No Home Economics Skills? Shame on You

Feminism

Are you a young modern woman who works 40 hrs +, dry cleans your t-shirts, and eats boxed meals? Well Jill Holcombe is pretty upset with you gals!

In today's Sunday Times, Holcombe, who has just written a book titled How to Feed Your Family a Healthy, Balanced Diet with Very Little Money . . . and Hardly Any Time, Even if You Have a Tiny Kitchen, Only Three Saucepans and No Fancy Gadgets, laments the loss of "kitchen economics," the art of knowing how to save your money and use your time wisely in order to create quick, well-balanced meals on a budget.

"Domestic skills," Holcombe writes, "traditionally a woman’s territory, are no longer valued and, naturally enough, modern women don’t want to be associated with a female stereotype that, rightly or wrongly, is a bit of a joke. The downside is that lots of women now know nothing about home economics or how to produce a handful of nutritious meals out of store-cupboard essentials, even though having this knowledge is not only deeply satisfying, but empowering in a way that wasting large amounts of money in the supermarket can never be."

Well, I can sort of see Jill's point. It would make sense to run a household as you would any business. Reduce costs, meet the needs of the employees while stimulating production. But the things that astounds me is that in this article, she makes no mention of a male anywhere.

Like what planet are you living in Jill? Wonder woman's all female Amazonion home?

According to Jill, it is solely the fault that the eating habits of America have changed!

Yes, how dare women take jobs! How dare they attempt to pay off their student loans and provide a stable environment for their children!

Ummm, so what are the guys doing? What about the families where both work just so they can make ends meet? What about the families where the men really enjoy cooking and find it as a fun outlet?

It gets even worse as she goes on to say, ""Savvy grown-up girls know that being clever with food and careful with the household budget means that not only do they get to enjoy the right meals, there could be enough money left over for spending on those manicures — which a 1950s domestic goddess would have definitely approved of," maybe someone should let her know that we aren't fishing for Donna Reed's approval, and that manicures are something most of us do on our lunch break!


Feminism, Home Economics