We live in the 21st century. We proudly highlight our progress by citing the existence of an increasing women workforce, but we cannot deny the fact that a majority of Indian women still do not go out to work. Instead, they work at home. Not from home but rather in their houses, as housewives.
But our patriarchal understanding of the role of a housewife i.e. “The job of a housewife is hardly a job. It’s a duty.” stops us from recognizing her hard work. With no weekend offs and no public holiday, she performs her thankless job with no expectation other than – to be treated with love, respect, gratefulness, and dignity.
Our male chauvinistic society fails to realize that while the man may bring home the bread, it is the woman or the housewife, who actually makes the food that he and his family eat out of that bread.
Thankfully, COVID-19 lockdown has made many men woke up to their wives’ domestic significance, instead of taking them for granted.
Recently, one such husband spoke to HoB about what COVID-19 lockdown made him realize. He mentioned how wrong he was when he believed that his wife’s life was easy.
While sharing his eye-opening experience, he mentioned:
“Whenever my wife makes Poha for breakfast, I tell her, ‘It’s so boring–why don’t you add something to it?’
All my life, I believed that women at home had it so easy; until Covid-19 happened.
I work in the essential services sector. Before the lockdown, I worked anywhere between 8-16 hours everyday. So I was never at home. But since the lockdown, I work for 2 days and I’m home for the rest.
In the beginning, I loved having free time! I watched TV, read the paper, cleaned the furniture and relaxed while my wife was in the kitchen all day.
I always used to think–what’s the big deal about cooking for just 3 people? One afternoon, I was watching TV and saw her cut veggies. Out of sheer curiosity, I told her, ‘Why don’t you take a break and let me cook instead?’ She was shocked!
She quickly handed me the vegetables and told me how to cook it. And oh my God, 20 minutes in I was sweating and frantically trying to make sure nothing burns!
In those 20 minutes I realized how much I’d taken her work for granted — I felt I should at least let her know how grateful I am. So during lunch, I just said, ‘Thank you.’ She said, ‘For what?’, ‘For everything you’ve done all these years!’ She just knowingly smiled at me.
After, I washed the utensils and helped clean up. She was a little taken aback, but I genuinely felt like I needed to do more.
Ever since, I’ve started doing the chores at home. Every morning, she heads to the kitchen while I get busy sanitizing furniture, doing the utensils, washing vegetables, and operating the washing machine. I even recently realised how therapeutic ironing clothes can be! And since I’m the only one who goes out to work, the first thing I do is wash my clothes once I’m home.
My daughter also helps, but she works from home in IT and gets free only after 10 at night. So I’ve been trying to help my wife as much as I can, because now I know how hectic it is to manage everything.
Over the past few weeks, my wife and I have bonded so much on the little things. Every night, we’ll sit and talk– and catch up on… life. There’s so much I’m learning about her, about me; about us.
So even after this lockdown ends and things go back to normal, I know I’m going to help out at home, whether it’s with the laundry or the utensils. Why must she be the one to do everything? If she’s responsible for it, then so am I. And I finally get it.”
At IFORHER, we are in awe of this husband who has taken a step to recognize the unsung hero in his life. While our society is still far from the day when it’ll recognize the housewives and their hard work, we want to salute every person who believes these wives are the heroes who make our lives beautiful.