London: The Vatican’s official newspaper has said the washing machine has done more to “liberate” women than the contraceptive pill.
In a long editorial marking International Women’s Day, L’Osservatore Romano pronounced the washing machine to be more important in the liberation of women than the pill as it freed generations of them from the drudgery of household chores.
“The washing machine and the emancipation of women: put in the powder, close the lid and relax,” reads the headline, above a black and white picture of two women in the 1950s admiring a front-loading machine.
“In the 20th century, what contributed most to the emancipation of western women? The debate is still open. Some say it was the pill, others the liberalisation of abortion, or being able to work outside the home. Others go even further: the washing machine,” it said.
The first rudimentary washing machines appeared in 1767, noted the article
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So it seems the biggest thing to liberate women is the washing machine. While I can follow a slightly warped logic to this discussion and pronouncement, I have to say I disagree. The problem for me is the definition of 'liberation' which the Vatican seems to have employed. Liberation, it seems, is not about role-changing, it is about making existing roles easier to perform. The washing machine may have made certain tasks that women have traditionally peformed, easier, but it has not led to a re-evaluation of the roles that women play in the house. Marginally, due to the washing machine, more men may be doing laundry too. And I will concede that having appliances of various kinds has reduced time spent in maintaining house, with the result that more women are able to work outside the home.
Also, most of the women across the Third World still cannot afford washing machines (or a roof over their heads, or three square meals a day) and although I may be talking through my head here, their combined number has GOT to be more than women with washing machines. The Vatican obviously concerns itself only with the so-called 'liberation' of some women in a select group of countries
Yes, in these small ways the washing machine is perhaps liberating. However, it does not rewrite the roles women play. Whether you do laundry by hand or by machine, you're still doing laundry...
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3 comments:
From Neena
I couldnt agree more!
We did a role & sex study in college where it was found out (amongst other things) - women as mothers/wives etc were given BDAY gifts like - fridges, microwaves, and other household goods!!!
And no one thought it was ODD.
And when religious heads/societies reinforce this belief - like washing machines are liberating... (... Read Moreyeah whatever) how do u teach the common man?
I mean would you ever gift your husband a washing machine????
Then why to a wife or mother?
And like you say...perhaps they are liberating.... I say too, yes they are liberating - BUT ONLY WHEN IT COMES TO TIME CONSUMED. period.
The roles by and large are the same. Perhaps they have not changed but added to the jobs of the woman, as now - not only she has to work outside (earn bread and butter), but also to work in the house.
EVERY woman who juggles job and home is now EXPECTED (because of these gadgets) to be a Superwoman.
And superman or superwoman in my opinion are not liberated!LOL
From Areesh
Interesting read. But should the Vatican surprise you at all? Especially under Pope Benedict.
The Vatican is bound to trudge a certain beaten path. Its light is from a different source, something that will always blind its eyes to a completely changed reality outside the confines of its theological profundity. The chasm is so great that the Vatican finds the contemporary world completely incomprehensible. Reform happens in a trickle, and when it happens its largely an apology for the anachronistic quagmire that the church has dug itself into. There never has been an open acceptance of the secular world, the temporal order, and belief in human reason.
Lets do what we can. Let us leave the Vatican in peace, as every relic of the past should be left alone. Let it rot and fade away in atrophy. Such will be its fate. I can picture the Holy See getting up one morning and realizing that nothing is left of the Vatican but the magnificence of its imposing churches and chapels!
Areesh
From Avanti
Sigh! At the Holy see....
I see parallels to how women in Kerala are automatically assumed to be empowered just because of a select set of social indicators. Still interesting to see practical needs (instead of strategic needs) being adressed within the household rather than in the public sphere!
And FYI: There are some time-use studies that show owning labour-saving appliances need not reduce the number of hours spent in house work. Apparently what happens is either women end up switching time into other tasks within the household OR they actually spend as much if not more time in the tasks related to such appliances An Eg given: Time spent rinsing dishes and putting into the dishwasher is same as time spent actually washing dishes). I dont know if this has been done with nationally representative time-use data... if it does hold up, totally smashes even the narrow idea that relatively better-off, western, women may have 'more time' than their counterparts in developing economies.
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