The second sex

Howard Zinn, PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE U.S. In between other things, I’m wending my way thru this long but indispensable book. Now at the 1960’s, and he’s talking about the position of women:

“By 1969, women were 40 percent of the entire labor force of the United States, but a substantial number of these were secretaries, cleaning women, elementary school teachers, saleswomen, waitresses, and nurses. One out of every three working women had a husband earning less than $5,000 a year.

“What of the women who didn’t have jobs? They worked very hard, at home, hut this wasn’t looked on as work, because in a capitalist society (or perhaps in any modern society where things and people are bought and sold for money), if work is not paid for, not given a money value, it is considered valueless.”

History of the 99%

From the very beginning, Zinn tells things from the point of view of the downtrodden:

“‘They [Columbus wrote of the Arawak Indians] have no iron. Their spears are made of cane… . They would make fine servants…. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.’

“These Arawaks of the Bahama Islands were much like Indians on the mainland, who were remarkable (European observers were to say again and again) for their hospitality, their belief in sharing. These traits did not stand out in the Europe of the Renaissance, dominated as it was by the religion of popes, the government of kings, the frenzy for money that marked Western civilization and its first messenger to the Americas, Christopher Columbus.”

Orig. posted on FB, 13jun2012