“My partner helps me with my homework. ” In our desperation, we all continue to hear this phrase, that rusty expression where a gender categorization is implied that needs to be reformulated, in a home no one should help anyone, because what exists is a common responsibility, teamwork.
In our society, despite all the advances, the change of mindset and every small achievement in the field of gender equality, people continue to realize the roots of the patriarchal model, it is a shadow still hidden in many minds or in the inertia of a language, where the idea that man brings resources and that women manage the house and children is always present.
- “Men and women must feel free to be strong.
- It’s time to see genres as a whole and not as a game of opposing poles.
- Should we stop challenging ourselves?.
Today, to think that the responsibility for household chores and the education of children is the sole responsibility of women is something outdated, a remnant of a past that no longer exists?Or at least I shouldn’t. However, we must not advocate at all costs a fair distribution at 50/50.
It should be noted that each couple is a world, each house has its own dynamics and it is its own members who determine the distribution and responsibilities according to availability, factors such as work undoubtedly determine such agreements, which must be managed. equally complicitly and respectfully.
Times have changed, now we are different, we are new, braver and with much more time than our grandparents. At least we want to believe it and we fight for it. However, there are still large suspension bridges to cross. Problems such as the pay gap or equal opportunities are factors that continue to be stigmatized by gender. These are complex struggles that women continue to face.
However, when it comes to household responsibility, household chores and childcare, progress is still expected in terms of equality, it is clear that each person will have their own personal experience, and that in every country, every city and every house, there are particular realities that shape our vision on the subject.
In fact, a few years ago Reuters published an interesting study that began with an eye-catching headline: having a partner means 7 more hours of work for women a week, with this phrase it becomes clear that inequality in household chores still exists However, this is a long way from the data obtained in 1976, when the difference was 26 hours per week.
While women fully assumed their role as housewives a few decades ago, their role has now crossed the line of the private sphere to reach the public spheres formerly occupied exclusively by men; however, sharing the same spaces does not always mean equal opportunities or equity in rights.
Household chores are not anyone’s strengths, in fact they are fully interchangeable. Ironing is not the mother’s business and the repair of the sink is not the father’s. Maintaining a home, whether economical or domestic, is something that lives under that roof, regardless of gender.
The funny thing about all this is that we always hear the phrase “Does my husband help me at home?”Or “I’m helping my girlfriend do the dishes. “Perhaps, as we said, it is a simple inertia and there is really no such thing as this harsh patriarchal system embedded in our minds where all tasks are divided by sex, everything is divided between pink and blue.
Daily chords and balanced distribution bring harmony to this domestic routine where it’s so easy to be reprimanded Aren’t you doing anything?or “it’s just that when I get there, I’m very tired. ” Agreements should not be made for simple roles of equity or gender, but by logic and common sense.
If my partner works all day and I am unemployed or chooses freely to stay home to raise my children, I cannot demand that I prepare dinner and hang up, so caring for a child is not a task to be done. you don’t have to be a “super mom. ” The child is the responsibility of those who have chosen to have it, and in addition, we must serve as a model for them, to show him by example that cooking is not anyone’s fiefdom. Making a bed, storing toys, taking care of the dog and looking after a house doesn’t help Mom or Dad, it’s everyone’s responsibility.