Abstract
The aim of this article is to analyze practices related to the duties of housewives in the context of 1950s Finland. This is done by examining narratives by women in urban, Swedish-speaking parts of Finland. In these narratives, the women talk about their duties at home during the 1950s in relation to the question of the professionalization of the role of the housewife at that time. The text focuses on three duties of the housewife: cooking, cleaning, and washing, and, additionally, to some extent, practical childrearing, as this was one of the main reasons the women stayed at home. The material for this study consists of interviews conducted in 2010 with women who have been housewives all their lives in the Swedish-speaking parts of Finland. They were all born in the 1920s and 1930s and are from urban middle-class backgrounds. In the narratives, the women challenge and reshape existing images and ideals. The material is analyzed on different levels with a focus on fixed expressions, for example, “I became a housewife,” or “You had to stay at home.” These expressions comment on the women's experiences relating to dominant cultural story models, or master narratives. The fixed expressions can be looked upon as crystallized comments reflecting master narratives about being a housewife.
