We begin with a quiz.<\/p>\n
Section the First:<\/p>\n
Which item in each pair is better for the environment:<\/p>\n
(A) drying clothes in the dryer or hanging them on a clothesline?
\n(B) using processed foods or growing your own food?
\n(C) using disposable diapers or using cloth diapers?<\/p>\n
Section the Second:<\/p>\n
Which item in each pair is more work for mother:<\/p>\n
(A) drying clothes in the dryer or hanging them on a clothesline?
\n(B) using processed foods or growing your own food?
\n(C) using disposable diapers or using cloth diapers?<\/p>\n
I’m all for making choices that reflect a better stewardship of our earth’s limited resources. I am vaguely disturbed by the flood of hints, tips, and ideas for minimizing one’s impact that never take into account the simple fact that adopting them means more housework. There is a serious conflict between environmentalism and feminism, and no one says much about it. It is reminiscent of the stereotypical 50s jerkhusband who never thinks to notice (let alone thank his wife for) the vacuumed rug or the perfect roast when we advocate measures for saving the earth without thinking about how they don’t save mothers time.<\/p>\n
Perhaps you object (I hope you object!) to me casting this as more work for “mother.” Shouldn’t father do his fair share? Yes, of course. But I’m already working my husband to death–if I expected him to, say, hang out the laundry after dinner, he would no longer be able to bathe the rugrats as he normally would during that time. Even in that mythic 50-50 household, all of these environmentally correct options would require more work for mother: if my husband did half of the gardening and canning, my half would still be far more work than opening a jar of Ragu. <\/p>\n
Not every pro-good-stewardship decision makes extra work: certainly the less stuff you buy, the less stuff mother has to organize, maintain, and clean. Washing the towels every other day instead of every day means less housework. You get the idea. <\/p>\n
But particularly when it comes to food, the decision to transition from Lays Potato Chips to homemade chips made from potatoes you grew yourself represents a decision to go from chips that cost mother mere minutes (purchasing bag, opening bag) to countless hours (gardening, washing, cooking, cleaning up after cooking). <\/p>\n
I know, I know: involve your children in the work and view it as quality family time. Yes, there can certainly be that element. But the vision of mother hanging crisp white linens in the sun while her brood plays in the fresh air frays a bit at the edges when she has to dislodge dead bugs from the baby’s mouth and her preschooler drops the kitchen towels in the grass and then she has to change their muddy clothes when they go in. (What? More<\/em> laundry?)<\/p>\n It isn’t my goal to discourage movement in the direction of conservation. (And I’m sure homemade potato chips would be wicked good.) I’m just tired of people pretending that there is no cost attached and forgetting that that cost is borne disproportionately by women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We begin with a quiz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nature-and-environment"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4781"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6161,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4781\/revisions\/6161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}