STRIKE! Millions of women will stop cleaning house on Aug. 15

Millions of women are set to stop doing housework on August 15 and organizers of the strike say the stoppage will last as long as it takes for men and kids to realize that cooking, cleaning, mopping, ironing, vacuuming, washing clothes and dishes and doing windows and scrubbing the johnnie is NOT women’s work only.

Men and children are likely to suffer most during women's strike

All I’ve got to say is, ‘Beware the Ides of August,’” Rhonda Bishop-Morley, of the firebrand women’s rights group, Women Unleashed, told me exclusively.

“Women have come a long way since the 1950s when we were afraid to demand help around the house because men controlled the money, and if we complained, they’d cut our ‘allowance.’

“Now we’re making as much money as men, and in some cases a lot more.

“And yet somehow we’re still expected to come home after a hard day at work and get cracking on ‘our’ chores.

“Sorry, Charlie. Those days are over. If you think the garbage is stinking up the house, take it out yourself. While you’re up, why don’t you vacuum the living room and scrub the toilet.

“This gal ain’t doing it!”

Women Unleashed came up with the idea for a “chore strike” over two years ago and has been promoting it in women’s magazines, on radio and television talk shows and over the Internet.

Bishop-Morley, who founded the group, claims 2.2 million women have pledged to join the strike through Internet sign-in screens and “I’m In!” coupons that they clipped out of magazines.

The unprecedented campaign has been largely ignored by mainstream media because, according to Bishop-Morley, “the media is male dominated and the last thing men want are women who demand that they share the housework.

“They’d rather spend their leisure time flipping through channels on the TV, playing golf or hanging out with the boys at the bowling alley, sipping cool brewskis like they’re kings.”

Carroll Allan-Fenster, 34, of Wichita, Kansas, says she hopped on the chore-strike bandwagon when it occurred to her that she was working 10 hours a day hawking perfume in a discount department store, and then coming home to a houseful of hungry, smart alecky teenagers and a hubby “who weren’t turning their hands to help with anything.”

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“It was up to me to cook, clean and do everything else that needed doing around the house – they refused to even take the clothes out of the washer and put them in the dryer,” she fumes.

“For a long time I thought I was the problem. I thought I was angry because there was something wrong with me, that I was an unfit wife and mother. But Rhonda and her group showed me the light.

“There’s nothing wrong with me. My husband and kids are bums.”

Joining the strike is easy, says Bishop-Morely. All you have to do is stop “lifting a finger for anyone but yourself” on August 15. Be sure to write to newspapers and magazines

When your husband and family start whining and complaining, calmly tell them that you won’t be doing chores anymore until they sign a contract agreeing to take over their share of the housework.”

You can negotiate any way you like. If you don’t mind cooking, by all means, keep cooking. Just make other family members sign your contract agreeing to do things you aren’t so keen on, like cleaning the toilet, scrubbing the kitchen floor or wiping soap scum off the bathtub and shower curtain.”