Women, food, and families / Nickie Charles and Marion Kerr.
- Nickie Charles
- Date:
- [1988]
Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
Credit: Women, food, and families / Nickie Charles and Marion Kerr. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![46 Women, food and families But if you're going to have children and give up work you have to be able to cook really. These two comments stress the importance of cooking to motherhood; the two below link its importance to being a 'proper' wife. I think it's very important really. I mean we enjoy our food - I don't know quite what Alan would do if I couldn't cook. I don't think we'd have quite married. I don't know how you manage if you can't cook really ... I suppose you buy it all, convenience type food. I think it's awful if she can't cook ... I mean a fella can't do a proper day's work and not come home to a decent meal. A few women, however, felt that theoretically it was no more important for women to be able to cook than for men, although it seemed that in practice they were the ones who actually cooked. Just as important as for a man. I think each relationship, whether married or not, finds its own level. I don't believe a woman's role is to be at home and cook and look after the children and her man. Having said that, that is what I do, but purely because it works out that way. This type of explanation of gender divisions and their con¬ tinuation, even when they are not seen as the only or even the most desirable alternative, assumes that women are free to choose their role within the family; it is worth noting that the choice made is actually in conformity with dominant gender roles. Most women, however, saw this gender division of labour as something which was historically and socially determined. It was not something that could be wished away merely by individual women exercising free choice. When asked about the importance of being able to cook one woman replied: I'd say very important. [Why?] Well to me it's the basic history of the woman doing all that sort of thing and the man going out to work, you know, he's the breadwinner and the wives -1 wouldn't say I agree with it that the wife should be at home to look after children, housekeep and cook, but I think it's just the way of the world isn't it really - that's the way it should be. Several of the women explained the gender divisions within their own households in terms of the way their partners had been brought up:](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b18028706_0059.JP2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
