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At what point, do men - smart as a whip and raring to go in their careers, become these little babies at home incapable of doing a job without being told what to do and how to do it?
Why don’t men take the initiative at home? Because they think it is their right to buy their free time with the unpaid labour of their women – wives, mothers, sisters, daughters, and of paid domestic help?
The best piece of advice I received in my first job at 23, when I was sitting idly at my desk, was from a male colleague who told me – look around, learn by observing and don’t sit waiting for instructions. Take initiative.
At what point, do men – smart as a whip and raring to go in their careers, become these little babies at home incapable of doing a job without being told what to do and how to do it? The same men in corporates, having been entrusted with strategic decision making power affecting many lives and millions of dollars seem to think 10 steps ahead and deliver action without being told.
Beyond all that is done at home by the woman, the wife, the mother, the daughter, and is the invisible emotional labour. Emotional labour is like the sun’s rays. Invisible to the naked eye but intrinsic to the existence of the planet or the home.
Men don’t ‘get’ emotional labour, because they do so little of it. Explaining it to them is also a form of emotional labour.
Take for instance, reminders
Reminding family members of stuff each person needs to do, sounds easy, but try doing it consistently for a year and see if you don’t feel resentful.
Also reminding is never once. You will need to remind partner, child, parent, domestic worker, multiple times to get the job done. And guess whose fault it is if you forget to remind for the 34th time and the deadline for the task is over?
Or food, even if she doesn’t cook herself
Even if the cooking was outsourced to a domestic worker or a cook, the responsibility of meal prep still lies on the woman’s shoulders.
What does meal prep entail? Well, everything from
Phew! And then rinse and repeat the next day. Food management in the kitchen is a relentless thankless job until eternity with nary a day of rest.
In many homes, family members wait for the woman to return home from work to ask her the silliest question – what’s for dinner? Or announce – I’m hungry, the minute she enters the house, as if she and only she holds the secret key to the kitchen or the fridge.
These are fully grown, adult men who have probably just returned home after closing a multi million dollar deal.
Which brings the discussion back to where it started.
Why don’t men take more initiative at home, when this is the first lesson they learned to become successful in their careers? Is it because there’s big bucks involved at the workplace by taking all that initiative? What’s in it then for the woman who takes does all this at home?
There is this whole stereotype about Men being from Mars and Women from Venus perpetuating the fallacy that the genders are so un-alike that they could be from different planets. This is then further misused to justify men’s inaction or inability to understand what women need and want.
It’s not that hard really. Tasks around the house don’t need to be told to any adult who inhabits that space. The insistence that men are not mind readers and must be told in clear terms what needs to be done is a lazy excuse for not displaying initiative. Who tells the woman then? How does she know what needs to get done?
Telling or instructing what has to be complete, is delegation. When a task is delegated, the original owner of the task is still responsible and accountable for the execution of it.
Any man holding a job anywhere in the world is fully aware of this distinction – that of ownership and delegation.
So, when a woman delegates a task to a man, or in simple words asks for his help – he is only executing her instruction. It is still her responsibility that the task is completed correctly and on time. No surprise then that most women would rather do it themselves, than put themselves through all this emotional labour for a task that is 60-70% done by them anyway.
While these are a couple of examples there are a ton of other emotional labour a woman does that is even less visible – remembering family members’ birthdays and other special days, planning reunions, birthday cards, gifts, visits to the elderly or a sick relative etc. The list can get very long.
True partnership occurs when each one brings their 100% to the relationship. A home is well run when everyone contributes fully without having to be told, or reminded or supervised. When each one takes initiative and believes it is their responsibility to get the job done.
Image source: stills from the short film Juice
I am a banker, author, poet and an intersectional feminist. Speaking up on social issues, mentoring and coaching and cooking up a storm for friends and a certain strapping 21 year old boy are what read more...
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Neena was the sole caregiver of Amma and though one would think that Amma was dependent on her, Neena felt otherwise.
Neena inhaled the aroma that emanated from the pan and took a deep breath. The aroma of cumin interspersed with butter transported her back to the modest kitchen in her native village. She could picture her father standing in the kitchen wearing his white crisp kurta as he made delectable concoctions for his only daughter.
Neena grew up in a home where both her parents worked together in tandem to keep the house up and running. She had a blissful childhood in her modest two-room house. The house was small but every nook and cranny gave her memories of a lifetime. Neena’s young heart imagined that her life would follow the same cheerful course. But how wrong she was!
When she was sixteen, the catastrophic clutches of destiny snatched away her parents. They passed away in a road accident and Neena was devastated. Relatives thronged her now gloomy house and soon it was decided that she should be married off.
Women today don’t want to be in a partnership that complicates their lives further. They need an equal partner with whom they can figure out life as a team, playing by each other’s strengths.
We all are familiar with that one annoying aunty who is more interested in our marital status than in the dessert counter at a wedding. But these aunties have somehow become obsolete now. Now they are replaced by men we have in our lives. Friends, family, and even work colleagues. It’s the men who are worried about why we are not saying yes to one among their clans. What is wrong with us? Aren’t we scared of dying alone? Like them?
A recent interaction with a guy friend of mine turned sour when he lectured me about how I would regret not getting married at the right time. He lectured that every event in our lives needs to be completed within a certain timeframe set by society else we are doomed. I wasn’t angry. I was just disappointed to realize that annoying aunties are rapidly doubling in our society. And they don’t just appear at weddings or family functions anymore. They are everywhere. They are the real pandemic.
Let’s examine this a little closer.
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