Gender Roles

In the Women’s Lit class, we’ve been discussing (arguing through) gender roles. Each participant has her or his own concept of what those roles are, and how we should meet expectations. In between online discussion, we at home have been getting ready for dinner company.

He’s scrubbing the floor, and I track through the kitchen, an extension cord looped over my shoulder, a 3/8” variable speed drill in my arm, the metal 25’ retractable tape and the extra screw eyes in my hands. The dogs follow (one set of big footprints, many sets of small foot prints) because they harbor suspicions about the floor scrubber eating their toes. If we had framed the 40 x 60 inch poster in the garage that wouldn’t have been necessary, but the only empty space large enough was the extended dining room table. Tonight, with guests coming, we need to clear off the woodworking project and bring ourselves up to standards. [Whose standards? I ask myself. Yes, but nobody wants to eat on top of the picture, I answer.]
This morning, he made a grocery store run for milk (tonight’s dessert) and liversausage (what makes the dog world go ‘round).
While he slept, I baked a cherry pie and formed the first two layers of Millie’s Butterscotch Dessert. He will cook the meat, because he's better at it than I am. I could have gone to the store for milk; instead I did laundry and worked on the college lit class.

The bottom line is that I can run around with drill and tape measure, my hands smelling of 30 year old hardware because he makes it possible by electing to scrub the floor, and he can sleep late because I enjoy early the everything’s possible potential (and its resultant ability to get the baking finished) of early morning. It works because we want it to, because we have learned over time (and usually remembered) that gender roles exist, but they exist to serve us, not the other way ‘round. Each of us doing what we like to do best - mixed with love and compassion - result in a world turning ‘round the right way, and good things to eat for us all.