To increase the status of the Housewife, one should also look to facilitating the creation of the social networks among women in the neighborhood. I recall in my youth the wives of the neighborhood all knew each other and cooperated closely. More than once I was told to 'run this sugar over to Mrs. Larsen' or when being sent to the store to get things we needed, I'd be told 'pick up some X at Fred Meyer and drop it on the way home at Mrs. X's house.' These women organized baby-sitting, large scale purchases to reduce unit cost of foodstuffs, etc. My mother's skill at cake decorating was prized; to get her to make a cake for an occasion was a Very Good Thing.
We are socially atomized. Put human beans in closer social proximity and the status of homemaking will increase. Now, women have only the internet/entertainment complex to compare their status to. That's a losing proposition. Give them a local arena of similar persons to compete for status among, and you will see a rise in the value of the homemaker.
While colored by my own very negative experience in the Empire State's public education system, my opinion of modern schooling has stemmed overwhelmingly from a very similar set of observations.
On the bright side, these schools are less and less popular by the day. I dont see the modern school system surviving the next century in its current form.
This is quite profound. Many things to say, but for now what most strikes me is this shifting relationship between doing and running a household. And household, as I'm sure you know, is the basics of "economics," part of why the Greeks looked down upon it. I could give similar stories from my own background . . . for now, thank you.
Oh yes, absolutely! And how I long for there to be kids in the neighborhood, instead of stuck at school.
Also, at home earning [or maybe just in-kind help?], in most cases centered around what mothers are already doing for their own families. Like Sean says below, the social network. The mothers that sew, the mothers that cook, the mothers that teach Latin to the neighborhood kids. [Well, maybe not that last exactly, but a woman can dream ...]. Not that all mothers don't tend to do all of those, or at least parts of all of those.
To increase the status of the Housewife, one should also look to facilitating the creation of the social networks among women in the neighborhood. I recall in my youth the wives of the neighborhood all knew each other and cooperated closely. More than once I was told to 'run this sugar over to Mrs. Larsen' or when being sent to the store to get things we needed, I'd be told 'pick up some X at Fred Meyer and drop it on the way home at Mrs. X's house.' These women organized baby-sitting, large scale purchases to reduce unit cost of foodstuffs, etc. My mother's skill at cake decorating was prized; to get her to make a cake for an occasion was a Very Good Thing.
We are socially atomized. Put human beans in closer social proximity and the status of homemaking will increase. Now, women have only the internet/entertainment complex to compare their status to. That's a losing proposition. Give them a local arena of similar persons to compete for status among, and you will see a rise in the value of the homemaker.
While colored by my own very negative experience in the Empire State's public education system, my opinion of modern schooling has stemmed overwhelmingly from a very similar set of observations.
On the bright side, these schools are less and less popular by the day. I dont see the modern school system surviving the next century in its current form.
This is quite profound. Many things to say, but for now what most strikes me is this shifting relationship between doing and running a household. And household, as I'm sure you know, is the basics of "economics," part of why the Greeks looked down upon it. I could give similar stories from my own background . . . for now, thank you.
Oh yes, absolutely! And how I long for there to be kids in the neighborhood, instead of stuck at school.
Also, at home earning [or maybe just in-kind help?], in most cases centered around what mothers are already doing for their own families. Like Sean says below, the social network. The mothers that sew, the mothers that cook, the mothers that teach Latin to the neighborhood kids. [Well, maybe not that last exactly, but a woman can dream ...]. Not that all mothers don't tend to do all of those, or at least parts of all of those.