Lucero, Kessa Thea G.

October 16, 2019

Ethics/MWF 9:3010:30 BSA-2A

FEMINISM’S SECOND CRITIQUE: THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE

In the last centuries our societies have undergone uncommon events and changes that had impact
on human history. These transformations had a huge impact on society and how we view family. Family
is perhaps the most vital network in human society. Typically in a traditional family, the male was labeled
as the breadwinner in the other hand the wife was forced to stay at home raising the children while being
undervalued. But unfortunately, this family guidelines have been slow to catch up to changing trends in
modern lifestyle and resulted to the gender inequality of the patriarchal society that is not only a social
issue but an economic reality as well. With the transformation of our society, various feminists have
created a search for solutions leading to an ideal society where women cannot be forced to divide
unequally domestic labor and their relationship between roles in family and workplace.
Going at the historical movement being moved forward by gender inequality and devaluation of
housework is what feminists claim. Feminists believe that a family-based conception of privacy fails to
protect women from being abused and from their desire to escape confinement of domestic roles to
participate in public life. However, theorists of justice continue to ignore relations within a family which is
assumed to be “private” and essentially natural realm.

One of the central issues is the unequal distribution of domestic work and the relationship between
family and job roles is the second strand of feminist critique. Women were disproportionately
concentrated in low paying, part-time work and were not given a public recognition for their domestic
labor.They carry the burden of additional work, which receives neither respect nor
remuneration.Not only does unpaid labor affect women, but it most affects them. Much of their work is
delegitimized as women's work, from working for the household farm or company to household and
caregiving work, and is not considered to be ' real ' work. But for instance, maintaining the house and
raising children is still considered the woman’s prerogative, while men ‘help out’ when they can. So
what feminist saw is that a significant part of women’s work remains socially unrecognised till this date.

Unpaid domestic work refers to all the work needed to maintain the household, involved in runnin
g a household and managing daily tasks is not just physical, but also mental and emotional. And since it i
s not considered to be real work, it is devalued by the men who benefit from it and the women who eng
age in it themselves. Even when women try to enter the workforce, unpaid domestic wok becomes
major obstacle o their access to paid work opportunities. Although the inclusion of women in the
workforce is considered a sign of empowerment, but still it leaves them with double burden.

We must remember that empowerment can not be found simply by rejecting the unpaid domestic
work that women have been doing for decades in favor of working outside the home. Because when
women leave the house to work, the question of ' who will do the housework ' remains. And because
domestic work is still gendered,women themselves ultimately have the responsibility. This promotes
ideas such as women are not competent workers, or that they have other priorities beyond their work.
Equal opportunities for work cannot be simply about increasing the pay for women or increasing their
active involvement in the workforce, but about redefining current patriarchal definition of work. This
result in non-gender domestic and caring work, minimizing women’s work and improving their quality of
life. In order to achieve real equality,unpaid domestic work must be legitimized and be given due
public recognition. Only then we can expect equal participation in the workforce and the household.