Domestic Chores

For centuries domestic work has been women’s domain. Practically all housework has been always done by women. Women cooked, peeled vegetables and cut meat to make dinner. Women had to stand for hours near the stove stirring the contents of the pans. Men came home, and ate all the food, leaving piles of dirty dishes.

After a good meal women had to clear away the table and wash up. Washing-up is, actually, one of the most hateful domestic chores. Scraping the scraps of solid food from the dishes and then monotonously rubbing them with a soapy sponge will bore anyone. Plates can be put on a dish-drainer, but glassware and crockery should be dried with a tea towel. Otherwise there remain spots on them. Time to waste.

To do something with this evil in the course of time men invented food-processors, microwave ovens, and dishwashing machines. Of course, they are nice things, especially the last two. Food-processors are not bad either, but if a woman doesn’t need big amounts of cut vegetables or freshly squeezed juice, a food-processor doesn’t save time at all. It takes too much time first to adjust it and then to wash it

Women have forever washed piles of linen. Hand washing left them exhausted and ruined their hands, because they had to pour out hot water into the basin and wash, then rinse the laundry in cold water, sometimes bleach it and finally wring the water out. Delicate hands couldn’t stand the procedure. Men invented automatic washing machines. This is a real labour-saving device unless you use the wrong de'tergent and it gets broken. And anyway, it can spin-dry the laundry, but it can’t hang it out and iron ['aIqn] it. Women iron the linen on ironing-boards as they always have done.

Women have always tidied up the house, its cleanliness being a law. They swept up the dirt, watered the pot-plants, and washed the floors, dirty with foot-marks because little children forgot to wipe their feet. They dusted the furniture and put things in their places. Floor-mops and wet cloths in their turn ruined their delicate hands. Lifting heavy pails and shifting the furniture gave them backaches. Men invented vacuum-cleaners. These can only vacuum, but can’t do a thorough cleaning.

Men try somehow to help women. Drilling walls, driving in nails, and doing all kinds of repairs are specifically men’s duties. And still neither electrical appliances, nor men’s help can substitute for women’s hands. Without a housewife a home becomes for'lorn. A story told once by one efficient housewife is quite remarkable in this way.

She went on a business trip for a month and her husband had to run the house himself. On her return she saw her house in a mess: all the things were scattered around, the fitted carpet was stained and there was a thick layer of dust on the shelves. The kitchen was the worst: dirty dishes in a filthy sink, potato peelings and banana skins on the kitchen table, the kitchen floor smeared with some sticky stuff in one corner and littered with some scraps in the other, and a dust-bin full of rubbish. Her husband, happy that the wife had come back, said proudly, “I have cleaned everything. Have you noticed?”

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14