Housewife: Why Women Still Do It All and What to Do Instead (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781538722886)

Amazon's Best Nonfiction Book of the Month for March 2024

Discover the complete social history of the housewife archetype, from colonial America to the 20th century, and re-examine common myths about the "modern woman."

The notion of "housewife" evokes strong reactions. For some, it's nostalgia for a bygone era, simpler and better times when men were breadwinners and women remained home with the kids. For others, it's a sexist, oppressive stereotype of women's work. Either way, housewife is a long outdated concept--or is it?

Lisa Selin Davis, known for her smart, viral, feminist, cultural takes, argues that the "breadwinner vs. homemaker" divide is a myth. She charts examples from prehistoric female hunters to working class housewives in the 1930s, from First Ladies to 21st century stay-at-home moms, on a search for answers to the problems of what is referred to as women's work and motherhood. Davis discovers that women have been sold a lie about what families should be. Housewife unveils a truth: interdependence, rather than independence, is the American way.

The book is a clarion call for all women--married or single, mothers or childless--and for men, too, to push for liberation. In Housewife, Davis builds a case for systemic, cultural, and personal change, to encourage women to have the power to choose the best path for themselves.


Author: Lisa Selin Davis
ISBN-10: 1538722887
ISBN-13: 9781538722886
Publisher: Legacy Lit
Language: English
Published: 03/05/2024
Pages: 320
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.01lbs
Size: 8.43h x 5.67w x 1.26d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 01/15/2024
Booklist 02/15/2024 pg. 5
Shelf Awareness 03/02/2024