Why is it shameful to be a 'housewife'?

        Recently there has been a huge boost in encouraging female empowerment. As feminism has taken a third wave and trended all across social media, female empowerment has been a popular topic over the last couple of years. We have seen women conquer  their respected fields from Beyoncé reigning as Queen of pop culture to Shonda Rhimes dominating prime time TV production. Women are being celebrated for their achievements and are being praised as brilliant role models for the new generation of young women.

        One reason why they are being admired is because they are drifting from gender stereotypes and gender roles in order to reach their own goals. However, by encouraging these strong career women, we have been led to a form a distaste towards the "housewife" and to shame mothers and women who stay at home. The imagery of the housewife involves a fragile perfectly made-up lady in a 50's style dress, necking down a bottle of wine and making sure that dinner is ready on the table by the time the husband comes home. But this stereotype is false as well as outdated and doesn't include the women now who pursue lives at home as well as new found hobbies and interests.     

        Yes, we should show our support for career ambitious women but we shouldn't then act as if 'housewives' are failures who do not have their own accomplishments or goals in life. Women may have various reasons to justify why they stay at home but they shouldn't feel the need to justify it to us. Someone once said that "Feminism isn't about what you choose, but the freedom to choose". We should have the opportunities to pursue whatever we wish to, as long as no harm is caused, so who are we to label people who give up their work as 'shameful'? 

Fozz.