The Happy Housewife

I just started reading Caitlin Flanagan's new book To Hell with All That: Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife. Flanagan has some interesting (and un-popular) opinions about domestic life in the post-feminist world. And a lot of it is very interesting. In the last forty-odd years, women have made incredible strides. We have more choice than we ever have before. And, if you have been reading my blog for awhile, you know that I have been very interested in the concept of "choice" for awhile. It sometimes seemed we are burdened by the endless array of choices we have. And now you often see women who just want to return to domestic life. There seems to be a movement in that direction.

For all intents and purposes, I have been a housewife since February. And while I am anxious to go back to work, part-time work is seeming more and more attractive. I'm not a particularly good housewife. My mom made it seem so effortless. And then there are those examples set by Martha Stewart and even Bree on Desperate Housewives. No matter how hard I try, I can never seem to run the flawlessly well-organized home that these women like my mom did.But there is something very appealing about all of that. I imagine even more so when you have kids. It has got me thinking a lot about the changing roles of women and the home.