Moms Need Help: Domestic Labor, Trad Wives, and Motherhood Under Capitalism



It’s time to debunk the traditional stereotypical 1950s housewife. In this video essay I discuss how the stereotypical traditional stay at home wife – usually a rich white woman in an upper class suburb – is far from most stay at home moms’ realities today – at least in the U.S.

Stay at home moms today are more likely to live in poverty, be immigrants, and be nonwhite, and are forced to leave the workforce and financial freedom behind due to the rising costs of childcare, lack of maternity leave, and lack of universal healthcare.

So come on a journey with me into motherhood under capitalism, having it all, the devaluation of women and domestic labor, as well as the changing modern American family.

Timestamps
Intro – Rethinking The Housewife 0:00
Part 1: Who got to be a housewife? 11:10
The Crucial History of Housewifery and Women’s Liberation from the 1770s-1990s
Domestic Labor
Part 2: The Modern American Family 33:58
Single moms
Immigrant mothers
Same-sex parents
Child caretakers of adult relatives (oldest daughter syndrome)
Part 3: The Current State of Women at Home and at Work 40:46
Reaganomics
The independent self reliant nuclear family
Turning parenting into a one person job
Sleep training as an ‘American thing’
Part 4: The Rise of Trad Wives 49:18
Part 5: Stay at Home Dads 58:04
Conclusion 1:02:18

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Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cheyennelin

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Works Cited/Sources:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r–isaaDQ8coL-WxQd8yoI5d8LSXT3jIwLXu2q14Xng/edit?usp=sharing

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Music:

𝑴𝒓. 𝑺𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒎𝒂𝒏 – 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒔 [𝑳𝒐-𝑭𝒊]
Thiago Montagnini
https://youtu.be/a690TbXM5EQ?si=lnUZjDZKKlrxlFsy

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