Housewife's Hazards

Being a housewife is a hazardous occupation. Every year there are 4,000,000 accidents in U.S. homes which disable somebody for at least a day, and as often as not the housewife is blamed for carelessness. This, says Thomas Fansler of the National Safety Council, is unfair. At a forum on "Occupation Housewife" in Pittsburgh last week, Fansler told why:

"The average housewife has little more training than that afforded by an elective home economics course in high school. With this, she is expected to deal daily with steam and hot liquids, fire, sharp hand tools, glass and other fragile objects, detergents, harsh cleansers and abrasives, active poisons [drain solvents, ammonia, lye, etc.] and complicated mechanical and electrical appliances.

"In a factory, a worker dealing with such materials would be given not only a complete set of protective clothing, including goggles, but also a complete course of training and instruction under supervision as to how best to do the job. Somehow, the young woman who gets married and sets up housekeeping is supposed to know how to do the work without hurting herself and other members of the family."

Fansler acquits the housewife of the charge of carelessness because "the word does not explain anything, and it stigmatizes the person concerned as somehow a little subhuman."

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