Time to share the load

Once in a meeting at work my female colleague was asked as to how many hours does she work? She replied that she works in two shifts. After finishing her paid job she comes home to the second shift. This
answer of hers made me think as to  how selfish we male are. We have been ever demanding. We want perfect clothes, perfect house, perfect food and every thing perfect around us including a perfect wife. But we have never realized what sacrifices our mother, wives do to gives us all the comforts we get. Today women spend more time of their lives working at office and at home. Women put three more hours each week then men doing the laundry. While the male enjoy these three hours enjoying television or spending leisure time the women of the family are working hard to do the laundry or cleaning the house. Even mothers
who work full-time will still put in a week and a half’s worth more time on household tasks than their male partners each year. Women spend twice the time on child care, housework, cleaning, doing the
laundry than dads do. There is no biological determination for house work or doing the laundry then why this double standard and injustice. Girls are asked to do more work around the house than boys. Girls did two more hours of chores a week while boys got twice as much time to play. This dynamic carries a lesson for both genders. Girls learn that housework falls on their shoulders, and boys learn that girls will clean up after them. As the girls are given the housework, they are trained to do the house work that is why boys tend to assume domestic chores are women’s work. All the women do the chores without pay. Women are told by parents, advertising agencies and a host of other societal forces that they are responsible for keeping the house clean, cooking food, taking care of their husband and children and doing all the laundry of the household. Society molds the way each gender views unpaid work, its household chores. Now it’s time to think of a long term solution to this problem by nipping the prejudice at the bud. Children learn what they see and what they are taught by their parents. So if they see that household chores are the exclusive domain of women, they will carry this prejudice well into adulthood.81% of married men in India agree that their daughters must learn household chores.78% of girls in India agree that they should learn laundry as they will have to do it when they grow up. Now its time to change the way people think or the society thinks. I have started doing my own work and help my mom to do the laundry.

 “I am joining the Ariel #ShareTheLoad campaign at BlogAdda and blogging about the prejudice related to household chores being passed on to the next generation.”

I am going to share the load

  In a male dominated world the task of doing the laundry has been relegated to the women. This notion has been passed on through generations, but its not necessary what has been followed through generations has to continue for ever. I did the same and so did my mother. We have been taught since childhood that the house belongs to the women and the outer world belongs to the male. I still remember my father was completely dependent on my mother for all the clothes and laundry and so was I. Without even thinking twice I ordered her to get my white dress for Friday ready for school or the special dress which I had planned to wear on the weekend. I never thought why laundry is my mother’s domain or rather the work of the women of the house. It does not require any special skill to wash one’s clothes. The technology has become so advanced that it does not take much time to wash the clothes. Moreover Ariel has introduced such good quality washing powders that washing of clothes is hassle free and helps to get rid of stains easily. Our society's mentality is such that we men think that its not our job to do house work or laundry I would like to apologize to my mother for all the trouble I have given her. She always did my work with a smile and without making a complaint. But I vow from now onwards that I would do my own laundry and won’t burden her with my work. When I will have my kids I would make sure I teach them to do their job themselves. Women are not made to do housework only. They have their own lives and have the right to spend their time in whatever way they want. In a way we are passing on the prejudice of household inequality to the next generation. It is time to stop this injustice. I support Ariel to further the cause of equality within the household to get men and women across the country to #ShareTheload. No one has ever thought this way.

 It’s a remarkable initiative. Ariel made me realize this otherwise I would have followed the same way and passed on this injustice to the next generation. This issue is often overlooked. We have to understand the root cause of this prejudice and prevent it from passing down from one generation to the next. Children learn from what they see and hear. They do the same what they see their parents doing and the onus is on us to set the right example. We must take steps to end this prejudice.  Its unfortunate that 76% of married men in India believe that not helping with laundry at home still make them a great role model for children and this is the reason that 2 out of 3 children think that household work is a mothers job which is not true.




“I am joining the Ariel #ShareTheLoad campaign at BlogAdda and blogging about the prejudice related to household chores being passed on to the next generation.”