Barefoot and pregnant

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A barefoot and pregnant woman, in the kitchen, cooking

"Barefoot and pregnant" is a figure of speech most commonly associated with the controversial idea that women should not work outside the home and should have many children during their reproductive years. It has several other meanings as well.

The phrase "barefoot and pregnant" was probably first used sometime before 1950. An article from 1949 states, "By early 1949, TWA was—in the words of its new president, Ralph S. Damon—both 'barefoot and pregnant.'"[1] Its usage may date as early as the 1910s. An article published in 1958 states the phrase was first used by a "Dr. Hertzler" 40 years earlier. "Some forty years ago, Dr. Hertzler advanced a hypothesis which young women of today seem bent on proving correct. 'The only way to keep a woman happy,' he said, 'is to keep her barefoot and pregnant.'"[2]

The variation "barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen" has been associated with the phrase "Kinder, Küche, Kirche" (translated "children, kitchen, church"), used under the German Empire to describe a woman's role in society. In Asian society, the equivalent phrase is, "Good Wife, Wise Mother" (originally popularized in Meiji Japan). [citation needed]

Negative connotations

A common assumption is that the expression relates to housewives not leaving the home, and thus not needing shoes. Indeed in the sex discrimination case of Volovsek v. Wisconsin Dept. of Agric., No. 02-2074 (7th Cir. September 18, 2003), the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that a woman who allegedly overheard her manager using the phrase could take her case to a jury. However, the court also dismissed the remaining claims on summary judgment with respect to both discrimination and retaliation against DATCP for lack of evidence.[3]

Feminists often cite the phrase in a negative, socially critical context. Author Shinine Antony wrote a 2002 collection of short stories entitled Barefoot and Pregnant, explaining in a later interview that, "Barefoot And Pregnant is a phrase that pokes fun at chauvinists who want their women barefoot (so that they are unable to socialize) and pregnant (helpless). This follows the general image of society in which women are merely objects."[4]

Annually, the Philadelphia chapter of the National Organization for Women ironically bestows a Barefoot and Pregnant Award "to persons in the community who have done the most to perpetuate outmoded images of women and who have refused to recognize that women are, in fact, human beings."[5]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Barefoot and pregnant.

References

  1. ↑ Forbes, Vol. 64, 1949
  2. ↑ Eugene Register-Guard, It's All Right to Keep Her Happy, But, Men, Don't Do Her Chores, Joseph H. Peck, M.D., May 21, 1958
  3. ↑ Volovsek v. Wisconsin Dept. of Agric.
  4. ↑ The Sunday Tribune - Spectrum - Literature
  5. ↑ National Organization for Women. Philadelphia Chapter Records, 1968-1977, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania
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