“In this society, woman’s ‘greatest’ role is still defined…”

In this society, woman’s ‘greatest’ role is still defined as that of housewife and mother, in spite of all the liberal rhetoric about womens liberation. Housework is seen as woman's ‘vocation’ and her education is largely based on psychologically preparing her for this. The media take it for granted that this is her main interest and advertising is geared around the assumption that most women are scared sick of being caught with grey washing, unpolished floors or inedible meals.

This isn’t surprising as women are taught to calculate their worth in terms of their ability to cope with this role, rather than their intelligence, strength or creativity. What they are relating to, however-isn’t something objectively great, it is really boring routine drudgery, self-perpetuating and with no obvious end product or importance in the world. Out of this contradiction comes the vicious circle situation for women: — their role as housewife is unfulfilling, boring and carries little weight — but making a home is their greatest glory, and they are inadequate if they don’t want to.

The question arises why? If we don’t accept the view that this happens because men are basically ill-intentioned, why is it so essential for society to maintain women in the housewife role. The answer springs from the needs of the capitalist system itself.

At the heart of the capitalist system of production lies the phenomenon of labour power. What this means is a person’s ability to work, exactly what the working class, since the industrial revolution, has had to ensure they don’t starve. The capitalist buys this through wages. But the price he pays is not its intrinsic worth i.e. the equivalent price of the number of goods or services the labourer produces in the working day, but what it costs to keep that labourer alive and content enough to turn up for work in the morning. Naturally commodities made at this point are vulnerable to the capitalist and increase his profits.

Housework and “Family Life’’

Here the family comes in. The housewife in the family daily cares for the needs of both this and the next generation of workers. She sews, cooks, cleans, manages the family money, but the tasks she performs are unpaid. The wages earned by the worker(s) in the family, pay to keep her but do not give her any separate income in relation to the work she does, and yet it would cost an average | do not think that there can be any solution which does not include immediate British withdrawal — as immediate as immediate can be. The Irish people must have the right to self-determination, which can only come about through a united Ireland. —John Lee, M.P.

“We, the undersigned, consider it essentialetnat the Labour Movement takes up the question of the British presence in Ireland. And, in view of the of £3—£4,000 a year to employ people to carry out the same functions, at current rates. She is reproducing the labour power of the workers in her family for the employer, at no more than a marginal cost to him.

A wage for or end to housework Some feminists have realised this situation, and have raised the demand ‘wages for housework’ notably Selma James in England, and it is a temptation at this point to rush in with her solution. This demand seems ideal, it cuts through the capitalists attempt to up profits, it gives women independant financial means and status, it recognises that housework is work and should be recompensed. But however, it is no solution. It still leaves women very much as the servant isolated in the home performing endless menial tasks. Even if employers were prepared to pay wages to housewives, the tates would be low, as it would be almost impossible to organise women working in isolated units and give them any bargaining power. Also the burden of carrying out the tasks involved in reproducing labour power in the home, whether unpaid or paid is still extremely repressive. It means a 12 hour day, or often as long as she is up and awake. This is true in spite of socalled labour saving devices, more connected to the needs of the market than the needs of the housewife.

The demand ‘wages for housework’ also takes no account of the other role the family plays in capitalist society and its relation to the general oppression of women. The family is the prime educator in bourgeois values, it creates small units isolating woman from woman, worker from worker and it acts-as a break on militancy, both ‘industrial and revolutionary. The family burdens all concerned, with individual responsibilities and material reasons for towing the line. There is no point in tackling housework, without viewing theewhole reactionary role the family plays in capitalist society.

It is far better to pose the problem of reproduction of labour and the repressive character of housework, in terms of taking the question outside the home. Socialising the domestic functions of the family. Instead of cleaning, washing, cooking being done in each individual unit, it could be done communally by state concerns e.g. state laundries. Housing could be planned so that maintenance etc. could be handled on a larger scale, serviced by people of either sex, paid good rates, thus releasing women from the responsibility.

The only way out of the vicious circle round housework for women, can be by taking the burden off the housewives shoulders, and putting it in the hands of the state and communities concerned.

MAEVE DOLAN fact that the British presence denies the right of the Irish people as a whole to self-determination, we support the call by the British Peace Committee and the Troops Out Movement for a demonstration calling for the ‘immediate implementation of a policy of political and military withdrawal from How to strike a blow Recent developments both in Ireland and abroad have indicated a slow change in the situation. Examples like Cowley woke up many trade unionists to something which both Womens Liberationists and Marxists have been saying fot years i.e. that the lack of organisation of womén eithér in the system of production or in close relation to it, isa very serious weakness in th® working class which would become only too apparent in times of crisis. The emergence of consumer co-operatives and consumer protection groups in Ballymun, Dolphin’s Barn and Ballyfermot show an increasing awareness especially among housewives of the need to-fight price inflation at a local level. These represent a definite step forward, more especially because they serve to break the isolation of working class housewives from each other. No longer isolated consufhers they become a force to be reckoned with. In Ballymun the Consumer’s Protection Group has campaigned against local supermarkets and-is now to open its own ¢o-operative in which will provide a direct market between farmer atid consumer. This trend will continue in working class areas as families are increasingly hit by rising prices.

It is important that revolutionaries intervene in this situation with their ideas. Last June in Plough No. 8 we stressed the need to set up genuine Price Control Committees comprising of “trade union representatives, tenant associations, flat dwellers associations, housewives and where practicable, small farmers, The function of these committees would not simply be “to watch prices”’ but to act to prevent them from rising”’. The, operation of such committees in themselves cannot put a halt t6 rising prices. One 6f the main reasons for such rises is the urge of bosses to maintain and expand profits by pushing up prices thereby eroding the results of workers just wage demands. Thus a vigorous control over profits is ' needed. But the most efficient means of protecting © one’s standard of living is by means of a sliding * scale of wages whereby within a definite limited period all price rises would be compensated by ‘i proportional amounts of wage increases. It is up to’ militants to intervene in local consumer groups to make sure that not only is the local supermarket challenged but that the whole system of imposing cuts in peoples’ standard of living is both understood and opposed.

Meanwhile e Meanwhile the participation of housewives, in protest against rising prices, and their search for solutions such as the women in Ballymun, is a significant development. It is an indication that the time is ripe for a direct liaison of trade unionists and housewives in their fight against inflation and all its results. :

The British Army is in Ireland to support a