Word: houseworkers
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...secrets. I didn't tell anyone that every day I take an old toothbrush to the crud that collects around the faucets, that I rarely talk on the phone without a bottle of Windex and paper towel in hand as I walk around wiping off fingerprints. Housework is the third rail of feminism. Do too much of it, and you are out of the sisterhood. Talk about it, and you will find yourself discounted at work and shunned at parties...
...come out of the (uncluttered) closet. It is O.K. to find joy in a full refrigerator, an empty hamper and clean, well-lighted rooms. Just as it took Nixon to go to China, it took a lawyer (she graduated from Harvard) and philosopher (she has a Ph.D.) to legitimize housework. Mendelson once believed that only chumps did not order in, contract out or let it go as they pursued being buff, polished and ready to master the universe. Then one weekend when guests were coming, she blitzed her apartment, making beds with hospital corners, putting out fresh flowers, fixing pasta...
...interest in the domestic grew as she settled into a second marriage and motherhood and began to work only part time, teaching legal philosophy. She pored over her collection of old-time housework manuals and consulted innumerable experts, from fire fighters to microbiologists. Eight years later, she had more than 800 pages that are the final word on how to get out any stain, how to sweep a floor (to the center) and how to remove candle wax (apply ice until the wax crumbles). After reading her book, you will throw out your old sponges, always have white vinegar handy...
...because "it is the best training, the men are naturally more strong, though not always so deft." Her training is strictly a personal matter. She dislikes to think of people reading of what she likes to eat (string beans, chocolate ice cream) and drink (milk)... She does not know housework, nor will she learn. Last week she said: "I intend to do everything just the same when I am married--my tennis, my painting--and I want to take up golf...
Gleick dissects the average person's day: seven hours and 18 minutes asleep, one hour and 13 minutes of driving, four minutes of government paperwork, four and a half hours of housework, 45 minutes of physical activity, 52 minutes on the phone, 31 minutes of childcare, 16 minutes looking for lost objects, four minutes on sex, etc. Many of these averages are much lower than they have been in the past. But when added up, the number of minutes spent on daily activities far exceeds the total number of minutes in a day. Not only is every second filled with...