My New Job

As from today I have a new full time job. I have been doing it for 30 years really, but yesterday was my last day at the shop. I am now officially a housewife, home maker, home executive, what ever one calls my job. And I couldn't be happier.

I feel liberated, which is an ironic expression for a feminist!! But I am. When I did my arts degree, I was a rabid feminist. So how did I get to this position where all I want to be is a full time homemaker?

Well, part of it is because I am of a certain age where I want to 'slow down" and get out of this crazy whirlwind we all live in and contemplate my navel for a bit. Without all the other stuff that was happening when I wasn't working before. And the other part is about choice.

I am still a feminist, however, as my friend Kate defined feminism while we were procrastinating writing an assignment in 1997, feminism is about having a choice. Or as she defined it:

"A feminist is any woman who asserts her right of self determination"

So I am still a feminist. I am just exercising my choice to be a housewife. It is a great time that we live in where I have that choice. I think KISA would love to have that choice. Although he does have the choice really. If I had his earning capacity, I think he would take it. I have offered many times to be the main breadwinner, but he doesn't want to live on a librarian's salary. So it is my good fortune to be married to him at this point in my life when I want to make the choice today, and I am grateful for that.

I may go back to another paid job in the future. I may not. I am a little worried if I change my mind about being a full time homemaker will I ever get another job? I am nearly 50 and despite all the rhetoric about needing to work till we are 70 we baby boomers face real age discrimination in the workforce.

Then there is the social pressure, that "what do you do?" question and the implication that if you don't work you are either privileged (which I am but not in that sense!) or weird (which I am in most senses) or something. For now, I intend to be the best at the job I have chosen now, to enjoy it for what it is, and to relish the freedom and independence it makes me feel.