The Economic Risks of Being a Housewife

Abstract

To be a housewife is to be a member of a peculiar occupationone with characteristics quite different from all others. The nature of the duties to be performed, the form of the pay, the methods of supervision, the tenure system, the marketplace in which workers find jobs, and the physical hazards are all so different from conditions found in other occupations that one tends not to think of a housewife as belonging to occupation in the usual sense. Yet being a housewife certainly meets the American Heritage Dictionary's definition of occupation, as an activity that serves as one's regular source of In fact, to be a housewife is to be a member of the largest single occupation in the U. S. economy. Thus, it is certainly both legitimate and interesting to compare the advantages and disadvantages of the housewife's source of livelihood with those of other sources of livelihood. Few economists have studied the economic aspects of being a housewife. Gary Becker's economium to the advantages of the division of labor among spouses addresses some of the issues, but its perspective seems to be that of a male member of a traditional family. More recently, Marianne Ferber and Bonnie Birnbaum, as well as Clair (Vickrey) Brown have made contributions in which the interests of each family member are recognized as distinct.' In this paper, I focus on the economic risks of the housewife occupation, which are shown to be very high relative to those of other occupations.

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