Men complain ‘too much work’ for the work which starts from 8.00 and finishes at 17.00. Women say nothing for the work starts from 5.30 to 22.30.
‘Work’ or ‘Duty’
Women have to shoulder far more responsibility than men. I asked my newly married colleague “How is your new married life? Are you busy?”
“No” She replied. “Just doing nothing. I just come back home and prepare dinner for my husband then clean up the house. Just that. In the morning I get up early to prepare breakfast then come to work with my husband”. I ask her again whether she works a lot. She said “No”. However, to me, that is a lot of work and responsibility but women never think of it as the ‘work’. Instead they count it as their responsibility. Do women really feel nothing to the situation of double reponsibility? In my point of view to this situation, the economic status may be the factor which makes women who have to work support the families realize the work outside the house is really ‘work’. According to the Marxism feminists’ views, the oppression of women comes from the unfairness of economic system especially in the capitalism system of productivity. Work under the capitalism means that which has product and income. The housework is not grouped in that term but it has been marked as a woman’s responsibility. Women, themselves, also do not think that it is ‘work’. If we look into the overview of women, we may see that they work more than men both outside and inside the house. They have to be responsible for the biological reproduction, like pregnancy and giving birth. Moreover, the cultural reproduction like the morality teaching to their children, they also have to take care of. Sometimes, women have to work and serve for the communities, like social services. However, the problem still occurs in many communities and Thai society is the ignorance of the community to women’s works. Economically and socially, there is no praise for women, like when husbands are asked about their wives job or work. Some of them may answer that “she dose nothing just stays home”. If the wives stay home and do nothing, house will not be ‘house’ and family will not be ‘family’. However, for middle class people, they may afford to hire the housekeeper, but how much do they have to spend for it.Women nowadays have freedom and rights to work as men, however, many jobs they have are be subordinated to men like secretary, assistant, or receptionist so the work they have outside the house is not much different from the work they have to do at home as a housewife. Working women have double responsibility of men because they have to take care of children, prepare food for the family, do the laundry, and manage the family finances. But these kind of works never been counted as ‘work’ but they are counted as ‘duties’ which have been taught from generation to generation. Men complain ‘too much work’ for the work which starts from 8.00 and finishes at 17.00. Women say nothing for the work starts from 5.30 to 22.30. 