Workin’ Hard or Hardly Workin’?

600319_10151984748612846_1645845760_nIt’s not as if I haven’t worked before. I spent years running after eight year olds at a YMCA summer camp, and helped run programs for Duke’s Women’s Center over the last few months. I even played sports and volunteered after the hours upon hours I spent at school. It’s not as if I haven’t worked before….so why am I so tired?

I’m pretty sure I spent the first few days of my internship relaying those thoughts to my fellow moxies. The hour-long commute to and from work coupled with the eight hours of work absolutely exhausted me. But the word exhaustion just didn’t do the feeling justice. My muscles were tense, my neck ached, my back was sore, and although I feel passionately about ending street harassment and love Hollaback!, I got home feeling, quite frankly, grumpy.

dinner

Dinner!

But that’s just it—getting home wasn’t the end of my day. I’d have to spend at least half an hour cooking dinner for myself and take a shower and do more work for my program. The days felt so long, but I was still getting eight hours of sleep! I didn’t understand what was going on. The exhaustion would not go away.

You should know a little bit about me. I’m twenty years old and in good shape. I’m single. I have Internet access most of the time and I have enough money to purchase ingredients to make myself meals throughout the day. I’m white. What should you have gathered from that? I don’t have kids. I’m not married. I’m young and I don’t have health problems. I don’t have to wake up early to stand in line at the library to use a computer to send an email. I don’t struggle to eat. I’m privileged.

Thus, I find myself thinking about working women, and working moms. Women who struggle. Women who commute and work long work days and have to come home and take care of their families. Even female breadwinners in partnerships do most of the housework—most of the family care. This means that the vast majority of employed women who have families work long workdays like I do (and probably in less rad jobs), come home to feed their families, clean the house, and take care of the needs of their children and/or partner. With that exhaustion. Let me emphasize: with that exhaustion.  Adding a struggle of class—of making enough money to clothe or feed or maintain good health—complicates the situation further. Adding a discriminatory struggle faced by those of different races or sexual orientations makes things even harder.

I found myself thinking about that a lot this week, and I’d love to hear what your thoughts (and what helps you after a long day of work!). Hollaback at yo’ girl!

One thought on “Workin’ Hard or Hardly Workin’?

  1. Hi Maya

    As I read this, part of me thought “wait till/if she has kids!” There is a concept in gender research in agriculture about women’s farming productivity is lessened because she has less control over her time and more daily responsibility (i.e hauling water, feeding the family, sick children, etc). Thus men farmers are seen as “more valuable.” But if the shift of control over time balanced out… so would the dis-proportionality (see http://www.fao.org/sofa/gender/key-facts/en/ and http://www.wikigender.org/index.php/Women's_Empowerment_in_Agriculture_Index)

    So the fatigue you feel puts you in solidarity with more women in the world than you can ever imagine.

    In the meantime, working women often discover how to make amazing, healthy meals in minutes. My new favorite is http://seattletimes.com/html/pacificnw/2021115569_pacificptaste09.html

    Maybe fatigue is the mother of invention! Hang in there!

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