Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell's Invisible Life

Domestic labor is a general term used to define all the work that is necessary to maintain a household. This work can be done by the people living in the home, or it can be outsourced to employees. Housekeepers, nannies, landscapers, gardeners, housecleaners, and personal shoppers are all examples of paid professions dedicated to performing different aspects of domestic labor. However, many families cannot afford to hire out this work, so the labor falls to the members of the household themselves. In patriarchal societies, women have been largely responsible for cleaning, cooking, childcare, managing appointments, grocery shopping, and general household maintenance, while men have focused on working outside of the home to provide an income. While the work done to maintain income is societally recognized and monetarily rewarded, traditionally “women’s work” in the home has been greatly devalued. In recent years, with large numbers of women joining the workforce, many families have two working parents and an unequal distribution of household labor. Women largely take on the invisible labor of keeping the house clean, maintaining adequate food supplies, and arranging playdates, doctor’s appointments, and extracurricular activities for the children. Economists, sociologists, and other researchers are becoming more aware of the problems caused by this disparity, especially as rates of burnout rise amongst women, along with increased divorce rates and generally higher rates of mental illness. One solution to this problem is to make the invisible labor performed largely by women visible to society, and Anna Funder’s work is designed to explore the nuances of this ongoing problem from a historical perspective in order to raise awareness of the very real social value of invisible domestic labor.