The career woman Vs the home maker

   “Despite being a career woman”, confesses the lady in an ad, “I am a successful home maker”.  In other words, if it weren’t for the flask, which she wisely invested in, she would be an unsuccessful home maker- all because she’s career woman.

When you continue to read the ad, you will find a surefire formula to be labeled a ‘successful home maker’.  All you need to do is ensure that your father-in-law, husband and son, have hot piping food, tea or coffee and presto!  You’ve arrived as the home maker of the year!

One has to no doubt take the claims and statements of advertisers with a pinch of salt.  But you cannot overlook their narrow perceptions of the roles a woman plays, whether as a career woman or home maker or both.

 First of all, how come there is this demarcated category of career woman Vs successful home maker?  Somehow, no one seems to see the two in the same woman. It becomes a presumption that a career woman cannot be a successful home maker unless she tries a helluva lot!

Let us take a look at a career woman’s (if categorise you must) day.  She has limited time at home before and after work. This she plans manages and utilises to optimum level.  Thereby, her routine is set.  The housework is accomplished at record time.  She does not leave anything to chance.  The household runs on well-oiled wheels of time and work management.  Conscious of her absence from home, the career woman tries to make the little time she spends at home pleasant and memorable. 

Take a home maker. I’ve deliberately not said, ‘successful’ because all home maker are not necessarily successful.  The average home maker has the tendency to procrastinate and put off chores indefinitely.  As she’s sure to be at home, she does not plan her day but takes each one as it comes.  Her own routine like eating, resting and exercising, become erratic because she knows she can do them anytime.  Cooped up within the four walls, she tends to get a bit snappy out of sheer boredom

It does not, from what I say, mean that home makers are not organised and career women are better.  What matters is not whether you are one or the other but whether you are ‘successful’ material or not.

 To be a successful home maker, you need to be methodical; conscious of the needs of everyone at home; have leadership qualities to get things done by everyone; a good manger to get maximum work out of domestic staff and above all, efficient. All these qualities have to be either inborn or acquired. They are not the prerogative of either the career woman or the home maker So, let’s quit branding women as the ad does.  Women can only come under two classifications- organised/disorganised.  While the former can make a success of anything, the latter can be a prize failure at home or at work.