Housewife is a married woman whose main occupation is running or operating the family's home—caring for and educating her children, cooking and storing food, buying goods the family needs in day to day life, cleaning or maintaining parts of the home, making clothes for the family, etc.—and who does not generally maintain employment outside the home. Merriam Webster describes a housewife as a married woman who is in charge of her household. Homemaker is a mainly American gender-neutral term for a housewife or also a stay-at-home dad. SAHM is an abbreviation that refers to a "stay at home mom".
The term may sometimes be used in a derogatory sense, as part of a contrast with a career woman.
Read more about Housewife: Multicultural Norms, Formal Education, Modern Mothers, Economics
Famous quotes containing the word housewife:
“This is the first national administration we’ve ever seen where the housewife couldn’t afford to buy groceries and the farmer couldn’t afford to grow them.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“Here’s to the maiden of bashful fifteen;
Here’s to the widow of fifty;
Here’s to the flaunting extravagant queen;
And here’s to the housewife that’s thrifty.
Let the toast pass,—
Drink to the lass,
I’ll warrant she’ll prove an excuse for the glass.”
—Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816)