Gender and work
All of us might recall from a basic science course or a physics course that work is done when a force that is applied to an object moves that object. The work is calculated by multiplying the force by the amount of movement of an object (W=F x D). The concept is not complicated. Yet, what “counts” as work varies according to the culture and, very often, the gender of the person doing the work. Somewhere along the way humans – mainly men – decided that the day-to-day definition of work would often be determined by whether or not the culture had determined that the task performed was directly or indirectly being compensated in the form of money or perhaps goods. In many places in the world the work done by women was either not considered work or was determined to be “just women’s work” which was not deserving of an income large enough on which to live independently. This had, in part, to do with the fact that money or some other medium of exchange provides the freedom to live independently. As long as women did not get paid they had to stay in a relationship. Sometimes women would be “given” money for grocery shopping or other household expenses. If a woman found herself in an abusive relationship she might be able to surreptitiously save money out of the meager food allowance which would eventually allow her the ability to leave that abusive relationship. One woman I know saved for three years. The day she was going to leave with the children her husband found and took the money. She had to start saving all over again.
The concept of masculinity is culturally defined, but amazingly in many parts of the world there is a similar definition of masculinity. Frequently the definition of masculinity is the exact opposite of femininity. If, for example, women are free with showing and sharing emotions, men are very guarded about showing emotions. Men like to think of themselves as physically strong and women are thought to be weak and physically helpless even if they are responsible for very demanding physical tasks which require a lot of physical strength. On the other hand, if a task requires physical strength but is not a task for which one is paid, it may be labeled as simply “women’s work.” Although, on the whole there has been a slow process of re-examining and changing some of these cultural rules and traditions, all too often they remain intact.
I was thinking of these and related issues this morning after hearing an NPR report about the fact in many rural villages around the world water has to be carried for long distances, often in 5 gallon containers which when filled with water weighs 40 pounds. Whether or not the men are working at another job, this is considered women’s work. If children are enlisted to help, female children more often share these chores than do male children.
If an adult male does decide to share the task of collecting and carrying the water other males will often make fun of him for breaking the rules and doing something feminine.
Today, at least in the United States and some other countries, adult males may be the stay at home parent while the woman in a heterosexual relationship earns the primary income. Often, however, the stay at home male accomplishes far fewer tasks than the woman who is a stay at home parent.
(If one wants to research just the one task of carrying water one can go to NPR and search for stories of women and water carrying tasks.)
For many years and even more so in the past 50 years or so women (and some men) have been questioning what it means to be masculine and what it means to be feminine. It seems that the definitions have little or nothing to do with chromosomes, genitals or physical size. It is more related to who is making and controlling money and, thus, who is able to exercise control over others. Often it is males who are in charge of determining who has power (or the illusion of power) and, thus, who has money and the consequent access to the freedom to live without emotional or physical abuse.
It is interesting that we have often held on the myths about masculinity or femininity even as machines have taken over much the physical labor in some parts of the world. Much of what we now label as work does not require any physical labor and yet we may hold to our rigid constructs of masculinity and feminity. There is movement towards changing these constructs, but we still need to seriously question what we want to teach our male and female children about these constructs. If we want strong and capable males and females we may want to begin helping very young children explore how they are going to define themselves. If we are not going to use chromosomes or genitals as the determinants of gender roles than we may want to explore using the same moral values or characteristics for both healthy males and females. In other words, we may want to focus on our similarities rather than our differences. We may also want to revisit the basic definition of work and explore what work is worthy of a decent wage or income.
We may also want to explore defining masculinity in terms of such values and behaviors as honesty, heart/ability or courage to love, willingness to share parenting and household tasks, spiritual courage, and a willingness to reduce or end sexism, homophobia, racism and other forms of oppression.
Written June 3, 2017
All of us might recall from a basic science course or a physics course that work is done when a force that is applied to an object moves that object. The work is calculated by multiplying the force by the amount of movement of an object (W=F x D). The concept is not complicated. Yet, what “counts” as work varies according to the culture and, very often, the gender of the person doing the work. Somewhere along the way humans – mainly men – decided that the day-to-day definition of work would often be determined by whether or not the culture had determined that the task performed was directly or indirectly being compensated in the form of money or perhaps goods. In many places in the world the work done by women was either not considered work or was determined to be “just women’s work” which was not deserving of an income large enough on which to live independently. This had, in part, to do with the fact that money or some other medium of exchange provides the freedom to live independently. As long as women did not get paid they had to stay in a relationship. Sometimes women would be “given” money for grocery shopping or other household expenses. If a woman found herself in an abusive relationship she might be able to surreptitiously save money out of the meager food allowance which would eventually allow her the ability to leave that abusive relationship. One woman I know saved for three years. The day she was going to leave with the children her husband found and took the money. She had to start saving all over again.
The concept of masculinity is culturally defined, but amazingly in many parts of the world there is a similar definition of masculinity. Frequently the definition of masculinity is the exact opposite of femininity. If, for example, women are free with showing and sharing emotions, men are very guarded about showing emotions. Men like to think of themselves as physically strong and women are thought to be weak and physically helpless even if they are responsible for very demanding physical tasks which require a lot of physical strength. On the other hand, if a task requires physical strength but is not a task for which one is paid, it may be labeled as simply “women’s work.” Although, on the whole there has been a slow process of re-examining and changing some of these cultural rules and traditions, all too often they remain intact.
I was thinking of these and related issues this morning after hearing an NPR report about the fact in many rural villages around the world water has to be carried for long distances, often in 5 gallon containers which when filled with water weighs 40 pounds. Whether or not the men are working at another job, this is considered women’s work. If children are enlisted to help, female children more often share these chores than do male children.
If an adult male does decide to share the task of collecting and carrying the water other males will often make fun of him for breaking the rules and doing something feminine.
Today, at least in the United States and some other countries, adult males may be the stay at home parent while the woman in a heterosexual relationship earns the primary income. Often, however, the stay at home male accomplishes far fewer tasks than the woman who is a stay at home parent.
(If one wants to research just the one task of carrying water one can go to NPR and search for stories of women and water carrying tasks.)
For many years and even more so in the past 50 years or so women (and some men) have been questioning what it means to be masculine and what it means to be feminine. It seems that the definitions have little or nothing to do with chromosomes, genitals or physical size. It is more related to who is making and controlling money and, thus, who is able to exercise control over others. Often it is males who are in charge of determining who has power (or the illusion of power) and, thus, who has money and the consequent access to the freedom to live without emotional or physical abuse.
It is interesting that we have often held on the myths about masculinity or femininity even as machines have taken over much the physical labor in some parts of the world. Much of what we now label as work does not require any physical labor and yet we may hold to our rigid constructs of masculinity and feminity. There is movement towards changing these constructs, but we still need to seriously question what we want to teach our male and female children about these constructs. If we want strong and capable males and females we may want to begin helping very young children explore how they are going to define themselves. If we are not going to use chromosomes or genitals as the determinants of gender roles than we may want to explore using the same moral values or characteristics for both healthy males and females. In other words, we may want to focus on our similarities rather than our differences. We may also want to revisit the basic definition of work and explore what work is worthy of a decent wage or income.
We may also want to explore defining masculinity in terms of such values and behaviors as honesty, heart/ability or courage to love, willingness to share parenting and household tasks, spiritual courage, and a willingness to reduce or end sexism, homophobia, racism and other forms of oppression.
Written June 3, 2017
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