The Housewife who got off the Couch - Essay Example

In an article entitled “The Housewife Who Got Up Off the Couch,” the story is told of Eleanor Josaitis. Josaitis is a Detroit woman who, as a housewife and mother of five, decided one day that she was going to make a difference in her backyard. Working with other community leaders, Josaitis has been successful in founding a non-profit organization in the heart of Detroit that provides job training and support for low-income families designed to get them off of the poverty rolls. Analyzing the article for evidence of enlightened self-interest provides clues to Josaitis’ goals and ethical principles as well as provides tools for assessing the role of ethics within the business organization.

Enlightened self-interest is a basic concept stating that the best way one can help oneself is to help others. The article refers to this type of interest when it illustrates the reasons why Josaitis began getting involved in her community. “In 1962, as she sat watching a television program about the Nuremberg trials, Josaitis – then a housewife with five children – asked herself what she would have done if atrocities were taking place in her own backyard” (147-148). Discovering that atrocities were taking place in her backyard in the form of the Civil Rights Movement in the South followed by race riots in Detroit, she co-founded the Focus: HOPE organization.

Thus, Josaitis was motivated to help others because they were suffering near her own home. Her participation in protest movements in support of the black people’s bid for equal rights is an example of indirect enlightened self-interest in that Josaitis knew something had to change for black people but did not see the immediate connection to her personal living situation. This became direct enlightened self-interest when she watched her city burn during race riots, literally