How Times Have Changed: The 80s vs Now

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Home Ec for Girls, Shop for Boys

The Bablue Print

When it comes to divvying up household responsibilities, nobody is more aware of the “invisible load” that women have to deal with than 80s kids. After all, we are the adults now — and we have to deal with the mentality that housework is still just the woman’s domain. In 1996, sociologist Susan Walzer published a research paper that pointed to a household gender gap, stating that women do more of the intellectual, mental, and emotional work of childcare and household maintenance. They do more of the learning and information processing as well (like researching physicians or shortlisting prospective schools). Even when their partners “helped out” by doing their fair share of chores and errands, it was still women who noticed what needed to be done. Perhaps, this stems from gender-specific classes when we were growing up — women were supposedly taught how to manage a household, while men are merely available to help around the house. We’re glad that gender-specific classes are no longer in effect, but we do hope that every child learns about how to manage their own household, and how every child can have the opportunity to build a birdhouse.