Last week, I had an interesting conversation with a male friend about women and their position when it comes to balancing being parents, partners in the home and obviously, taking on professions.  Somehow, the argument veered towards my idea that perhaps, housewives should be paid for their work. My friend obviously didn’t want to hear none of it. He said that when couples are getting married, it’s not written anywhere in the marital contract that the wife should be paid for staying home to take care of her family. I was short of telling him that neither is it written anywhere that when it comes to staying home, the woman should be the one to give up everything and take on the role. A man can do it too. 

I told him that the society that shaped the kind of perception that women are supposed to stay home and take care of house chores and raise the children is the same society that can also shape the perception that stay home mothers should be paid for all they do, especially for nurturing and raising responsible and sensible citizens. The encouraging thing is that this guy is not yet married but I really pity his future wife. 

With all the fast paced development that the world is enjoying, the 21st Century woman is still sometimes expected to give up her career despite the time and resources spent educating her, just to sit home and play the home manager role.

Today, we are raising broken families because both parents are never at home as they are busy working to make ends meet, while some add evening classes to this to boost their chances of better pay. In all this, children are left in the care of house-helps who mostly have zero parenting skills. 

Family, being the smallest and most influential unit of society, is the most important place to nurture and raise a responsible citizen and this can be achieved better by a parent. Paying housewives is a simple way of appreciating what they do for their families and, in the long run, their nation.

 If the husband can’t pay, the state can set aside a fund to pay housewives as a way of encouraging more women to stay home to get ample time to nurture the children. Paying the housewives is also another way of empowering women.  

Some women are at times forced and blackmailed by their conservative and chauvinist husbands to stay home and take care of children.  With society’s misconceptions about women’s roles, some of these women are even scared to stand up and fight for their rights.