Monday, March 09, 2009

Blogger attacks the Vatican's stand on washing machines contributing most to women's lib

In writing this post, I would just like to register my vehement objection to the view that it was the washing machine that contributed most to women's emancipation.
A report from Agence France Presse that I found in Inquirer dot net said that the Vatican came out with a survey of some sort which solicited answers to the question: What contributed most to the emancipation of women?
People who responded to the article printed in Osservatore Romano gave out the usual answers that ranged from the contraceptive pill, legal abortion and being allowed to work outside the home. However, one reponse stood out and this was from someone who believed that the washing machine contributed most to women's liberation.
I sure hope that this does not reflect the official stand of the Roman Catholic Church, especially here in the Philippines!

Why?

Because, in the Philippines and in my homestead in particular, men do the laundry and ironing!

Here's the objectionable article.

Vatican: Washing machine liberated women

Agence
France-PresseFirst Posted 09:49:00 03/09/2009
Filed Under: Women

VATICAN CITY—The washing machine has had a greater liberating role for women than the pill, the official Vatican daily said in an International Women's Day commentary Sunday.

"The washing machine and the emancipation of women: put in the powder, close the lid and relax," said the headline on the article in Osservatore Romano.

"In the 20th century, what contributed most to the emancipation of western women?" questioned the article.

"The debate is still open. Some say it was the pill, others the liberalization of abortion, or being able to work outside the home. Others go even further: the washing machine," it added.

The long eulogy to the washing machine – for which the first rudimentary models appeared in the 18th century – highlighted "the sublime mystique to being able to 'change the sheets on the beds twice a week instead of once'," quoting the words of late American feminist Betty Friedan.

While the machines were at first unreliable, technology has developed so quickly that now there is "the image of the super woman, smiling, made up and radiant among the appliances of her house," wrote Osservatore.

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