wifework • abstract noun, the belief that in spite of the sexual revolution, female emancipation, and equal opportunities, married women still find themselves adopting traditional roles, i.e. cooking and cleaning.

DEFINED BY: author Susan Maushart, who says it's "the unwritten contract into which a woman enters upon marriage. The job description most of us were determined would never apply to us".

BASED ON: Maushart writes that just after her first wedding, she and her new husband went home. "We'd been having dinner together most nights for two years. Like most graduate students, we mostly ate takeaways or grabbed a cheap meal at one of the many caf�s around the university. And then we got married. 'I suppose I really ought to cook dinner,' I remember thinking to myself rather uncertainly."

CONFLICT 1:feminism? Maushart believes its achievements have been largely "in the public sphere", leaving family life mostly untouched.

CONFLICT 2:girl power? The Spice Girl-inspired empowerment campaign was once the toast of the media. The US Government also took up the cause, encouraging "positive values" among the nine to 14-year-olds. Will girlpower last until its followers reach womanhood?

CONFLICT 3:new men? The early 90s phenomenon in which men were supposed to be caring and sharing, especially in cooking, childcare, and considerate treatment of women. (cf new laddism) Or perhaps new men just become old men.

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Your comments:

Reader Mrs Andrews adds:
I would happily be a housewife, or at least have more time at home. Feminism isn't always a good thing.

Reader Mr Carney adds:
My wife works from home whereas I go "out" to work, therefore so that we can have our evening meal at a reasonable time it is usually she that prepares it, while I invariably do the washing up afterwards. At the weekend this 'role' usually reverses. I cannot remember us ever discussing who should do what - the system just seemed to evolve.

Reader Mr Leitch adds:
In one way or another I expect my wife to cook my dinner and do the ironing, but only in the same way that she expects me to rennovate our house and sort out any correspondence. This was not imposed on her, but is in fact her preference for household duties.

But reader Ms Wilson adds:
Traditional roles? We don't have time! With two professional careers, the jobs have to be done by the one available at that moment. It's the only way we can work, run a home and still have lives.

And reader Mr Sheppard adds:
Any man who thinks he is too good to do his share of cleaning and washing up and so should think again. The real issue is behaving civilly.

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