Housewife: why women still do it all and what to do instead - lisa selin davis

The Rules of Womanhood, the Lies Were Told, and the Choices We Have The notion of housewife evokes strong reactions.

For some, its nostalgia for a bygone era, simpler and better times when men were breadwinners and women remained home with the kids.

For others, its a sexist, oppressive stereotype of womens work.

Either way, housewife is a long outdated concept--or is it? Lisa Selin Davis, known for her smart, viral, feminist, cultural takes, argues that the breadwinner vs.

homemaker divide is a myth.

She charts examples from prehistoric female hunters to working class housewives in the 1930s, from First Ladies to 21st century stay-at-home moms, on a search for answers to the problems of what is referred to as womens work and motherhood.

Davis discovers that women have been sold a lie about what families should be.

Housewife unveils a truth: interdependence, rather than independence, is the American way.

The book is a clarion call for all women--married or single, mothers or childless--and for men, too, to push for liberation.

In Housewife , Davis builds a case for systemic, cultural, and personal change, to encourage women to have the power to choose the best path for themselves.