I don’t like how this article spins that doing housework is like a degenerate or bad thing for a woman to do. More housework = more inequality. Uh, ok.
It has to be done. That’s how teamwork, works.
It has to be done. That’s how teamwork, works.
Before the widespread automation of many household tasks (in the rich world) starting in the 1950/60s, housework was more gruelling than most paid jobs. And if you go back further, to the proto-industry of the 18th century, then housework was just work (i.e. merchants putting out work to women and children).
I think this has led to a misunderstanding of why gender inequality exists today and existed in the past. Which is unfortunate because it mainly leads to poor recommendations (particularly when people who live in one context start telling people in another context they should be more like them).
Make that 10 miles.
Your anglocentric view severely overestimates the similarly between our standards of cleanliness and theirs. I doubt these women are washing loads of clothes daily, if they even have more than a handful of items of clothing, or mopping dirt floors with any frequency.
Cooking on charcoal isn't that much worse than cooking over a modern stovetop.
You also seem to imply that men are just sitting around all day, based on the context of the message this is responding to - but I don't know enough about the culture in these remote African areas to say if that's wrong.
I don't understand this habit of bending over backwards to show that women have it harder everywhere. Aside from hauling water from long distances, the work you describe is hardly grueling - and says nothing of what the men in these areas are experiencing.
If you want to talk about gendered violence and lack of rights as second class citizens, that's one thing, but there seems to be a tendency to exaggerate as a signal of virtue or something.
While it’s not my preferred arrangement, some families have one partner worry solely about money, and another solely about the housework.
I personally know people who are in relationships with horrendous people because they have no exit strategies. This is a common thing people talk about in stay at home circles.
You might think about how that's not the case where you live/according to your background. Congratulations on being born in one of the places where it's easy to succeed!
Interestingly there exists inequality still in Western world as well. I had some interesting discussions with my wife about that.
First random article about this, but there are many more: https://www.ft.com/content/0c9f068c-711f-11e9-bf5c-6eeb83756...