Wages for Housework: The Feminist Fight Against Unpaid Labor by Emily Callaci. Seal Press, 288 pp., $30.
IT WAS THE FIRST OF MAY, 1974. Children sprinted across the patchy grass of Prospect Park, the magnolias were still in bloom, and it seemed, for a moment, like Mayor Abe Beame’s deal with the governor would avert the city’s impending fiscal crisis. A group of women—no more than ten—fanned out across the meadow and handed out flyers: “MAY DAY OR MOTHER’S DAY?” The question was spelled out in scratchy capitals, flanked by crude drawings of a heart and a Venus symbol breached by a fistful of cash. “After decades of workers’ struggles, in the home we are still working for free,” their tract declared. “This is what is glorified on Mother’s Day, our unwaged work.” The last line swelled, “WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT MILLIONS OF SINKS, MILLIONS OF MOPS, millions of diapers, millions …” There, it trailed off.
The New York Wages for Housework Committee announced itself that day, not only to oppose the festival of sentimentality that is Mother’s D…
