When you hear the word “housewife,” what comes to mind? A 1950’s-era mom vacuuming in heels and pearls, perhaps? Or maybe a screeching backstabber on a reality TV show? No matter what image you see, a recent survey found that two-thirds of stay-at-home moms dislike the word "housewife" and the rest find it insulting.

It wasn’t always that way. In fact, the term “housewife” didn’t even exist before the second Industrial Revolution. With the arrival of steam engines, railways and automobiles, men began to go to work in factories and offices in cities, away from home. So housework became “women’s work...” basically, work that didn’t matter because it had no impact on the economy. In fact, in 1900, the U.S. Census formally categorized housewives as “dependents" and lumped them together with children, the sick, and the elderly. So, it’s no wonder it has a negative connotation.

By the 1970s, the number of married women in the workforce tripled and the term "housewife" just wasn’t applicable anymore. Yet these days, the term has been resurrected and is now associated with scheming, backstabbing women.

So, what do stay-at-home moms want to be called? The top answer, according to a recent survey, is "Domestic Goddess".