at age 3 is counts as "employed" for the purpose of both parents needing to be in work.

I am a housewife and happy to be one. Although I am not employed by anyone I wouldn't use the term unemployed as that term suggests I am looking for work or able to work but not.

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. But that IS what some women choose to do. My aunt hasn't worked she she married and they had children (eldest is I guess mid 40's) and instead did the "home making" whilst Uncle developed his career. She's happy with her life, they raised two smart, hard working children, she enjoys being at home and entertaining her husbands business associates and he's happy for her to do that.
It just doesn't feel equal my Uncle would consider my Aunt his equal because believing your partner is beneath you would make you an utter dick and he's not.

Incidentally I don't work atm as I'm a "carer" for our son. If DH thought he was somehow better than me cos he sits on his arse in an office for 35 hours a week, he'd quickly find himself single.

Ridley ime men are not expected to navel gaze about every word that comes out of their mouths.

OP has an issue with a woman on TV whose circs she knows nothing about saying her occupation is housewife on mastermind. Do men start threads on male dominated sites if a man on mastermind says he's a house husband? Doubt it somehow.

Earn money and outsource, or go hands on, there is no shame in either option, and people should choose whichever they please.

Indeed they should and of course there’s no shame. But I think there is only so much ‘outsourcing’ some people can do. The only thing being outsourced by me is the childcare. And no that isn’t ‘nothing productive’ but it’s also not all that a SAHM has to do all day I imagine. So as I said unless you have a nanny who also prepares all the meals and takes your DC to activities that your CM can’t e.g. swimming or a housekeeper to do all your washing and cleaning there is still a lot of tasks left to do on top of a job. And plenty of people (including myself) don’t have family living close by to help of friends who do them ‘favours’ or are single or have partners who as a pp said work abroad. I don’t think it’s as simple as some people do everything themselves or some ‘outsource’ everything. There’s a huge inbetween scope e.g. some SAHMs might have lots of family nearby to help and a working single one could have no help at all.
(I think we’ve gone a bit off thread, but there we go...)

*I think I get what you're saying OP - it's not "all housewives are stupid", it's that the title "housewife" isn't good enough for women, given all they do, so what would be a better one. Is that right?
I tend to agree, I feel like it's a diminutive sort of term. It reduces the woman to "just" looking after the house and belonging to it/the husband in way. *

This!
I'm amazed at the number of people on here who are accusing me of being nasty when they are actually being nasty to me! it would be helpful if you read all my posts rather than jumping to wrong conclusions. I have NOT said that there is anything wrong with being a woman who spends their time looking after their children and home. I was just curious about the term being used by some to label what their role is.
It's very obvious that I DID NOT say 'lucky you' to the pp who said she did not have a living child. I was commenting on the fact that she had a big house and garden and was able by some means to spend her time looking after these things. She IS lucky. My guess is that lots more women don't have this opportunity than do. Those who took the opportunity to jump to this conclusion, shame on you.
I had no intention of offending anyone, perhaps some of my musings have hit home with some mners though.

On a personal front, I have been in paid employment out of the home from the age of 16, working whilst completing a degree when my dd1 was a baby, and returning to work when dd2 was 6 weeks old as financially I had no choice. (Maternity leave was crap back then). I have recently moved to part time but spend 1 day a week looking after my young grandson. From January I will no longer be in paid employment. I'm looking forward to doing what I want when I want and reawakening my love of cooking, which has taken a back seat over the years. But I just cannot bring myself to call myself a housewife.

My ultimate philosophy is that a woman should be able to make the choice to do what she wants to do with her life without being judged. However, for many, their choices are limited by circumstance not least financial limits.

But I just cannot bring myself to call myself a housewife.

But then what would you like to be called instead? I think a lot of people sympathise with your point that ‘housewife’ is a bit of an outdated word that doesn’t always quite fit anymore - but then you haven’t offered an alternative?

Familial Domestic Co-ordinator?

I'm a housewife. I'm not quite retired but can't find a job that would suit me in terms of lifestyle or skills. I appreciate that I"m very lucky that our household can afford for me not to do paid work but I am not ashamed of the fact that I do the majority of the wife work and housework which frees my husband to earn money and allow us to spend his spare time enjoying ourselves. Apart from doing the housework et al I do unpaid work for charities and I also do whatever the fuck I like. I enjoy my garden and pick up hobbies and go on little trips to visit interesting places. I'm not going to go into the details of exactly how we ended up in this situation but suffice to say one of us made a decision to give up a career for the other and the quid-pro-quo is that I make most of the household arrangements.

I tend to agree, I feel like it's a diminutive sort of term. It reduces the woman to "just" looking after the house and belonging to it/the husband in way.

This!

How is this true? If I ask you what you do and your response is “architect”, does it reduce you to someone who just does that? Does anyone think you don’t parent/clean/wash clothes??? It’s just nonsense.

But I just cannot bring myself to call myself a housewife.
This I think shows a deep and thoroughly unjustified lack of respect for those who have made that choice. What is it that makes a thoroughly unremarkable role so demeaning to you? Why do you think of housewives as “lucky” to do what they do while simultaneously feeling they are demeaned by it?

Let's be honest. The reason why it really annoys feminists is because being a 'housewife' of the traditional kind is pretty much a privilege enjoyed by women rather than men, who are much more stigmatised for being a man of leisure.

Which feminists are those?

Interesting post.

A man of leisure, how much childcare, housekeeping, eldercare, cooking does he do?

Man of leisure conjures up bertie wooster for me. Am enviable position, surely?

Men 'of leisure' don't tend to do much arse wiping, i don't think.

Seems to me LordRandall has just inadvertently (I assume) pointed up one of the ways the term (not the actual role) 'housewife' can be problematic.

being a 'housewife' of the traditional kind is pretty much a privilege enjoyed by women
I think the language reveals a lot. Is it a “privilege”? I think it’s a choice and while it’s a choice not open to everyone, so are so many.

I'm a housewife. I always put my occupation down as housewife and I'm very happy to be described as one. My dc are at school and I do all the housework, cooking, laundry, cleaning, bills and paperwork so my husband doesn't have to worry about it.

I just say I'm in early retirement.

I do all of that and work full time and run a business on the side - those roles aren't unique to "housewife" - which is another problem with the term I think. I also no longer out source or pay for anything except occasional after school care if I'm delayed at work - many of the non working parents also use it if they're late back from the shops, for a break etc. Lot of assumptions in this thread. Which is why we need to lose the term housewife - it's outdated and innacurate. Women do many roles.

I was talking more about 'ladies of leisure' than SAHMs, hence the reference. The type who spend their time 'pursuing their hobbies' as a few upthread have mentioned.

I'm not against it as it's not really my business, but it is a privilege IMO to be able who spend one's time that way (although I know some will argue the injustice of being deprived of the joys of facing the daily grind).

A man of leisure, how much childcare, housekeeping, eldercare, cooking does he do?

The clue is in the word 'leisure'.

No, your first post conflated 'housewife'** with a person of leisure.

Housewives aren't 'ladies of leisure'.

Housewives aren't 'ladies of leisure'.

Ok, but what would a 'lady of leisure' likely refer to herself as? Probably not 'unemployed'.

No idea. This thread is about the term 'housewife', the role and it's status.

Bloody ungrammatical oxymoronic autocorrect.

This thread is about the term 'housewife', the role and it's status.

Yes, and my point is about the fact that some women arguably get annoyed with others who choose not to pursue an ambitious career because it highlights the (primarily female) privilege of enjoying a decent standard of life due to the earnings of one's partner.

I think they get annoyed because they are jealous and because it shakes their world view that being employed is important if not crucial.