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If the employer is a university and the employee is a scientist, then the answer should be yes, according to a paper published in Academe, a magazine of the American Association of University Professors.
Yes, this is a serious policy recommendation.
Stanford University professor Londa Schiebinger and co-author Shannon K. Gilmartin analyzed how scientists at 13 top U.S. research universities spend their time and found that female scientists do nearly twice as much housework as their male counterparts.
The 10 hours-plus each week those women spend on cooking and cleaning could be better used toward important scientific work, the researchers argue.
Their solution: Universities should provide benefits that support housework, in the same way many employers provide health insurance, tuition reimbursement and childcare subsidies.
Schiebinger and Gilmartin concede that such a proposal may not be popular amid a deep economic downturn. But they argue that, in the long term, if universities subsidized housework it would benefit the country because these highly talented women would have more time to devote to science.
“The United States needs to capture the talents of its female scientific workforce for science,” the researchers write.
(The theory, of course, assumes that free time would go to lofty scientific endeavors, and not watching reality television.)
The paper, “Housework is an Academic Issue,” focuses solely on how female scientists share the burden of household work with their partners. But in general, even though women now make up about half the U.S. workforce, on a typical day women are still more likely to do household chores than men.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey, on an average day in 2009, 51 percent of women did household work such as cleaning or doing laundry, compared with 20 percent of men. In addition, 68 percent of women cooked or cleaned up food on an average day, compared with 40 percent of men.
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Why can't they just pay out of their own pocket for a Housekeeper?
No problemente - lots of illegals out there that will do the job. The limosine liberals have a handle on this one.
Bighorn, could you have any more spelling errors in your post?? And that holds true for your Spanish as well as English!
This is without a doubt one of the more ridiculous proposals from the world of Academia.
How is the men's housework getting done?
1) Are they slobs who are fine with one dish and one glass, who buy Frebreze and new underwear every week?* (Actually, not buying new underwear or washing the old would explain the stinky ones.) Are women profs and scientists more picky about their environments?
2) Are the men's wives or girl friends or partners doing the laundry, etc? Are women prof. more likely to have spouses, etc who sit on their hands and expect to be waited on or who don't pitch in?
3) Are the men paying out of their own pockets? Are they content with the results? If they are paid the same, wouldn't it be a matter of the women profs money by doing their own? Is it possible to meet their personal standards?
(The theory, of course, assumes that free time would go to lofty scientific endeavors, and not watching reality television.)
Ouch! As a mere man I would not, nor dare not, have made that statement.
I don't think any of us should be required to do housework. You'd think Congress would address this national disgrace and build us communal kitchens and baths. We all need a nanny as well.
If the professor is married, then she needs to work this out with her husband to share household duties. If she is not married then she should not be treated any differently than the male professors. No one should be be given this as a benefit. All households need to be maintained whether you're a research professor, a doctor, engineer, nurse, EMT, teacher, etc, etc. To think that as a research professor, your work is more valuable than a teacher, teachers aid, nurse, etc is pretty egotistical. I think when people spend too much time at a university they lose touch with reality.
Here! Here!
Yo Londa and Shannon, if you weren't such slobs you wouldn't have so much housewok. If your husband is the slob, buy him a broom, and if he doesn't use it, you can use it on him. In case all of this is to subtle, get a life, and please God, tell me these two clowns did study this foolishness with my tax dollars.
I think this is a fantastic idea. The idea that full time working women have time to do the domestic thing full time too is ridiculous-especially women in a field that requires a lot of mental and or physical work. I also believe men need to take up the duster as it were more than they do. The idea is still new and different to even the younger generations- men who watched their father get home and sit down and their wife get home and have to cook and clean assume that men get to be tired and women don't. Others have realized how much women work and offer to help their wife/girlfriend/partner. It's a mental block a lot of America isn't over- no matter what movements have happened.
Dang. If they had just passed that Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970's, this discussion would be moot. You couldn't do it for female scientists if you don't do it for male scientists.
I truly expect there to be a groundswell of support for making maid service a right that should be subsidized by the federal government. After all, why should professors be the only people who get this? Should they tax the employee on the value of the service? If not, then do those of us who do our own housework get a tax credit. It's just not fair, I tell you. It's just not fair.
Stanford can do what they want to do. They are a private university.
Work 3 jobs as nurse would LOVE someone to clean my house.
What makes the American Association of University Professors think that their female scientists would be better served by working on scientific matters rather than cleaning their houses?
I find cleaning my house to be very therapeutic and thought-provoking. A female scientist may spend some time cleaning her house, like the rest of us, but you better believe her mind is always on business.
For me, this idea gets a huge thumbs down.
Aussiegirl, Very valid point. Actually cleaning my house is one activity that guarantees a little down time for the brain. This tends to free up my creative side helping me work better and smarter down the road.
What's really amazing is that 39% of the people who voted on this think it's a GOOD IDEA! The fact this idea came from the "academic community" whose inhabitants are so much smarter than the rest of us puts the old stinkeroo on this idea from the outset.
This is the most absurd thing I've ever heard. Maybe universities should also make this available to medical students who have to spend several years studying medicine and working 48 hour shifts during rotations in hospitals while juggling studies and taking tests. Or maybe for people who are working less meaningful jobs to those university elite, like maybe plumbers who get called for emergency jobs at 11 p.m. after they just got home at 9 p.m from another emergency call. What an egotistical idea.
The fact this idea came from the know-it-all academic community makes this a stinker from the outset. I can't believe 39% of the voters thought it was a good idea. I hope they stay home in November.
This would be a bad spot for federal funding but, a good idea for productivity. I absolutely love math and science and would love to spend more time learning it but, those daily chores(I'm single by the way) just zap all motivation for anything else. As written, the article is sexist to only suggest women get the benefit and that would definitely have to change.
On the funding VS productivity note, will the scientist produce more than the cost of a maid service? Answer that and you will find your answer to whether this is a good idea.
If the university is stupid enough to do this and it doesn't cost tax payers anything, I don't care what they do, but the men scientists should get the same service. Equal perks for equal works ;-)
Only if the women scientists are paid the same as the men should men get this perk..
Hey, go for it! I would love it if I was a scientist. And women DO spend too much time cleaning. Who knows how much scientific advancement we have lost due to chores!
I think a scientist can afford to pay for their own house maid. Another stupid liberal idea.
I don't think we should limit this to scientists, because there are others who do very important work as well. My housekeeper, for instance, stays incredibly busy and probably has very little time to clean her own house, and could use a ... uh, wait ... um, never mind.
Yes, I was similarly thinking that employers should also provide a housework benefit for the people who clean homes. That way, housekeepers can spend more time productively cleaning the homes of women scientists while someone else cleans their homes.
And we wonder why the cost of higher education is spiraling out of control. I guess it should come as no surprise that this idea came from a pampered professor at one of our elite universities, who is undoubtedly paid well enough to afford a housekeeper if she were inclined to have one. And I will bet she doesn't work the 10-12 hour days that I do in the business world.
I do agree that we working mothers have far too much on our plates. How about a tax free spending account for working parents to pay for housekeeping expenses, similar to what is currently offered for child and health care expenses? To the child-free adults who would whine "but that's not fair to us!" I would say, "Our children will be paying your Social Security benefits and caring for you in your old age, so shush!"
Hi single working mother of 5,
I love what you wrote and agree with you! I'm a scientist in a medical school and a mother of 2. I work hard at work and home all the time, and always feel sleep-deprived. I'm not payed well enough, but I love science so I stayed in academia. I see the physical burdens as a challenge for all working moms but not just for women scientists. I understand what you've been through and like your comments with partial solutions... I hope our society can recognize and appreciate what working mothers are doing in contribution to the society and future, and help them all in reasonable ways!
Big business is big business .... no worse than providing haircuts and a special cafeteria for our Congress - or how about this perk: you retire with a pension of your full salary & medical coverage most of us could only dream of after serving one term in Congress. Oil companies have lavish expense accounts for whatever ... lunches, alcohol, entertainment, call girls, golf. Our banks & insurance companies pay tremendously outrageous bonuses for driving their company into the ground. Our lobbiest are treated to trips abroad, vacations ... and you think the offer of a house cleaner is obscene and inappropriate?????
I'm a working mom but sheesh, is this articel for real?
When my wife mows the lawn, trims the hedge andd power washes the house, I'll start doing the laundry!
I know I am being sexist in supposing that no women are already doing these things, but so aren't women in assuming there are no men doing housework. I actually do quite a few dishes, just not the laundry.