Homemaker

There are many different ways to describe the word homemaker though the traditional one seems to still be defined as being a woman and staying at home with the couple’s children while the children are young. In addition, homemaker also seems to imply that that same woman also does all the housework, food shopping, gardening, and general handyman tasks. There are some who would quibble and say that we have much less rigid, in terms of gender roles, definitions of words like homemaker. That may be true, but for a large part of the population defining roles such as the homemaker’s role more fairly does not mean that they are performed more fairly. There are plenty of people who will defiantly say they are not going to change their values just to be politically correct and there are at least the same number, probably more, who will pay lip service to making a change toward equality who won’t really consider it for themselves or their family. Promoting equality of labor and duties in the home is quite difficult since home means so many different things, as do equality, duty, proportion, balance, and work outside the home must be taken into consideration too. Wouldn’t it be better to let the responsibility for defining ‘homemaker’ go back to those who are making the home?