What you said about "The problem with Hirschman's latest book is that she accepts a completely patriarchal definition of "work"."

That is exactly right. Hirschman is clearly no student of history. Women who stay home aren't disrespected by society because they stay home; staying home is disrespected because women do it. Textile factory work, clerical work, teaching, heck, obstetric and pediatric medicine-- all of those careers lost prestige and pay as soon as they became equally or more dominated by women. If we value women, we will value what women do, whether that is staying home or astrophysics.