Clases de Inglés en Valencia
Yes, we have all come a long way since the days of the women’s sufragette movement in the 19th Century; or have we?
Nowadays, the popular media outlets want us to believe that Europe and the rest of the developed world has completely eradicated inequality between the sexes; yet every week I come across stories and witness first hand, the many stereotypes which create this very same inequality which is supposedly non-existent.
In order for political change, there first has to be very small changes made by individuals in their own day to day lives. Over the years, I have shared flats with many boys and girls and although there has been the rare exception, as you can imagine the lion share of the household chores were carried out by the boy’s girlfriend or mother. When such issues are raised, it is usually followed by the phrase » but my mother is such a sweetheart, she is always cooking and cleaning for me», when asked why they don’t help or in many cases even know how to cook, the glib answer is that «she (my mother) enjoys cooking and cleaning for me». This in my opinion seems besides the point as the individual’s motivation should be to learn such skills so as to become a fully formed, independent adult in their own right.
I think both parties can share part of the blame here and this doesn’t mean to say that there can’t be women who genuinely enjoy household chores, however it still seems to me that statistically, the number of women who take charge of this aspect of domestic life, far outweigh their male counterparts and in addition to this, the men seem all too willing to stand aside and let them take over. I can think of examples of grown men, (25 plus), taking a sports bag full of dirty laundry to their mother’s home to be washed and ironed for them, only to retun with all that as well as a box full of tupperware food to last them the rest of the remaining week.
If current attitudes are a reflection of social conditioning, then isn’t it time we made some changes and levelled the playing field? or is it really as popular media is telling us and is it simply I who am out of touch?
Personally, I believe that a lot of things surrounding this issue are only true in theory but not in practice and that equality has much to be left desired. There are still many jobs and professions which are 80% or 90% dominated by men or women, due to a social conditioning which automatically eliminates men or women’s interest for certain professions, in more extreme cases by even creating a kind of stigma for the person who is interested.
In short, social change begins at home!
