"The Evolution of Home-Making: How Modern Wives Embrace Tradition and Innovation"
Historically considered the epicenter of familial life, home-making, or household management, includes cooking, cleaning, raising children, and generally creating a safe and wholesome environment. The role of the homemaker, typically assigned to women, was regarded as a full-time job that, like any other, required a considerable amount of time, painstaking attention, and proficiency. However, the shift in societal paradigms brought about by technology, changing gender norms, and an increased emphasis on work-life balance is blurring the lines of homemaking. Today’s wives live in a liquid space where innovation and tradition intertwine. Women manage household responsibilities while also working as employed persons, entrepreneurs, or telecommuters. With this in mind, this blog post aims to examine the story of home-making and the time-stricken balance women are trying to achieve while honoring and adapting to contemporary practices.
Historical Perspective
Women performed home-making tasks over the twentieth century, especially during the early to middle part, since it was seen as a woman’s job. In a typical family setup, a man was married to a woman who was a full-time homemaker, and his kids would swiftly go to and come back from school, while he went out to work. Meanwhile, the woman would oversee the smooth running of her house, thus enabling him to focus better on work. This genre was glamorized in Western culture, with American women wearing dresses and baking and vacuuming in heels (Boccagni, 2021). Women underwent domestic skill training during that era. Cooking all meals consumed during the day, having an ever-clean house, and an always available mother were some of the things expected from a homemaker. Along with the indispensable attribute, self-sacrifice, homemaking denotes the measure of a woman’s skill (Olwig, 2021). While many derived fulfillment from these roles, they also imposed severe limitations on personal freedom and the postponement of a person’s career goals. Around the early 60s and 70s, these roles got challenged as feminist movements emerged. The offer process was employed for women as they came out in large numbers for work, taking up further studies, and fighting for equality in public and private sectors of society. All these movements changed the previously accepted realities and laid the foundation of the contemporary concept of home-making.
Modern Shifts in Home-Making
The 21st century has seen an explosive development in the skill of homemaking. Perhaps the most defining change is the infusion of technology into day-to-day chores, with smart home appliances like robotic vacuum cleaners, voice-activated assistants, and automated lights making household task management more efficient, requiring less physical input (Thompson, 2023). Ordering meals, purchasing groceries online, and using mobile apps for chore budgeting and scheduling have further facilitated time saving. In conjunction with technological advancement, there has been a significant increase in dual-income families. In the United States, around 64% of families with children have both parents working, according to Pew Research Center. This transition has changed the distribution of household chores and child care responsibilities, with mothers increasingly sharing the burden of work. There is a shift from the concept of the wife as a home maker to a collaborative home maker as a couple. The impact of social media is profound. Sites such as Instagram and Pinterest have flooded the market with content related to DIY projects, home organization, prep, decor, and provide user-generated templates and guides that enable effortless creativity. These platforms have transformed home-making into a creative and aspirational endeavor, allowing women to share their spaces and gain inspiration from others. However, the curated perfection of social media can also contribute to unrealistic expectations and pressure to maintain an idealized home environment (Ter, 2023).
Balancing Tradition and Innovation
Even with today's conveniences, many traditional skills remain treasured today. One clear example would be home-cooked meals that symbolize love, family, care, and bonding. Families also share routines such as dinner time, which is shared, bedtime stories, and chores that are done during weekends. All of this builds emotional bonds and offers stability. The practices that are passed down through generations also create continuity and a sense of cultural identity. With the challenges posed by modern society, innovative solutions to uphold traditions are developed. A good example would be women who plan their meals using family recipes and put dietary preferences into digital apps. In addition to that, remote work has enabled many women to manage their households more flexibly, which allows them to balance professional duties with family responsibilities. Modern-day homemakers are equipped with time hacks that are essential in today's world. With batch cooking, minimal organizing, and multifunctional appliances, the woman of the house can maintain a well-run home without feeling overwhelmed. Seasonal cleaning and festive preparations, which are cultural traditions, are also being changed for the modern day while ensuring the values are preserved.
Challenges and Opportunities
However, modern homemaking as a whole offers unique opportunities unlike before. The merging of hybrid work models enables women to tailor their routines to their lifestyles and family needs, which provides a greater deal of flexibility. As much as modern homemaking allows for creative self-expression through interior design, eco-friendly practices, and innovative rituals, it is becoming more widely accepted as a multi-dimensional role that demands respect; regardless of whether it is done full-time or alongside other professional responsibilities. As mentioned previously, modern homemaking comes with its fair share of complexities. One of the significant pressure points includes the social obligation of perfection. Women, looking to balance multiple roles, often struggle with the notion of a perfectly run household and well-dressed children, while synchronized gourmet meals pose an image, which upon closer inspection, exists solely on the surface. Such social media portrayals tend to enhance the comparison culture.
The transformation of the art of home-making mirrors the changes in society and the adaptability of women to shifting circumstances. The rigid domestic roles of the mid-20th century have now given way to innovative and flexible approaches. Home-making is now a multifaceted endeavor, polished with both tradition and modernity. Modern wives tread this ground with creativity, skill, and strife to protect what is valued most, all while embracing changes of the times. The combination of technology, cultural movements, and personal preferences of the individuals performing home-making will surely shape the future of home-making as we know it. Nevertheless, the essence of home-making, which revolves around creating a space filled with care, comfort, and connection, remains unaltered.
Barrero, J. M., Bloom, N., & Davis, S. J. (2023). The evolution of work from home. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 37(4), 23-49.
Boccagni, P., & Duyvendak, J. W. (2021). Homemaking in the public. On the scales and stakes of framing, feeling, and claiming extra‐domestic space as “home”. Sociology Compass, 15(6), e12886.
Olwig, K. F. (2021). Epilogue: Contested Homes: Home–making and the Making of Anthropology. In Migrants of identity (pp. 225-236). Routledge.
Thompson, S. (2023). “Homes not shelters”: co-productions of home in financialized social housing for women in Vancouver, Canada. Urban Geography, 44(4), 668-686.
Ter Laan, N. (2023). “Assalamu ʿAlaykum, Can We Add This Sister?”: WhatsApp Group Chat as a Homemaking Practice among Dutch-Speaking Muhajirat in Morocco. Religion and Gender, 13(2), 206-226.
