Posted on 12/25/2022 7:12:41 PM PST by FarCenter
Philosophers seeking to answer questions around inequality in household labour and the invisibility of women's work in the home have proposed a new theory -- that men and women are trained by society to see different possibilities for action in the same domestic environment.
They say a view called "affordance theory" -- that we experience objects and situations as having actions implicitly attached -- underwrites the age-old gender disparity when it comes to the myriad mundane tasks of daily home maintenance.
For example, women may look at a surface and see an implied action -- 'to be wiped' -- whereas men may just observe a crumb-covered countertop.
The philosophers believe these deep-seated gender divides in domestic perception can be altered through societal interventions such as extended paternal leave, which will encourage men to build up mental associations for household tasks.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Two things, first, when you cut out the extended family you just end up with a young couple that will be quickly over their heads with the workload that children bring. You will also have an early shutoff of the number of kids that can be safely cared for if there aren’t aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins to pick up the extra work even if the woman stops working outside the home.
Second, when there is only one inexperienced guy around and the workload is multiplying, he’s apt to be like the managers I spoke of who pretend that the pink collar workers are just freeloaders who do nothing. It may take an older more experienced man (or manager) to point out a better way (while at the same time allocating resources to help relieve the burden). You get that with extended family, and there is also some of that where I work. Upper management has evidently grown alarmed about the staff turnover and has begun to take steps.
The nuclear family alone isn’t going to be stable. It needs to be plugged into a larger family unit. Think of a single nuclear family like a new small business. Is it more likely to succeed as a standalone sole proprietorship or as a franchise of a larger business?
Well in farm families (great grandparents were farmers) everyone did everything with great grandmother doing the cooking and working out in the fields with the men. Military family grandparents, same thing, you did what needed doing. It was with the hippy dippy parents where all that went out the window (briefly, before it all went kaput), and in jobs with suburban types where I began to be cautioned not to lift 25 pound objects for fear that my uterus would fall out!
Yeah, I hate it when that happens.
I worked for a freight company where many of the data entry jobs were performed in air conditioned comfort while the physical work involved heavy lifting in the Phoenix heat.
The data entry jobs could be learned in a day.
The physical jobs involved operating heavy machinery which took weeks or months to master. Many of the jobs required high degrees of physical strength, CDLs, hazmat endorsements, physical exams every two years, FBI background checks, random drug tests, and involved constant danger and legal liability.
Truck drivers and dock workers meeting those requirements are difficult to come by, while data entry employees are a dime-a-dozen.
Which group do you think was paid more?
Yep. That’s my husband, the engineer.
Well, we women are judged by other women when it comes to tidiness and fashion, whereas men really don’t care so much (at least not straight men). If the bed isn’t made correctly, it reflects poorly on the wife, not the husband — yes, even if the critic is a loudmouth women’s libber. Go figure. We women tend to be our worst enemies.
Back in the 60s, 70s and even the 80s, women’s clothing styles changed drastically every year. I hated that. Clothes were relatively quite expensive then, and much better made, but went out of style long before they wore out. Starting in the 90s, clothing styles became more flexible and lasted much longer, but the cheap imported clothes wear out before they go out of style. I guess they get our money one way or another!
I agree men are smart not to care so much about that all that stuff.
The problem is, that wrap job is agony to achieve. It did not happen easily. It did not happen quickly. It took more time and grief to wrap that package than it did to earn the money to buy it in the first place.
The wrapping is a tribute to despair. A cry for help.
Pro tip: Gift bags. Tape some forgiving tissue paper around your gift, throw it in the even-more-forgiving gify bag.
Wow. That’s a budding young hoarderess there.
Yuck.
Well, in your example did the truckers make frequent raids on the pool of data entry workers to do the grunt work outside while requiring that the data entry people simultaneously to keep up with their own workload indoors (since that workload theoretically doesn’t exist)? When data entry workers called out or fled to other employers and there were only finite man hours available for the work at hand, was the data entry work suspended in favor of keeping the truckers trucking, or did the truckers have to suspend their own work to cover the data entry shifts because without the pink collar workers no money comes in, no customers are waited on, and the place would quickly stop meeting its payroll?
A rat that size ran right between a friend’s feet one Saturday night, while we were walking to a bar.
I’ll never forget that scream.
Scratch “to”
The misogynist version:
Men may not ‘perceive’ domestic tasks as needing doing in the same way as women( needing doing), philosophers argue>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Grammatically correct:
Men may not perceive necessary domestic tasks in the same way as women perceive them, philosophers argue
In another words, apples to oranges. Mission critical work should be respected.
Thank you Fai Mao.
...there is a lot of humor and wisdom in that book, even through it is a dystopian sci-fi novel.
You can train someone to play chess in a day, but that doesn’t mean they will play it well.
That would be Slovenly Depressive Disorder.
I think AnAmericanMother asked you a question but it went to me instead if you want to catch up with her about it? Post # 249. :)
It takes time, like working out a budget or the general rules for childcare or in-law visits; but if they are of good will, they will both make the effort to sort it out.
Days is a different matter.
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