The Meaning of Wife: An Interview

Last night we had a couple of our friends over...Ken and Gail, two of the smartest and funniest people I've met since moving to California. They're like Himself and I...fairly liberal, lovers of cats, eschewers of child-bearing...and they make really good dinner party companions. Of course, that might just be because they appeared to enjoy the gin gimlets which I promptly foisted upon them. (One of the reasons I love Ken and Gail was because when I offered to make them a gin gimlet, Ken's response was, "Who drinks gimlets? Are you channeling Julie Powell?")

Anyway, I was quite eager to grill them on their views of "the meaning of wife" and the burning question of, "Can one be both a career woman and a housewife?"

Gail's decided response was "No." With the addition of "Not as I view the term 'housewife'."

We talked about that for a few moments, and then debated the definition of the term "housewife." (Now I'm wishing I had not had that second gimlet, otherwise perhaps I could remember more of the exchange). And then, like the good liberals we are, we conceded that we guessed "it depends on how one defines the term "housewife".

Ken's response was a little more ambiguous, and provoked even more liberal ponderings on social views and expectations and their evolutions. The end result of this impromptu and decidedly un-scholarly study was...well...darn those gimlets, anyway.

One thing, however, does stand out in my mind. We decided that, if one were to be both of those things, they would have to be neither a high-powered career chick (and let's face it, as an L-I with approximately several gabillion bosses--three at the library, one or ten or so above them, to say nothing of the taxpayers of Sunnydale II-- there is no way in Zeus's holy scrotum I could possibly be described as "high-powered") nor a particularly competent housewife. Which is comforting on many, many levels.

So, maybe I'm no closer to establishing the answer to this burning question...or maybe I am on the way to defining the meaning of wife for me.