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Economics

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    $\begingroup$ No this interpretation assumes that housewives were some sort of dead weight in the household which is incorrect. In economics income=output, in past first most people were not employed so this was much more clearer both men and women just produced some output that household consumed, later during industrialization when employment how we know it today things got obscured - men exchanged their output for wages while women still created output directly for household but even if that output did not qualify as wage it’s still household income. Later during WW2 when it became normalized for $\endgroup$
    – 1muflon1 ♦
    Commented Aug 18, 2020 at 10:35
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    $\begingroup$ women to work and become more emancipated and entering workforce they simply substituted the official employment for their home production. As a consequence saying that there was any time in history where households lived on only one income is incorrect as it ignores underlaying economics. In fact in the past even children significantly participated in home production whereas nowadays they only tend to do a little bit of it (cleaning dishes/mowing lawn) so it could be even argued today even less members of households contribute to household income than previously $\endgroup$
    – 1muflon1 ♦
    Commented Aug 18, 2020 at 10:46
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    $\begingroup$ of course it is. Actually even econ 101 textbooks do that. Also by home work I don’t mean just chores for example in past women regularly repaired clothing making it so that one piece of garment was functional for a life time, in past women did much more cooking, nowadays in west people mostly eat out (at least pre corona). Furthermore a lot of food stuff such as marmalade that you today buy ready made was in past produced at home etc. If you look at economic literature I don’t think you can find anyone who would claim that woman’s household work was economically not significant. $\endgroup$
    – 1muflon1 ♦
    Commented Aug 18, 2020 at 11:19
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    $\begingroup$ Another good example would be the advent of dishwashers. Washing dishes is more labor intensive and structurally different then putting them in dishwasher. By buying dishwasher household saves all the wasted labor which is costly but also incurred an expense for procuring and maintaining dishwasher- these expenses will be recorded in statistics while the labor spent washing dishes is not but this obviously does not mean that household without dishwasher has lower expenses in underlaying economic terms. The task of washing dishes still has to be done but in structurally completely different way $\endgroup$
    – 1muflon1 ♦
    Commented Aug 18, 2020 at 11:42
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    $\begingroup$ The concept is wrong because you ignore the fact that labor is not homogenous. If two laborers are substitute for each other they might decrease the wage of each other. If they are complimentary they actually boost each others wages. Empirically most migration is complementary as workers who emigrate do so into countries where there is high demand for their work not where there is large supply. You should really educate yourself and at least read some economic textbook or research you can start with Clemens (2011) Economics and Emigration - published in one of the most cited econ journals $\endgroup$
    – csilvia
    Commented Aug 18, 2020 at 12:40