Real "Housewives"?

I really enjoy watching the "Real Housewives" series on Bravo, which includes groups of women from New York, Orange County, and Atlanta, that are very wealthy. The show follows the women throughout their day and viewers get a glimpse of what it would be like to live such a lavish lifestyle. Many of the women and their families own numerous houses, vacation houses, or nice boats. However since I began watching the series, I have been confused out the name, which does not represent the women at all. First of all, this is not the life of a "real" or normal housewife in America. Second, none of the women are actually fit the definition of a "housewife" as defined by dictionary.com as "a married woman who manages her own household, esp. as her principal occupation." Most of the women in the house do manage their own homes well and their husbands are rarely seen, but they have very successful jobs away from the home. Vikki, an Orange County housewife, is the best example of this because she is a realtor for very expensive homes and is ALWAYS working. When "the girls" go out for the weekend, Vikki is notorious for bringing her lap top and typing away the whole time. She defends herself by saying that she has extra time and does not want it to go to waste. The women all seem very independent and in control of their homes and jobs.
I thought that this was worth mentioning because, to me, the word "housewife" has a bad connotation and describes a woman whose only place is in the home- to cook, clean, and relax when those are completed. The women on the "real housewives" are not lazy and do not only reside in their homes. This reminded me of the article we read in class titled, "Beauty and the Patriarchal Beast," which sends a message to readers that producers of television shows are not as innocent as they may seem because they have seemingly successful women that always submit to their husbands in the end. In this case, the women are submitting to the production series by being given the label "housewives."