Why would feminist icon Gloria Steinem call housewives "parasites"?

Question

“[Housewives] are dependent creatures who are still children…parasites.” ~ Gloria Steinem, “What It Would Be Like If Women Win,” Time, August 31, 1970.

Do feminists really have such a low regard for the invaluable contribution of previous generations of women?

Other interesting feminist quotes about housewives:

“A parasite sucking out the living strength of another organism…the [housewife's] labor does not even tend toward the creation of anything durable…. [W]oman’s work within the home [is] not directly useful to society, produces nothing. [The housewife] is subordinate, secondary, parasitic. It is for their common welfare that the situation must be altered by prohibiting marriage as a ‘career’ for woman.” ~ Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1949.

“[The] housewife is a nobody, and [housework] is a dead-end job. It may actually have a deteriorating effect on her mind…rendering her incapable of prolonged concentration on any single task. [She] comes to seem dumb as well as dull. [B]eing a housewife makes women sick.” ~ Sociologist Jessie Bernard in The Future of Marriage, 1982.

"The chief thing is to get women to take part in socially productive labor, to liberate them from ‘domestic slavery,’ to free them from their stupefying and humiliating subjugation to the eternal drudgery of the kitchen and the nursery. This struggle will be a long one, and it demands a radical reconstruction, both of social technique and of morale. But it will end in the complete triumph of Communism.” ~ V.I. Lenin, International Working Women’s Day Speech , 1920.

“Women owe Frieden an incalculable debt for The Feminine Mystique…. Domesticity was not a satisfactory story of an intelligent woman’s life.” ~ Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Feminism Is Not the Story of My Life, 1996.

“Being a housewife is an illegitimate profession… The choice to serve and be protected and plan towards being a family-maker is a choice that shouldn’t be. The heart of radical feminism is to change that.” ~ Vivian Gornick, University of Illinois, “The Daily Illini,” April 25, 1981.

“[As long as the woman] is the primary caretaker of childhood, she is prevented from being a free human being.” ~ Kate Millett, Sexual Politics, 1969.

Answer 1

The housewife has direct influence over the children she raises and can thus effect society. Having a mother home to care for the well being of children, both physically and emotionally, is not a useless objective in life. This quote says it best:



“You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation.”

― Brigham Young



The fem's are ungrateful and disrespectful to millions of women all over the world but will claim at a moments notice to represent all of our interest. That is pretty two-faced but I guess I should not expect so much from them anyway.

Answer 2

"Parasite" is a very strong term. But if you read the gist of a lot of your quotes these women are making a couple of points. 1. A housewife and a husband have a parasitic relationship, which means, in this context, that she leaches off of him, and his energies. He gets the poor end of that deal, financially. But the problem with this relationship, is that the parasite does not change, grow or mature as a person, but continues to owe its mere survival to its host, therefore, enlarging as a parasite. The host also does not gain anything by having a parasite. The parasite sucks the life out of the host. In essence, domesticity is destructive to both men and women, according to this philosophy. If anything, men should appreciate this point of view. Bear in mind that the year is 1970. She is blowing the whistle on a particular type of traditional arrangement. 2. Housewife jobs and women's work can be unfulfilling. In reference to being an 'illegitimate profession' Gornick is saying that this work is not respected, and leaves the woman with little to show for her time. My spin: if anything, men should be relieved by this kind of thinking. Basically, people were having complaints about the housewifely arrangement. The man was responsible for feeding, clothing, housing and providing medical care for a grown woman. But this woman was not encouraged to cultivate her mind, or any actual interests or job skills. So at its worst, the man would come home and be bored to tears with his wife's company. So it sucked for both. The communists which you brought up by quoting Lenin did not like the culture of domesticity, because of its largely bourgeois aspects. This woman's sphere of hearth and home is actually a relatively modern phenomenon. Before, men and women suffered equally in the farm and fields. Lenin's cult of misery also was a sucky alternative. Also, like Grappler pointed out, these feminists have even moved away from this type of thinking.

Answer 3

Your sources are so old as to be laughable in most cases. Surely, few people feel today as they may have felt in decades past. Very few people view the world today as they did in 1969. You would make a better argument if you used current sources.



Besides that, some people, even those within a particular movement, will believe something that may or may not be shared by others within the same movement. Take politics, for example, there are people who refer to themselves as conservatives. Some of those people believe in small government, fiscally conservative policies. There are others, who also refer to themselves as conservatives, who are much more greatly concerned with abortion, social welfare issues, and other similar things. Feminism is no different. There are feminists who believe a woman should have the freedom to do whatever she wants-even if that means she wants to stay home and be a homemaker. There are others who believe, just as sincerely, that it means a real woman must be out in the world, earning her own way. The great thing about people is, we're all different. Being different doesn't mean its wrong...



I believe that being a woman should have no bearing on how I am treated in a work environment or in regards to investments, home purchases, etc. While I do not accept that being a homemaker is parasitic, I would never want the life for myself. I believe I should have the right to choose what is right for myself, and not be shoved into some role simply because of my gender.

Answer 4

Staying home for a few years with a young or child or two is fine. But, expecting workers to pay Social Security Old Age Benefits and Medicare-Part A for a fully-abled spouse who hasn't, herself or himself, contributed to these programs for 40-45 years discriminates against workers. (The working spouse does not contribute extra money to these programs to cover this insurance for the unemployed person.)



This nonsense began nearly 80 years ago for Social Security, and 48 years ago for Medicare-Part A. It needs to be phased out. Why should younger workers be forced to work longer and longer in order to support people who have chosen to be unemployed? Long term housespouses are the only members of a protected group.

Answer 5

You are quoting a radical feminist view from over 40 yrs ago....she has changed as other radicals have...then you throw a bunch of quotes that are even older from radicals...feminists who have been moderate and take a more humanist approach have never endorsed this thinking...don't put all feminists in one camp...The Malcolm X that emerged on the national political landscape was not the one that was assassinated while attempting to deliver a speech on his changing views...and thus feminism has evolved..omg you have Lenin from the 20s and Beauvier from the 40s...it has changed and the world must acknowledge the change

Answer 6

Gloria Steinem is a feminist.

She is no bigot.



A relative works at a chauvinist male business.

Most all of them have wives, who stay at home (housewives).

These women never worked, but when spouse and wife come of age, the wife will receive social security, even though they never paid a dime into the system.

These men say their wives 'deserve' it, since they stayed at home to raise the children etc.

Now they are telling this to women, who not only raised their children, but also worked, contributed to their household income, and society.

Why donit the working women receive double payment?



My wife and I both work (always have), and when we receive Social Security, our combined checks will be about the same as those men with wives who never worked.



Sounds like parasites to me.

What did they do that my wife did not do, except not work.

Our three fine children will tell you they had a great mother, and following in her footsteps, our daughters are employed.



I deal with a very large population of housewives who do not work.

Many of them report no man in the home, no earnings, no source of income - except of course WELFARE.



Isn't that wonderful.

If a 'stay at home mom', a 'housewife', is such a boon to society, that it would seem we should be thankful they decide to not work, and feed at the public trough of welfare.



How can it be that if a woman has a man, she is productive if she stays home, but if a woman has no man and stays home, she is not productive??

I do not see how you can have it both ways.



You think these welfare mommies that stay at home and do not work are great for society?

Hogwash.



Now they have a live in man, and suddenly they are productive.

Hogwash.

Answer 7

Housewifery is considered a patriachial norm by feminists.

And feminists are very much supportive of the career oriented woman as the ideal of what a woman should be.

And any woman who is still dependant financially on a man is to be rebuked.



What they don't get is that parasites offer nothing to their hosts, they only take. So house wives cannot be considered parasites since they over alot to the house at large, are also good caretakers and homemakers.

So when it comes to homemaking and nurture of children, housewives do a job far greater than any feminist can comprehend.

Answer 8

I think much of it relates to the wage gap. Feminists want entitlements in pay. Their entire argument that the pay gap must be due to discrimination is based on the idea that women are both as capable and desire to do the same work (employment) as males.



They can't support both the idea of a woman choosing to be a stay at home wife/mom and at the same time argue women should be earning as much as men. Those are inconsistent arguments so many feminists have taken the extreme.



I think some feminists also just dislike men so much that they want all women to just stay away from men, which of course means being independent and employed full time.



~

Answer 9

It is obvious that some feminists tear down the housewife lifestyle - that has been known for many years. They don't think it is respectable work, although I've got to disagree. A woman who enjoys being at home and works hard for her family is a beautiful and respectable thing.



I'm not sure why people keep digging up quotes from 40+ years ago, however. Our ideas are changing and women are starting to be respected for working outside and inside of the home. People are focusing on our personal choices less and less. It is nice =^-^=!

Answer 10

That's a really good question, looking forward to reading the answers

Answer 11

They were revving us women up to join the work force. Yet, we choose our own paths; only with feminism we we are free to choose our own paths as long as it agrees with their thinking.

The truth is, only very miserable people could have said such things.

Answer 12

Because feminists are parasites themselves. Feminist talk about how thy are better than men yet get most of their fundings from men. If you're better than men, then prove it, stop leeching off of men and then go around and say you're better than men. I think mothers are an important roles to society. It takes two to tangle. The only reason feminism will end is to stop the fundings because apparently most of our tax dollars go to these people who want to destroy men and women who don't fit but into their dogma.

Answer 13

This is a good question

Answer 14

had to dig way back for this, didn't you? and detach the remark from any context, as well.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4150zI3abw

Answer 15

i am for gender equality too but you have to realise that feminists like this absolutely hate men probobly becouse they were abused or raped by their father.

Answer 16

I don't necessarily agree with her, but it's obvious why. They are totally dependent on their partners for food, housing, disposable income etc. like, as she says, children.

Answer 17

This pretty much exposes feminism for its hypocrisy.



While it officially tells that they are in favor for women to do "what they want" as opposed to strict "gender roles", in practice it supports women do "what they want" as long as feminism are the ones telling women "what they really want".



It reminds me Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the machine" lyrics:

"What did you dream?

It's alright we told you what to dream."

Answer 18

Ok, ok, that lady has far exceeded her expiration date.