Achieving Gender Equality by Mariana Dueñas Salgado

Fact #1

a01800506_ — 2023-11-14 14:25:38 UTC

Women who work from home spend three hours more in childcare than women who don’t work from home. (From: Return of the 1950s housewife)

Fact #5

a01800115_ — 2023-11-14 14:34:33 UTC

Normally, women have a very different perspective when their male partner says that they are equal when doing their house chores. (The Gender wars of household chores: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/26/gender-wars-household-chores-comic)

Fact #6

a01800115_ — 2023-11-14 14:35:20 UTC

We are born in a society that teaches us that mothers stay at home to do the household chores while dads just provide and give instructions to their wives. (The Gender wars of household chores: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/26/gender-wars-household-chores-comic)

Fact #2

a01800506_ — 2023-11-14 14:36:29 UTC

Women are thought to be responsible for maintaining the emotional well-being of their children and family members. (From: Return of the 1950s housewife)

Fact #7

a01800115_ — 2023-11-14 14:36:49 UTC

Women are only portrayed as mothers and wives, while men like adventures, as if women couldn't (or shouldn’t) do the same as them. (The Gender wars of household chores: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/26/gender-wars-household-chores-comic)

Fact #8

a01800115_ — 2023-11-14 14:38:28 UTC

Challenging and changing our assumptions about gender roles and the privilege that the culture gives to each gender is a need to make a change in this situation. (From: Flexible working can reinforce gender stereotypes: https://theconversation.com/flexible-working-can-reinforce-gender-stereotypes-109158 on April 24, 2020)

Fact # 3

a01800506_ — 2023-11-14 14:39:13 UTC

When asking a woman to do both organize and execute she is doing 75% of the work that needs to be done. (The Gender wars of household chores: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/26/gender-wars-household-chores-comic)

Fact #4

a01800506_ — 2023-11-14 14:40:26 UTC

According to statistics more than a quarter of women who have children experience negative consequences on their careers because of the lack of flexibility, for men, it is about just one in ten. (From: Flexible working can reinforce gender stereotypes: https://theconversation.com/flexible-working-can-reinforce-gender-stereotypes-109158 on April 24, 2020)

Action #1

a01800506_ — 2023-11-14 14:46:07 UTC

Spread education: While educating children on gender equality and domestic violence we can stop them from perpetuating stereotypes about the “roles” of men and women that society has established for many years. If we do not use education and information in our favor we cannot wish for things to change, it is taking action and educating with reliable information that our younger generations will be able to understand the main problems and come up with new solutions.

Action #3

a01800115_ — 2023-11-14 14:46:29 UTC

Encourage women to aspire for more: If we encourage women to study and have goals in life, they would not have to pigeonhole themselves into being mothers and housewives. We must begin to understand that women are capable of exactly the same things as men, therefore, they should have the same responsibilities.

Action #4

a01800115_ — 2023-11-14 14:47:13 UTC

Stop praising men for the bare minimum: “Wow! He helps you a lot in your household chores.” We have heard that affirmation plenty of times, but it isn’t correct at all for several reasons. The first one is that when we say the man is helping, we take responsibility away from him and praise him for doing what he “shouldn’t” be doing. If we keep on praising the bare minimum we will keep on encouraging men to not do what they are supposed to do just because they don’t receive anything in exchange while women have never received anything for it.

Action #2

a01800506_ — 2023-11-14 14:47:21 UTC

Stop excuses: Violence has no excuses, it doesn’t matter what kind of violence we are talking about. We have grown into a society that has taught us that if someone hurts us we are responsible for their violent actions towards us (mostly women). The role we have accepted for women to have in the world has justified men’s lack of sensibility and responsibility about simple and major things in life, so it is easy for them to hurt women when they do not get what they want the moment they want it and the way they want it.

Action #5

a01800115_ — 2023-11-14 14:47:44 UTC

Watch for signs of domestic violence: Sometimes we pretend we don’t know when someone is suffering from domestic violence because it is an uncomfortable topic to speak about, but it needs to be spoken and addressed in order to solve it. When someone sends the sign that he or she is suffering from this type of violence, we need to do whatever is in our hand to help them get out of this situation and not underestimate what they are going through. Helping them will make them feel confident to seek out for help and knowing they deserve better and don’t have the need to stay in that toxic and dangerous environment.

Is there anything you as a son/daughter can do to ease the burden or reduce the work load?

a01800115_ — 2023-11-15 14:13:05 UTC

We could help by dividing the tasks between the people that live in the same house, by doing this we could ease the burden our parents have of organizing and working.

What did you learn from talking to your parents?

a01800115_ — 2023-11-15 14:14:43 UTC

I learned that sometimes emotional support is really important for them, we should be empathetic with them because of all the stress it implies to keep a house neat and organized.

What do they think about the information you learned?

a01800506_ — 2023-11-15 14:16:58 UTC

My grandparents, who lived in that period of time, said that at that time it was very common and was expected for women to stay at home and take care of everything related to the house and kids. Indeed that was the dynamic my grandparents had, but nowadays, with more gender equality, they learned that men and women need to have equal responsibility in their marriage and the household.

Is the gender inequality situation true for our society, for our home?

a01800506_ — 2023-11-15 14:23:20 UTC

It is kind of mixed since I live with my grandparents, they still have a few ideas about this inequality, because that's the way they were educated and it's hard to stop thinking that. But since most of my family consists of girls (my grandparents had 3 girls) they have learned that woman is capable of many things (especially in a professional way) and just not the house.