1. On average, each housewife spends 90 hours a week on housework. If you received at least 100 rubles for every hour, your salary would be 36,000 rubles per month.
2. In medieval Europe, housewives did not have the right to divorce their husbands and receive something as property. Wealthy housewives hired wet nurses to look after their children. However, poor housewives not only cared for their children on their own, but were also required to work day after day both in the house and on the land. Many women from poor families did not even live to be 40 years old.
3. In ancient Greece, the husband's family did not accept the girl and did not consider her the owner until the child was conceived.
4. In 1963, Betty Friedman published a book in which she told women that being a housewife and devoting herself to family was the worst thing that could happen to a modern woman. Her advice to “find yourself” was followed by many women (at least upper middle class, white housewives).
5. Sigmund Freud believed that women were destined to be housewives. He noted that if a woman has a desire to start a career, it means she is neurotic and suffers from envy of penis owners.
6. The introduction of electric cars, vacuum cleaners and other household appliances raised the minimum standard of cleanliness. Housewives who previously cleaned their carpets seasonally are now able to keep their homes constantly clean.
7. Previously, in order to save money, housewives had to go to several stores - a butcher, a grocery store, a baker, a milkman, etc. This task became much easier after the advent of supermarkets and department stores.
8. In the 30-60s, the image of a housewife was highly idealized. In photographs and drawings, such women always appeared clean, well dressed and with styled hair. In fact, it is very doubtful that ordinary ordinary women could not only have time to clean the house, entertain the children and cook food, but also put themselves in order every day before their husbands arrived.
9. Housewives before 1960 boiled their laundry for hours before washing it. Before the advent of running water, women had to carry their own water for washing, cooking, etc.
10. The word "housewife" dates back to the 13th century.
11. In 2005, the Institute for Social and Economic Research found that married men earn more than single men, but only if their wife stays at home and does all the housework. The more a woman worked outside the home, the worse the physical and psychological condition of the head of the family became.
12. According to a 2013 study, the majority of British women over 20 who are employed or in relationships want to become housewives. 78% of women admitted that they would not mind leaving work and being dependent on their partner.
13. In the early 20th century, the term "housewife" was only applicable to a married woman who stayed at home.
14. Women react differently to the word “housewife”. For some, it means devotion to their husband, for others everything shifts towards children and looking after them, some believe that housewives are stupid women who have not been able to realize themselves in life, etc.
15. In Norway, the Housewives Association changed its name to the Women and Family Association after its membership dropped from 60,000 to 5,000. It turned out that women were uncomfortable admitting which association they belonged to, as it sounded awkward and implied that their lives were boring and routine.
16. A recent US study found that the majority of young people (80% of women and 70% of men) from all walks of life want an equal marriage in which both partners manage the household and raise children. However, when men were surveyed separately from women, more than 70% of men admitted that they would like their wives to be housewives. Most women said they would rather file for divorce than become housewives.
17. The TV show "Desperate Housewives" tried to create interest in housewives, since their work was greatly devalued by women (during the rise of the feminist movement).
18. Over the past 15 years, the number of housewives has been growing steadily.
19. A 2005 survey found that out of 4,000 teenage girls surveyed, only 6% planned to quit their jobs and devote themselves to family as soon as their first child was born. 86% of girls plan to take a break to have children and then return to work.
20. A 2012 study found that the most powerful positions at work are held by men with stay-at-home wives.
21. Research conducted in 2012 showed that a man who had a working mother does not necessarily have to be tolerant of all working women.
22. It seems incredible, but in America there are still no maternity benefits. Eleanor Roosevelt proposed the payments decades ago, but her proposals are largely ignored to this day.
23. Some feminist historians have noted that the women's movement made a grave mistake by devaluing the work of housewives.
24. Marketing researchers have found that housewives need to experience internal authority. Therefore, large corporations offer their products in such a way that a woman can feel like an expert, and not just a worker doing all the menial work.
25. Advice given to women in the 1960s was that a woman should always meet her breadwinner at the front door, let him speak first because “his topics of conversation are more important than yours” and “remember, he is the man of the house.”