Two Faces of Eve

Such attitudes could produce two kinds of housewives. The Radcliffe student may bypass the responsibility of running a home. She will serve frozen dinners not as a substitute excused by the demands of her career but as a positive good liberating her from the demands of her home. Her career may well force her to spend less time on household chores--if so, she must avoid considering the housewife's role as a collection of trivia.

On the other hand, the Radcliffe student may decide to approach her home with the same grim determination she needs in her career. If she must cook, she will create gourmet delicacies. But this attitude will rob her, and her family of the relaxed household they need.

For creating the sort of house where a family can feel at home remains the woman's unique responsibility. Among Daedalus articles lauding the career woman and condemning our society for assuming any difference between the sexes, Erik Erikson warned that "True equality can only mean the right to be uniquely creative."

Warning Required

This warning is particularly needed in Erikson's own university. Harvard and Radcliffe are full of sociologists who debate the fine points of a woman's psychology--and of students who ignore one of the major points about her role. Whether or not subtle distinctions exist between the sexies, for some time our society will con- tinue to delegate the serious responsibility of running a home to the woman--and continue to depend on her success in accepting this responsibility.

She need not accept the Madison Avenue glamorization of domestic details like scrubbing pots nor reject the encouraging trend of returning to a career. But in taking advantage of the opportunities for a career, the Radcliffe girl need not deny the important opportunities open to the housewife. Although it may not need the academic abilities required by an English paper, cooking a good meal demands imagination and skill. Planning a party may not test the intelligence expected in a chemistry experiment, but it does require an acute understanding of people. Raising children may not benefit from a textbook knowledge of their physiology, but it is a responsibility which demands sensitivity and good humor. In rustic England, Miss McGinley tells us, the successful housewife would occasionally find a sixpence in her shoe, a mark of appreciation for her special skills.

And behind all of her attributes stands the graciousness one feels in the sort of house where people are comfortable. The successful housewife embodies the creativity of which Erikson wrote in her ability to make people feel at home in her house.

Whatever psychologists and sociologists surmise about other aspects of the female character, graciousness is certainly a cultivated rather than an innate characteristic. And this fact points up both the weakness in the average student's view of the housewife and a possible remedy for this attitude. Of course, an increased number of off-campus houses and apartments would develop enjoyment of, and pride in, the challenges of running a home. The magic solution is each woman's recognition of and respect for that graciousness which can adorn her unique role as housewife