Gender Roles In My Family
Photo by MART PRODUCTION Edited On Canva
Gender is commonly known to be associated with either being a male or female. It is a term used to differentiate between man and woman as some people will say, unfortunately many have taken it beyond that to be a basis for assigning roles and respect
In my family, gender is not something my parents consider, as long as you are their child, you are all the same, whether you are a female or a male, your rights are equal and your role in the family is the same.
It amazes me sometimes when people see me doing my chores at home or at my mom's restaurant and they ask why I am doing girl's work.
I have always wanted to ask if there are some works at home that have the gender female written on them. It's just beliefs and perceptions, for example, most people believe that any work associated with the kitchen is for women and then every work that involves great strength is for men.
If you ask why it's so, they will tell you that women are weaker vessels, and men are strong, but is it true? I don't think so, I have seen hard-working women who do heavy jobs and get nothing happened to them. I have also seen men who do very well in the kitchen and nothing changed about them.
It's high time, we throw away those old beliefs and embrace reality. In so many families today, there is gender inequality, you hear parents saying, "he is a man and as such he should not do this work and that work," very bad, any parents who are like that will end up damaging the life of that child.
The difference is just that one is female and one is male, forget the deception that women are weak, it's a lie, let them build themselves and you will be amazed at what they can bring out.
In most homes and even workplaces today, women are denied certain roles due to their gender, even when they desire it and it eats me up. Roles should be shared equally. Both at home and even at our workplaces. Pushing certain roles to one gender and leaving the other is biased, it's cheating in disguise.
One thing I'll always thank my parents for is sharing roles in the family equally, there is no female or male in the house, except it's not your turn to work, you will fetch water, cook, sweep the compound, go to the farm, split firewood and so on.
I knew how to do every kind of house chore except for cooking from home, and the reason why I don't cook is that I don't know how to cook if not I'll also be cooking for the family too, in fact, recently that my cooking has improved, I am have started cooking for the entire house. There is nothing wrong with it.
Some people see it as taboo for a man to do things like that, so they share the roles in the order of gender, some for the males and the other for the females, but it doesn't appeal to me. As far as it's work and I know how to do it, I will give it my all.
There's no role that has the name of a specific gender written on it, we are the ones who came up with the idea of certain roles being for either males or females, and trust me, it's not good at all.
When you come to my house, you will do any work you are assigned, regardless of your age and also gender, I don't know why my parents raised us like that but I appreciate it. Things like that help in curbing the issue of gender inequality and promote love and respect amongst both genders.