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The topic we decided to choose for this assignment was the "sandwich generation" phenomenon. I, personally, find this topic very interesting because I find myself questioning the continuation of the statement, "go make me a sandwich," males tend to make in this present day. This topic is relevant in my life because I currently live in a household where the man cooks the meals 95% of the time and never complains about it. I also watch nothing but the Food Network on television and I'm always quick to recognize that the majority of the top chefs or contestants on competitive shows are, as a matter of fact, males. Therefore, how come women are still looked at to be summoned into the kitchen and expected to make food for the men?
We decided to interview three generations:
My mother, May, who is 48 years old.
My grandmother, Soly, who is 69 years old.
My sister-in-law, Alyssa, who is 25 years old (my own generation).
My mom is a filipino Christian woman who had her first child at the age of 20, and got married at the age of 21 to her high school sweetheart. She has worked her same current job since she was 18 years old in the sales and marketing business. She goes to church 3-4 times to week to help out with church activities and for the weekly Sunday service. She has been married now for 28 years to my father, Arnold, and their marriage is as strong as ever.
My grandmother is a filipino woman who moved to Canada 30 years ago with her husband, Leonardo, as well as my mom, my aunt, and two uncles. She used to work as a teacher and then at a bank until she retired due to getting sick. She has been on dialysis for many years, and just recently had undergone a mastectomy surgery to remove stage 2 breast cancer. She is currently going through radiation therapy as well as her dialysis appointments. She is the strongest, kindhearted, loving woman I know.
My sister-in-law is a half Caucasian, half Trinidadian woman. She has been with my brother, Andrew, since she's been 17 years old. They have a 2 year old daughter, Violet, and have been married for 1.5 years. They currently moved into their own place just over a year ago and I have been living with them for the past 7 months. She went to school for Law Clerk at Durham College and has been working in that field, in real estate, since graduation. She is currently working for the Region in the Municipality of Whitby, as well as a part-time server at Boston Pizza.
We chose these group of women because we felt that having a different ethnicity would provide us different perspectives and information on the topic based off of various traditions and living in various countries. We also felt that since they are all very close to me, we would get detailed and informative information that I would be able to relate, look back on, and recognize now that maybe I missed or never noticed growing up. We also felt that since they are all a generation apart, their information would be able to show good insight on how this topic has morphed throughout the years.

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My sister, Megan, May, and myself.

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My sister, Soly, and myself.

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Alyssa and I

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Women of the earlier generation dealt with the idea of being in the kitchen, cooking for men and children to be the total norm. Travelling back to the 1950's, gender roles were black and white; men being known as the "alpha" figure going to work and making all the money, while the women were degraded further education and stayed home to cook, clean, and watch the children (Holt, 2014). Since women had no motivation to aspire more for themselves due to the societal standards of gender roles, they remained passive and continued to aspire to be the best housewife they could be (Holt, 2014). Women of this time period did not know any better than to idolize marriage and being a caretaker. One of the most popular magazines in the '50's was called "Woman's Home Companion" and posted articles about how to "maintain the home, fashion trends, and concepts of social reform," (Kelshall, 2013)  Looking back at my own experiences, every cook book or recipe that has been in my family have been from women; my grandmothers, great-grandmothers, etc. Whenever my family would get together for celebrations or a family event, all of the food was always provided by the women. During holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter, my grandma, mom, and aunts would all be in the kitchen cooking and preparing food while the men and children mingled throughout the house.
Much did not change in the 1960's regarding women's role in the kitchen other than the upgrading appliances that were invented to increase ease and convenience for women. New refrigerators with multiple shelves, outdoor freezers, and double rack dishwashers were invented to allow women to prepare, store, and clean more efficiently (as shown and described in the video below). Could this have been a type of propaganda to keep the women in the kitchen?

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Day in the Life of a Kitchen - early 1960's - The Stay Home Mom

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'A typical day in modern kitchen. Mom is "operations chief" - she creates and prepares in the kitchen." In the early 1960's - an era of valium addiction to cope with this oppressive ideology left over from the 1950's. Propaganda to keep women in the kitchen, lucky it didnt work.

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Today's generation commonly jokes about how women should "be in the kitchen" and uses the common statement of, "go make me a sandwich." However, I feel that through my experiences, men and women cook both equally and don't complain when they have to. I feel that people use these terms more loosely because they are joking around, and don't actually 100% believe that women, and only women should be in the kitchen cooking.
Between my boyfriend and I, I am always the one to cook; that's because I love cooking. However, my boyfriend always tells me to sit down after so that he can clean up. I believe that in earlier years women would have to do both, because that is what was expected. When we spoke with Soly regarding this topic, we started with "Did you find yourself cooking and cleaning most of the time as a parent?" After we asked that, her first instinct was to laugh. She then said "Of course I did, I don't think Alexandra's grandfather ever cooked one meal in the kitchen, not even if he wanted a single piece of toast." She then also explained how after moving to Canada and the years went by, it started to become normal to have men cook, which is when her two sons began learning how to cook meals. She stated that although her husband didn't help her cook, he still maintained helping by doing groceries, or cleaning up the house. She explained how things were harder that way because after work, she didn't want to cook a full meal for six, but May helped out a lot.
When we spoke with Alyssa, who is 25 years old, she explained how her husband does the majority of the cooking. She stated, "Andrew loves to cook, and will be helping in the kitchen whenever he can." We then asked if she thinks he feels like he is taking on a "traditional female role," and she explained how he never makes comments regarding that topic, and although some of his friends may joke around about him being in the kitchen, they as well cook meals for their families/girlfriends or themselves when they are at home.
I think today's generation has evolved into something a lot better than how things were years ago. I know for a fact that if my mother, or myself, weren't home or didn't have time to cook, that my father and boyfriend would make something, and make sure to save some for us when we got home.

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I believe that stereotypes like this affect our generation because it makes females feel more inclined to "like" cooking, or to be the one that provides food for their families.
This statistic I found stuck with me: "On an average day, 19 percent of men did housework--such as cleaning or doing laundry--compared with 49 percent of women. 42 percent of men did food preparation or cleanup, compared with 68 percent of women" (Sifferlin, 2014). Although this was from a few years ago, I still believe the numbers would fall similar. Although the percentage of men doing house work is low, the percentage of men cleaning/cooking is very high. This shines the light on the fact that men do help cook and clean, however doing laundry and vacuuming is still considered a traditional female role, however I feel like over the years, that number will increase dramatically. I also found that "Canadian women on average spend 254 minutes a day cooking, cleaning or caring(for children, we assume), whereas men spend 160 minutes on the same tasks" (Huffington Post Canada, 2015). Those numbers are pretty close, and compared to back in the day, the women's time would most likely be doubled, and the men's time would be either cut in half or less. In an article we read regarding gender roles, one webiste made a good point. They stated that because of how big technology is getting, men have easier access to recipes and tutorials on how to cook than they did back in the day. Which then brought them to this statistic: "A higher proportion of American men — 43 percent — are cooking these days than at any point in the past 30 years. Meanwhile, they're spending more time than ever before — 49 minutes a day — doing so then posting on social media what they made" (Premack, 2016). Tying social media into this topic was something I didn't think about. Men may feel more pressured to cook now because they see all there friends posting pictures of food they've eaten, and want to be able to relate. Also having the access to thousands of online recipes and videos that show you step-by-step tutorials makes cooking very easy.

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This stereotype has a small impact on me. Although I know it is present in today's society and people consider it an issue, I don't think it has affected me overall that much. Like I said up above, my father and boyfriend are both very helpful when it comes to cooking meals, and even cleaning up after. I believe that women years ago had it much harder than I have it, and that men didn't help them out as much as they should. I know my grandmother said that her life could have been easier if her husband was to help her out in the kitchen more, but she also explains how she has some sort of "higher dignity" because she provided for her family all of her life.
At my age, my grandmother had two children, a husband, a job and a house to take care of. She worked Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm and then came home and made meals for her family. Her husband would get home around 5:30 and then sit on the couch and wait for dinner. He didn't help the children with their homework; like she did, and he didn't help get them washed up for bed. She explained how he would get groceries and vacuum once a week, and carry down the laundry basket to the laundry room so my grandmother could do it.
I am a server, so my schedule fluctuates. I have a boyfriend and live at home with my parents. I buy all of my food myself and try to meal prep at least once a week to save time. My parents also cook food daily and split the work. My dad loves to BBQ, and cook things outdoors. My mother does a lot of the cooking inside. They both equally clean up and help each other out.
I think that the times years ago were much different, and maybe even harder than they are now. I believe that men and woman both equally help each other out these days, and men are more inclined to help out in the kitchen.

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When interviewing my grandmother, Soly, about this topic, her answers matched most of the research I conducted about this time period. She spoke about how in the Philippines she didn't work and spent her days cooking her four children breakfast, lunch, and dinner; cleaning the house and doing laundry (by hand because they did not own a washer and dryer), and looking after the children. She explained how she got married at the age of 18 to my grandfather, Leo, and everyday he would go to work, come home, eat, play chess, and then go to sleep. Once my grandparents moved to Canada, Soly explained how her role as a woman and housewife drastically changed. Due to the demands, change in living compared to the Philippines, and my grandfather's gambling problem, my grandmother had to pick up two jobs just to get by. She no longer was able to cook, clean, or take care of the children so my mother, being the oldest, took on the role. When I asked Soly how her daughter handled such responsibility she replied, "I would prepare dinners for the whole week when I could and would store it in the freezer, that way in the morning before my first job, I would take it out for it to thaw and then May would just have to heat it up or prepare it for her brothers and sister."
When the '70's hit, the role of women changed immensely. Women began aspiring more for themselves in the aspect of education, freedom, and leisurely activities for THEMSELVES (Sandbrook, 2010). In 1972 the popular magazine to this day, Cosmopolitan, was released; empowering women to seek ambition and professionalism in the world (Sandbrook, 2010). This was the time that women stopped living for their man and started to live for themselves. They began to form friend circles with other women to conduct in more feminist activities, where as the men began to spend after work hours with other guys watching sports, or heading to the bar (Sandbrook, 2010).
During the time of the '80s, women were in the workforce and began making careers and lives for themselves. Although there were still gender roles regarding income, men having more job opportunities and making more money (Beall, 2016), women thrived to obtain equal rights and wanted more for their sex. When interviewing May, she explained how she worked a 9am-5pm job Monday through Friday and that my dad worked shift work. Since their schedules conflicted sometimes, my dad would have to make dinner for my brother, sister, and I. She stated, "When I was home early enough or whenever I could, I would make the children dinner or prepare it beforehand so they just had to heat it up." This makes sense as this is what my grandmother did when she was a working parent. This is a prime example of how mothers pick up habits or duties that their mothers used to do. I remember as a child my dad cooking quite often. Although he did put food on the table, it was nothing compared to my mother's meals. My dad often resorted to Kraft Dinner with tuna and peas; although delicious, very quick and easy. My mom would always make meals that contained all food groups; salmon with brown rice, broccoli, and a light cheese sauce. She would then clean up after dinner, where as my dad usually left the pot on the stove.
Although there is still stigma regarding women belonging in the kitchen, I feel that it stems from the older generation who lived in that time era and feels uncomfortable with the change in gender roles today. We can never get rid of ignorance, opinions, or history, but with continuing to fight for our ambitions and independence, women will always continue to make a difference.