I will introduce myself before answering this since it is my first post.
My name is Stacey, I'm 32 and I am a stay at home mom and I home-school my
daughter, Alia (can anyone guess where I got this name?). I have loved
science fiction and fantasy ever since I got my hands on my first Andre
Norton book (*Iron Cage* and it is still on my bookshelf) when I was about
12.
On Tue, 23 Sep 1997, George Elgin, Suzette Haden Elgin wrote:
> I don't see the issue of women and wages as off topic; not at all. This
> country is run by the principles of a science fiction (or science fiction
> fantasy, depending on which version is supported) in which all the labor
> that a woman does in her own household is entirely without monetary value,
> while exactly the same labor done by "housekeepers" and "maids" and
> "nannies" and "home healthcare workers," etc., has to be paid for, becomes
> part of the Social Security system, is counted in the gross national
> product, and all the rest.
First, housekeepers, maids and nannies are working for other people who
can afford to pay for their services. They don't work for their employers
24 hours a day 7 days a week. Their services are limited (a maid probably
wouldn't change diapers but a nanny would, a nanny probably wouldn't
prepare a menu for a dinner party but a housekeeeper would).
> Few science fictions are less credible than
> this
> one, but we allow it to go on in perpetuum and lift not a finger to change
> it. I think we badly need science fiction portraying alternate US societies
> in which a woman's labor in her own household (or a man's, for that matter,
> in those cases where it is a man who does the "homemaking") has to get
> minimum wage just like any other labor, and the money that changes hands
> must be counted into national statistics like any other money, must count
> toward Social Security, and all the rest. That would let us explore the
> question of whether following that policy would -- as has been proposed --
> mean the collapse of Western civilization.
I'm not sure that I would want to use my tax dollar to allow people to
stay home and clean house (or do you know some other way of paying
home-makers?). I don't even want to imagine the abuses that would
inevitably occur if people were paid to stay home.
My husband and I made the decision that I would stay home and care for our
daughter. No one really benefits from this choice except our family. No
one else benefits from my clean floor, clean laundry, washed dishes etc.
except my family. Why should anyone else pay for a choice that my family
made? Living on one income is difficult but having me home with our
daughter is worth the sacrifices.
> Suzette Haden Elgin
>
Stacey (ausar@netdoor.com)
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