Spanish Phrase of the Month – Ama de Casa

Last Updated on August 2, 2017 by lydiaf1963

With Mother’s Day coming up I wanted to discuss the meaning of the phrase “el ama de casa” for the Spanish phrase of the month.

The term means housekeeper, or homemaker. For my mother’s generation it would be equivalent to “housewife”, but nowadays we’d say “stay at home mom.” There’s a lot of societal pressure for women to stay at home with their children in Spain. Of course whether or not it happens depends on a number of factors, as is the case in the US. While we’ll often see beautifully garbed mothers wheeling their neatly dressed children around the park, it’s just as often the grandparents who have charge of the young ones during the day.

While the term refers to a female homemaker, amos de casa also exist. There was a recent controversy with a popular cleaner which only used images of women in its advertising and also used the feminine forms in the ad copy; implying that cleaning is strictly women’s work. The convention is to use masculine forms when referring to a mixed group. (To add to the confusion for English speakers,  “el ama de casa” is used because “la” is avoided when the noun also begins with “a”; there’s no change for the plural forms.)

The controversy was a source of amusement for our Spanish teacher and her educated female friends. None of them are in a hurry to get married because the reality is the overwhelming majority of household chores fall on the woman, regardless of her level of education or whether she works outside the home. Many of the men they meet are content to maintain the status quo. This is changing, just like in the US, but perhaps not as quickly as hoped.

Note about the illustrations: They are in the public domain and were found at Free Vintage Illustrations, where you’ll find a nice variety of graphics. I thought these were particularly adorable.