"Gender Watch" first lady and unpaid wife, who will pay for my emotional labor?

Trump on the day, the major media to capture the first lady and the daughter of the Chinese clothing brand, people are concerned about the women next to Chuan Pu is qualified as a family. So the wife Melania and daughter Ivanka is placed in the "assisted" position is judged to be criticized.

The people who say "work for women" are Melania.

Honorary work of the first lady

As the first lady, Melania in the media before the reproduction of the mother is particularly embarrassing, she has no Jackie of the graceful, no Michelle-au-Bama of the pro-people. Foreign media reported that Trump's arrival in the White House less than one months, first Lady Melania not adapted to her new role, so every move is closely examined. She did not attend the White House in Washington, where her son stayed in New York, and she did not, like every lady, immediately set up her first Lady team; she did not travel with Trump to visit important American entrepreneurs and presidents.

"After Abigail Adams, no first lady has ever lived in the White House since day one-if they live well, the first woman: the charm and power of the modern American Lady."

"This is a job that few people will apply for," The New York Times reported. However, we expect the first lady to do all this and not get paid or even have a clothing budget: Although the first lady's office has a budget, her role is considered an "honour job", as if to say "you don't have any money, but you like it". 」

Woman's absence: the emotional labor of successive first ladies

Melania's absence is worth reflecting on, what do we expect from the "other half of the president" when we accuse her of not being conscientious when we compare Melania with the wives of successive presidents?

Madame President should be fully behaved in front of the media, to act as the home of the main family of the corroboration, she is the practice of diplomacy and security within the political means, is a national card.

But we never asked, Madame President, would you like to be the president's wife? The budget of Madame President's office is only for state activities, not personal. As you can imagine, Michelle-au-Bama, the president's wife for eight years, even though she tried to "play the female image" and become "the balance between the public and the boss", she never made a dime.

The president's wife, who has no legal backing, is seen as a "supporter of the role": using the softer qualities to improve the president's hard-line image of the policy. Historically, Kennedy had said that Jackie was "my best diplomat", and that the humorous wit of South Reagan "pushed the end of the Cold War". (Extended reading: She's not just the former American First lady!) Nancy Reagan vapid: You have the ability to choose what you want to be

In addition to policy diplomacy, many first ladies also arouse soft issues through social concerns, focusing on the disadvantaged and marginalized groups, environmental protection, and advocating philanthropy and humanity. Wait For example: Hillary Collinton's visit to Pakistan was described by the media as "presenting an international Mother's image" as she consoled the local by stroking the baby's cheek, while Laura Wilsbuch, who had been deep in Afghanistan, said the United States was friendly to the general population and shirking the cruelty of the United States to war.

How much does a woman's emotional work cost in the workplace?

It is not difficult to find that the woman engaged in the visual image of women with stereotyped social role and gender role, we give women a strong "assisting men" obligation, depending on their behavior as a subsidiary of the President, look forward to the president's wife to become the role model of contemporary society. So Melania's warm swallow, became a kind of defection. She has turned her back on her paternity and has not yet exercised his wife's obligations; she fled the moralize and did not embark on the first lady's journey to appease the American people.

There are feminists expecting the Melania to liberate the White House hostess, as well as women who note that her silence eliminates the power of American women to participate in politics.

In any case, Melania's lack of positivity is subverting the "woman behind a successful man" theory, giving people a bit of a sense of caution: Can the wives of presidents, and their wives, choose the scope of their emotional work?

Emotional labor (emotional Labor) was originally proposed by a 1983 sociologist Arlie Hochschild, which refers to the form of labour in which an employee displays a particular emotion at work to achieve his or her job objectives. The target audiences for these specific emotions are: customers, customers, subordinates, or co-workers. "Smile Service" in the service industry is regarded as a kind of subscript, emotional labor is not considered to be an additional value, more like a worker to get the minimum wage of a standard.

In 2005, sociologist Rebecca Erickson interviewed 355 married and working parents. Research concludes: Not only emotional-related work, but in caring for children or housework, is related to gender role building rather than gender. We suggest that women are more motherly, more emotional and more gentle, and therefore suitable for "emotional management" work. We expect women to be "softer, more patient, more considerate, more lubricated and more nervous", both in the home and in the workplace.

This kind of emotional management projection, constantly catalyze women to practice more "love of labor", such as: false orgasm is to maintain the dignity of men, playing a good wife to maintain family harmony ... Emotional labor from the family savage growth to society, is undoubtedly the mechanism of reproduction of gender inequality, with emotion and family as an excuse to belittle the market value of female labor, but also must provide men to bear any feelings and family-related responsibilities. (Recommended reading: housekeeping, false orgasm, smile service: Emotional labor is not a woman's gift )

Monthly wife and monthly salary, Madam President? Those unpaid wives.

The most recent classic response to emotional labor, there is no more than VCDs "Monthly wives", in addition to the value of the mother to visualize, but also in the intimate relationship we can measure the female "extra care": to help you remember the position of underwear socks placed, responsible for children's education status and performance of responsibility, on Earth, these why is " Woman's duty? "

However, female workers are the phenomenon of globalization, women in low-income countries leave their native families because of family economic difficulties, and move to other countries with the position of domestic nursing, through emotional labor to make up for the gradual imperfection of their economic development and gender equality, female runaway families. Emotional work ", this is a transnational replication, we also use cheaper prices to hire other women, to make up for the family care function of the job is always the bottom of the service economy. Although we can outsource Labor services, it seems to promote the "developing countries" gender equality, but did not shake emotional labor is the bottom of the economic position.

Looking to the wife of a president who is equally unpaid as an emotional labor, the same dilemma is faced by the wives of the family and migrant women who use emotional labor as a trading tool-do I have the right to choose not to serve others with emotion? Can my labor be priced even if it is willing to pay?

The mother's labor, the first lady's labor, is not to support the male outside the "help", we must face up to women to pay more emotional labor facts, as a legitimate work.

But whether the answer is a monthly wife's practice, or the emergence of high-end robots to carry out emotional labor, the most important first step, is that every family member, each social structure of the people, should abandon the false dependence of women unpaid work, let the flow of resources and other gender sharing, so that harmony and peace become the common responsibility of mankind.

There is a need to solve the problem of female workers under globalization, who will fill this position? is also a woman fan 1Q asked the public the first question: women can take care of everything? Madame President, can you not make diplomatic lubricant? Can the mother abandon the responsibility of the husband and the child? Can women's existence transcend the "success of assisting men"? The way to find the answer is far, we start from looking directly at the plight of the collective women.