One of my greatest fears is becoming or being labelled a “housewife.” In this era, as women, we grew up being constantly reminded that there is more to life than marriage – one of the best lessons to the Contemporary Woman. In fact, we were told that when you have no source of income, your man might not respect for you enough.
That is not why I am afraid of being labelled a housewife. After graduating from campus in 2017, I was hopeful about getting a career related to my field of study. However, as 2018 unfolded, it slowly dawned on me that it was extremely difficult to secure a job. I studied Agribusiness Management (AGBM) in campus, a field of study which couldn’t be any further from my interests, passion, and sadly, who I am as a person. It’s actually a funny story how I ended up studying that course. While I was doing my KCSE, I was sick and unfortunately lost confidence in myself. I expected to fail, or let us say, score lower results than I could.
So, when we were told to apply for our campus courses, I put Agribusiness Management in Egerton, Main Campus, as the first choice because, to me, there was no way I could achieve the cluster points required for the course. I then went ahead to put my other desired courses in the second and third categories. I wanted to be a designer, so it was either Clothing, Textiles and Interior Design (CTID), or interior design on its own. I selected these two courses in different campuses, then put graphics design as the last pick since it required the least cluster points. My thoughts were, if I do not get the design I want, then I can do graphics design – it had design in it, so it was good enough for me. Anyway, jokes on me, I outdid myself in the exam and met the cluster points to do Agribusiness Management, and being my first choice and very different from the other choices, they must have assumed I loved it! Either way, I made peace with my fate and actually grew to love my course, although I believe it did not tap into my full potential.
Back to 2018, throughout the tarmacking and applying for jobs, it so happened that most of the available slots were marketing Agricultural products. Most employers employed AGBM graduates in the same field as Agronomy graduates because we had a better grasp on marketing, management, and leadership unlike Agronomy students who only majored in crops and pests diseases.
The only problem was that Agribusiness had just one unit on crops, soils, and pests and diseases🤧 This meant that you had to relearn the types of soils, fertilizers, crop pests and diseases, and other farm chemicals, all of which I found difficult to master. No, all which I extremely hated and could not get myself to learn. Therefore, I realized that finding a job did not involve me learning Agronomy was hard, so I started to focus on other works in the line of my passion for writing, which I have been doing remotely up to date majorly. The problem with academic and journal writing, which I mostly do, is that it could be seasonal, which explains my current situation.
I mostly work from home, so with no formal work, I feel like I am reduced to the woman who only does the dishes and cleans – the housewife I was avoiding to become. Of course, it does not help that I love staying indoors. As a woman who is used to being busy and attaining personal satisfaction from working, and especially writing, and of course, viewing images of interior and fashion designs online, you can imagine how demoralized I have become.
I am not saying that being a housewife is bad; I solemnly respect women who choose to be housewives. The problem is that for me, it is not a choice. And of course, there will be the people who will say, albeit with subtlety, that your education was not necessary since you are not employed, which makes it all the sadder and depressing. So yes, being a housewife could be a noble choice. It could be. But it’s not the choice for me. Unfortunately, my current job situation makes me feel like one. But hey, at least I can write about it and feel better about myself..🙂
❤❤❤❤
Nyambura Macharia.
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