What is a "homemaker"?

Continuing the discussion from Being 30 then and now:

That quote made me wonder, “what is a homemaker”? Why can’t I define that well? Has anyone had “home economics” in the last 50 years?

It sound like branding word, like “tween”: we need a category to market to woman tricked into staying home. This has Mad Men all over it!

Class: Homemaker
Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Type: Support
Multiclass support: Yes
Specialization support: Yes

This class can be played a myriad of ways, and there are many combinations. In it’s most distilled form, a Homemaker is a role of support. Unlike a lot of hybrid classes, the Homemaker is fully dedicated to the care of the household party and the home. Quests include, but are not limited to: Child-rearing, Medical knowledge and care, food preparation, etc. All the thousands of things that can help a household party be successful, this class covers in spades.

Many players enjoy multiclassing, taking a few levels at one class before switching to Homemaker for several levels. Some parties take turns who will be the Homemaker class, inbetween large campaigns.

It can be approached very differently, but in all iterations the Homemaker is arguably the most critical role for the household party.

PM Press - Silvia Federici . would have some things to say about that. I’ve only read Revolution at Point Zero so far; Caliban and the Witch is up next for me. I suppose what I have to say is homemakers are unpaid workers and it’s tied into how certain things like childrearing are gendered, and feminine-gendered things are worth less. And it’s not just that women are paid less or not at all, or that occupations that have women in them are paid less, it’s also that women entering a profession makes it pay less, and there’s a long history in programming of it starting out as “secretary work” for women and then getting “masculinized” and higher-paid. Even now people think girls should do front-end, but top front-end devs and framework creators are sitll all men. whatever. JavaScript is for Girls etc

I had one quarter of “home economics” in like 7th grade. We had to choose two electives. In those slots, you could choose choir or band, or a language, or one of these wheels. “wheel A” was woodworking and two other things, and “wheel B” was metalworking, home ec, and… Quest? which was some kind of self-empowerment thing for young people? This is weird to drudge up and totally off-topic.

In home ec, we had little tiny kitchens. I remember they told us not to try to eat powdered sugar; I did and choked (just a little, I was fine). I had never had a “sloppy joe” before and thought ours were delicious. We had a lot of trouble mopping the floor because we would just keep getting it dirty again. I’m also remembering that I did 3d art at some point (maybe in 8th grade?) and … sewing? I sewed a pouch using a stitch whose name I forgot but you just loop it around over and over again. whipstitch, I guess.

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