Indian Women Compete for "Housewife Award"

When I say “Housewives”, you think “Desperate.” Or maybe “Real.”

Vrinda Goel, ex-homemaker and president of New Delhi-based non-profit Aas (it roughly means “Hope”), wants to change that.

On Saturday, Goel oversaw the second Housewife Awards, a pageant that crowns an Indian housewife based on her knowledge of current affairs and receptiveness to social change — as well as her ability to wear a formal sari.

8,000 women filled out the nomination form, which asks entrants what they think of the Delhi government, whether they believe they have “a right to spend money for personal choices and desires”, and what they consider their greatest achievements as a homemaker.

Aas has a noble mission: “To honor the woman of the house — the one who puts her husband and family before self, who brings up her children at the expense of her own needs and sometimes health, who acts like a thread binding all her relationships.”

But this argument is a little too familiar. Women don’t need power… they can have power at home! Women don’t need to vote… they can influence their husbands’ ballots!

I’m not buying it— and neither is Twitter: