Re: 1900 House

[bon moun <sherrynstan@xxxxxxx>]

>While technology doesn't directly help women counter sexism and solve
>the unequal division of labor, it doesn't "make more work" either.
>As you note in another post:
>
>It is the combination of sexism, a rise in standards of cleanliness,
>and continued privatization of household work that has not allowed us
>to make use of available technological advances in a way that really
>benefits women.

JUst a few questions.  Using the marxist lens, shouldn't we be factoring in
changes in the instruments and relations of production that have begun
moving women back into the sphere of social production, then trying to
determine how corresponding changes in the consciousness of women--which
certainly accounts at some level for when and where and how the movement
called feminism took shape and gained momentum?  Much of the continuation
of women's status at home as the domestic servant, while still too common
in US society, is under seige and slowly but steadily losing ground (a good
thing).  My mother and my partner's mother still not only accept by protect
this role.  My sister and my partner (in thier 40's) consciously reject it,
but still find themselves having to deal with internalized oppression from
time to time.  My daughters have grown up with a clear understanding that
this is intolerable, and take it for granted that they will not behave as
domestic servants.

In our house, domestic chores have been divided, but the division of labor
is flexible to accommodate frequent changes in schedules.  Having spent the
last decade and a half (more) in pretty small places with three very active
kids, we have evolved a pretty high standard of maintenance to prevent
entropy from taking over.  Technology has been incorporated--for better or
worse--out of necessity.  Laundry, for instance, is a process that goes on
almost perpetually.  Without the washer/dryer, we eouldn't have time for
anything else, but this is all part of a larger picture, obviously.
Anyway, these are just some observations, because I am interested in where
this discussion might take us.

Now the contrast.

I think of Haiti.  Again, observations, not conclusions.  Men are hired for
most of the heavy labor, but it is sketchily available, and the entire work
force functions as a migrant labor pool.  Women are tied to the caille
paille to cultivate while the man is in PauP or some other place doing wage
labor or seeking it, to watch the kids, usually with at least one still
nursing, and their whole life is tied to water.  Women are hauling water
almost throughout the day, lots of it, heavy as hell, long distances in
some cases, to wash, bathe, cook, etc.  Laundry, however, has a special
character.  It is an extremely social activity, where many women will
congregate, and where the lion's share of information is exchanged.  The
other interesting thing about Haitian women is their emotional
independence.  The are not deferential.  They are very assertive, will
become combative in a heartbeat if they sense a slight, and will pick at
strangers they like in a very familiar, runnin-the-duzzins kind of way.


There is little doubt that what distinguishes Haitian culture now, and the
roles and experiences of women as well, is closely tied to
macro-considerations--like the decline of semi-feudal agriculture, the
proletarianization of larger and larger sectors, urbanization--which has
men on the move, and women now alone much of the time on a hectare of land
that still belongs to the local macoute.

It's a transitional stage.  And it seems there is always a transition of
sorts, here too.  So I have to wonder if there is a way to situate that
status of women her and now in some kind of continuum, using the historical
materialist method to identify the direction of that continuum into the future.
"If insurrection is an art, its main content is to know how to give the
struggle the form appropriate to the political situation."

			-Vo Nguyen Giap



"Rather than seeking comparabilities in statistical terms among what are
all too often superficial features of different situations, comparabilities
must be sought at the level of determinate mechanisms, at the level of
processes that are generally hidden from easy view."

			-Eleanor Burke Leacock



"Every day one has to struggle that this love to a living humanity
transform itself into concrete acts, in acts that serve as examples, as
motivation."

			-Ernesto "Che" Guevara