Since this is a site for "boomer women" I want to make an appeal to my sisters: we should not feel defensive about raising children and taking care of the house! We may be the only women in the world with this problem -- I lived overseas some years ago, and I remember that Italian housewives went on strike for benefits! and they got them! Yes, housewives have pensions. Meanwhile, back in the USA, women were either dressing in man like suits or apologizing for being housewives and staying home. We need to recognize our collective worth and our collective power and not let the world tell us what's good or bad about what we do -- we already know it. We need to be proud. AND I'd say it's high time housewives qualified for health benefits and retirement -- I'm not sure how it should be funded, but I think we can figure that out. Other countries do this. Have you ever looked at the social security benefits summary, for those years you stayed home? You earned zero.