Is the "housewife" now an almost totally extinct species?

Yeah, there’s only househusbands now lol.

The housewife role is still here and will be for a long time. I know multiple guys whose wives don’t work, although some are voluntary, and some aren’t.

Hey, someone’s gotta do the dishes ;¬}
Only kidding, although there is a pressing need for the ironing to be done XD

I was a stay-at-home mom, and I knew (and I guess still know) a bunch of them. There are certainly fewer than there were in the Fifties, but they’re certainly not extinct. Maybe some are not so forthcoming about it as lots and lots of folks are critical of and say rude stuff to so many of us.

My wife is a stay-at-home mom…but she would KMA if I applied the Ozzie and Harriet definition of housewife to her. :)

If I were married to my house it would divorce me. I really don’t treat it that well.

They are abundant in my country. Most women, even the educated ones realize that when they got their kids they will have to ended up as a housewife, cooking-cleaning-and ‘pleasing’ your hubby. Believe it or not, some parents still think that it isn’t worth to educate your daughters as they will eventually ended up as a housewife doing things that won’t require conventional education. No wonder most women are less dominant.

@Your_Majesty Darn, that’s sad. Do some of the women want to get education, though? What if some women want to get an education and work? Are they allowed?

@Blackberry Only if their parents are finally ‘bright’ enough to realize their daughters’ potentials. Some women want to get education, the others (usually from poor parents, probably have also been manipulated by their parents) don’t want education at all. Even when I said some women want to have education many of my educated friends admit that education isn’t really that important for their future, they could also rely on their ability to find rich husbands to sustain themselves.

Its a lot less common than it was sure, but no its not extinct. Nor for that matter do I think it will ever be extinct. Some people (regardless of sex) will always prefer or for some reason be forced to stay at home and care for the home.

I know many women that stay at home (with and without kids). I did it for a bit while my husband was deployed. Now my husband stays home with our kids (aside from his NG drill weekends) while I work full time. :)

Not extinct. There are quite a few moms here where I live in America who stay home with their children. I don’t have kids, but have not worked in two years, and so I am basically a housewife. I do all the cleaning, run errands for my husband and the household in general, make his lunch every day for him to take to work, etc. When I worked we divvied up the household chores.

I haven’t read any recent statistics on this, but I don’t think that the numbers are rapidly declining. It’s just that economic, political, and social conditions have changed over past decades so that many families require more than one breadwinner, and of the women who don’t need to do paid work, many desire and are able to.

I’m not sure, but I think I only know one or two women who don’t do paid work even though they’re able to. None of them have young children to look after.

For most of our married life, my wife has been a housewife and proud of it. I have always been the breadwinner in our family. Earlier in our marriage, my wife and I decided that she would stay at home and raise our children, while I supplied the money. Why? We wanted our children to have someone to answer to, after school and other events. This arrangement has worked great for us. Fortunately, my wife is a Cancer…...a home body and loves our paid-for home.

My wife did work for a while, in our early marriage. She is now a retired nurse.

Yes, there are still plenty of housewives and househubbies out there.

I’m keeping the species alive. My husband and I feel it is our responsibility to care for our children. One of us is going to be home to do so. We aren’t going to pay someone else to do it for us when we are quite capable of taking care of our own children. We struggle financially, but the little extra money I would be bringing in if I worked outside of the home just isn’t worth it. We don’t have family or friends who can care for our children during vacations or holidays. We don’t have family or friends to take our children to after-school activities or doctor and dentist appointments.

jonsblond, you guys sound like us. We made this decision years ago. It will only work if a couple is dedicated to each other. But, we already know this, right? It takes both parents to work as a team. I don’t believe a single parent could do what we have done. There are not enough hours in a day for them.

Um, just stepping in here to disagree with you @john65pennington , as a single parent.

I live in a fairly well off town, with many families not needing the mother to work outside the home. Many of my kids’ classmates have moms that are “housewives” that spent a day or two a week helping in the classrooms; it’s one of the reasons the schools here are so good.

It seems that among families with money (say, if the husband works on Wall Street or whatever) there are stay at home moms, although they are not usually home cooking and cleaning. They’re “Very Busy” attending meetings at the school, driving little Johny to and fro, and getting hair and nails done. They have nannies to help and cleaning people to clean, although they may still do the cooking themselves.

When our children were much younger my wife did the whole stay at home mom thing. Yes, it put a strain on our budget as well as her general mental state. However, I believe it was the right decision on many levels (none of which have anything to do with outdated ideas of gender roles or any macho need on my part to be the sole breadwinner in order to satisfy my ideas of what it means to be a man).

Frankly, I wish there were more stay at home moms and traditional two parent families, for it is my opinion that this arrangement has the most potential for success in producing well adjusted children. (And, before any of you single parent folks go off on a tangent, this is not to say that the non-traditional family cannot be quite successful. In fact I have known many single folks and same sex partners who are dong a great job of raising their kids.)

P.S. @jonsblond – Y’all rock!!!!

I wish I could be a housewife…. I sincerely do.

I’m a recent stay-at-home mom after working for 15 years. Wish I’ve done it sooner!

@YoBob When I grew up in the city all the moms were stay at home moms. Nobody had 2 cars didn’t need them. We took the bus where we needed to go. In 8th grade we moved to the suburbs and of all my friends, my mom was the only mom I knew who was a stay at home mom. All the families had new cars and often more than one. It was a whole new world to me.

jillthetooth, I congratulate you. It has to be a double tough job to do what you have done or are doing. I cannot see how a single parent manages to work, keep house, and maybe work a 2nd job. That would drive me insane. Way to go!

@Cruiser – Just curious about the time frames involved. The brand of feminism prevalent in the 1970’s tended to equate “housewife” with “downtrodden woman”. I am wondering if those working suburban moms were doing so in order to support that second car, or as a means of asserting their independence.

As for the single parent thing, @JilltheTooth is proof that it can be done and her confident and articulate daughter shows that it was done well. However, I believe her to be the exception to the rule. I think that what @john65pennington was trying to say is that for the majority of single parents there are simply not enough hours in the day to work a full time job (and perhaps a part time one to make ends meet) and still have the time to take care of the domestic side of the equation and leave any time at all left over to devote to just being with the kids. For reasons of sheer bandwidth, I believe for most parents it does take a team. Further, bandwidth issues aside, I believe it important for children to have good role models of both genders. Of course a positive role model does not have to come in the form of a parent, but one of the perks of the traditional nuclear family is that those role models are built into the basic framework.

I was indeed very fortunate in not having to work while raising my daughter. It was still hard, parenting is hard, no matter how you work it. I wouldn’t change anything about my experience, but I have a very different set of tips for women considering the Single Mother By Choice thing now, than I did when I was pregnant.

@YoBob late 60’s with the suburb move 1974 and it was more than clear to me mom’s worked to support their demanding lifestyles and extra car they needed to get to their jobs. Come to think of it we never had a new car as they were all bought used and I was the first to get one when I started my own business out of college.

I wouldn’t say it’s extinct, it’s just not the only role most people think women are capable of now, and not a role available only to women.
I know both men and women who stay home and look after the house and/or kids while their husband or wife works.

I’m a SAHHSM Stay At Home HomeSchooling Mom. We are not a dying breed. The media portrays us as lesser, though.

Unlike the days of yesteryear, it is a conscious decision to stay home, rear the young, and maintain a homefront now. Though I must say, I come from a family where my grandmas worked…so even within my own family, my choice is looked down upon

@SpatzieLover I know the feeling. My mom was a SAHM. My father’s mom worked as a teacher when she raised my dad, and my grandmother always had some type of hurtful or disrespectful comment to say about my mother and me and our choice to stay home. It hurts when you can’t even get respect from some of your own family members.

@YoBob Thank you. =)

@jonsblond My mom & sis thought I was there personal slave when they realized I really was going to stay home. They kept having me do a multitude of crap for them. Both have since realized I have enough of my own sh!t to do without them adding to my day. Neither respect my decision, however both “brag” to friends/staff etc that I homeschool…WTF?!

Fact from fiction, truth from diction. The homemaker is going by way of the T-Rex, but never totally, like flies there will always be a few women who will realize how important the job is and the desire not to short change their children. As time goes on, homemaking will be more committeemaking The home will be ran more like the a business. Meetings times around jobs will be planned, consensus made, deals hatched out. Seeing women will have no or too little times to be mothers in other than name or title only, the kids will be babysat in all sorts of activities, like karate, ballet, gymnastics, etc.

I remember back in the 70s or early 80s when the crop of latchkey kids were on the rise people were saying that could not be a good thing. Now it seem to be fairly standard. Has it helped? With the criminal acts minors do today as oppose to minors the same age back then, I wonder.

IMO women who are in the home caring for the children are doing more than any CEO. The thought of leaving something as important as child raising to nannies and mannies to me is unfathomable. I believe that the kids should be raised by their mom and dad. I don’t care what or how people think, but I believe the men make the homes and the women but the warmth in it.

No. You should visit some developing countries there are a lot of house wives there. I mean in Saudi Arabia the women aren’t even allowed to come out of their homes without a male relative. Most of the of the countries in Asia have a male dominated work force.

I was a stay-at-home mom for 14 years, but never considered myself a ‘housewife’. My house didn’t, either. I’m a good mom, but a terrible housekeeper.

I don’t think stay-at-home parents will ever be extinct. It’s just that it’s a choice, now, rather than the only choice.