Should Husbands Pay Wives For Managing The Home?

This is one question that keeps cropping up again and again.
I was single when I read something along the same lines after an American
survey some years ago and now I’m reading it as a housewife. This time, the
Union Women and Child Development Ministry in India is preparing a draft Bill
that would entitle housewives a monthly income from their husbands. Of course,
all the debaters are out again in force.

Personally, I believe it is important to recognize the work
women do at home, especially as in most cases they carry a disproportionate
burden of chores. Wives and moms are usually satisfied by the gratitude and
happiness of their husbands and children, as well as the peace and progress of
their families, but where the outcome is not so positive, then what? Maybe it
makes sense to reward her in cold hard cash. Please click to continue.

Indeed, the women and children minister said the Bill, which
IBN Live says is likely to be presented before the Indian Parliament within six
months, was aimed at empowering women. According to her,

    “A majority of
women in India are involved in household chores after getting married but they
do not get any salary for it. The socially accepted behaviour becomes a tragedy
when a woman gets divorced or is widowed when she is left with nothing for survival.
The Government is mulling to bring a law under which a husband will have to
legally pay a definite amount to his wife from his salary and the Ministry has
started preparing a draft in this regard,” Tirath told Express during a
telephonic interview from New Delhi on Friday.

    “When we are given
an equal status by the Constitution, why is it that we have to accept the
social condition that takes it for granted that women have to do the household
chores? She is no slave and now we have to fight to bring about a change in
thinking,” she added.

    Since an estimated
two-thirds of married Indian women are victims of domestic violence, Tirath
believed this economic empowerment would be a welcome respite for them.

Now I won’t be surprised if the figures of abused women are
similar in Nigeria, and I also will add the number that get separated from
their husbands with no child support or alimony. It is indeed a terrible
situation that contributes a lot in keeping women down and browbeaten by the
men around them.

However, while in concept it sounds great to determine the
value of the work women do at home and pay it to them, the truth is that it
will be hard to do. How can one even begin to put a price tag on some of those
chores? Most women do it from the heart, for them it is not a job. It would
just be too problematic to try to monetize housework. Let’s look at some gray
areas;

1. Women would be cooking and cleaning their own homes
anyway, so how do they separate the two, for herself and for the rest of the
family?

2. What if the husband is OK with a dusted coffee table but
she wants to wax and polish it too? What if the children are fine with fried
chicken, but she decides to make coq au vin? Will the husband pay extra for all
that?

3. Making it compulsory for the husbands to pay for the
house work to wives with a certain percentage of their salaries may create even
worse scenarios where the men get resentful, bossy, abusive, or worse.

Finally, how will this law be implemented?

I don’t want this to get too long, so let’s discuss.

Source: http://www.mynewhitmanwrites.com