A friend of ours has been married to a chauvinistic business man for five years, during which she has been doing all the housework. In his opinion, sharing the household chores is against the “traditional” roles of society. Therefore, he is always making sexist remarks on what men and women are to do.

On our friend's birthday last year, we were having dinner with them at my friend's flat when her arrogant husband made a scornful comment. “Let´s go to the balcony to have a drink while she does the washing up,” he uttered, staring at our friend. We couldn't believe our ears. Although we were used to his derogatory attitudes, that was the last straw!

To his astonishment, our friend remained sat at the table crossly and suggested his doing the housework that day. Laughing in her face, the inconsiderate man refused to do what he considered to be “woman chores.” Then, he stood up and swaggered towards the balcony.

To avoid getting into a heated argument, our friend ended up doing the washing up while her insensitive husband was waiting for her preparing some drinks. Nowadays, he still doesn't help her with the household tasks.

Analysis of the real-life situation:

We have decided to analyze the worlwide belief that the role of women is to be "housewives." The reason for choosing this topic is our growing concern about the perpetuation of such a stereotype of women during this decade. It is unbelievable for us that the media as well as society still hold this traditional idea about the social role of women in spite of the significant progress on the rights women have achieved. The widespread use of this belief is due to the historical thought about women as those human beings who are "weaker" than men and are only capable of doing the household chores. Therefore, the purpose of this collaborative job is to

It is mainly related to the social roles of women and its historical tie to social norms ever since the media and society have been setting standards for social roles. Even the word “housewife” has changed and is now well-known as “homemaker.”

“There’s a tradition of fixed stereotypes and there is a lack of desire to change, which leads to perpetuation of the idea that women belong to a certain category or belong to a certain social role… Ads usually show that women are incapable, dysfunctional, and can’t handle two or three things at the same time.”

Ajami adds that even a woman who works and multitasks is still, and at all times, identified as a “housewife.” She always belongs in the kitchen, preparing food, cleaning, and cannot have fun. She cannot smoke a cigarette without her fear of a man – referring to the U.S. Virginia’s Cigarette ad using the slogan: “You have come a long way, baby”.