Only joking a bit
One of today's jobs
A woman's work is never done. Barefoot, pregnant and chained to the kitchen sink.Maybe that's a joke, a cliche that's old hat, but not entirely...
Survey after survey show that women do the lion's share of domestic chores regardless of how much paid work they do.
They have precious little time for themselves and constantly report feeling tired. (These surveys are filed under No Shit Sherlock.)
This is 2012 and equal opportunities have been enshrined in law for many years now. We all know the numbers suggest that the glass ceiling is barely cracked, but at least we know what should be happening.
However, it's the not-at-paid-work time I'm interested in.
When I'm not working I want to do stuff with the Boys and the Panther, and my friends and the rest of my family. I have books to read and books to write. Blogging, social media, hills to climb, countries, museums, conversations, recipes, musical theatre, sun salutations.
At the same time, I also want to have clean, flat clothes in my wardrobe, full fat toilet rolls, enough fresh groceries, a taxed and serviced car, a groomed garden and fewer weeds.
I'd like a house that doesn't scream squalor at me and clutter that doesn't threaten to suffocate.
isn't something a bit like that what we all want? Men and woman.
Obviously I am a woman and I'm seeing this from the estrogen side of the street. But I have known a few men, hell, I've even married a couple.
Panther of News, if you have got this far this isn't simply a nagblog, but I would like to know what you think.
I have observed that in my home and most of the homes I know the woman trends to be responsible for domestic matters. This means that even if she doesn't actually do the work she knows when it should be done and instigated our delegates it. She also thinks about it, factors it into her available time and, often, puts it before things she really wants to do.
Not the most rigorous piece of research I'll concede. However, it certainly looks like a gender issue to me. So what's going on?
Is it a throwback to prehistoric days when we kept the cave neat while our men were off hunting and gathering?
Is it that a well as producing eggs, our ovaries also reduce our tolerance to mess, dirt and disorder? Therefore we are most likely to give in and get the Hoover out.
Is it the reverse that a penis blinds its owner to dust, smears and empty food cupboards?
More paranoid. Have we managed to be persuaded that our womanly worth is measured in clean windows and home baking thus making us so busy that we have less time for proper a achievements? Keeping the competition down, you see.
I'd love to know the answer and more importantly the solution as I have a world to change and not enough time to do it in. So I'd rather not have to think about how to get nasty marks off the carpet.
Meantime, today - my day off from paid work - will be spent cleaning my squalid house because I can no longer stand it.
