#genderdivision

Lorde, “The Master’s Tools will Never Dismantle the Master’s House”

Coltrane makes a lot of interesting points in her study. Marriage is indeed one of the least scripted or most undefined interaction situations, and the marital conversation is particularly important to a couple's shared sense of reality. There is no exact script to marriage and no particular guidelines to follow, however, patterns can be seen as to what gender should do what chores. In her study, though she chose a lot more "modern thinkers" (in the sense that they shared a conscious belief in dividing household chores and child care), the study still reflected a lot of gender in regards to who does what task. With the exception of some couples dividing straight down the middle, general everyday house tasks were still done by the woman. And additionally, more praise was given to the father when he did more "motherly" tasks. I think this observation is particularly interesting as well. Fathers who did more around the house were more praised and admired than mothers. Some mothers were even seen praising their husbands for tasks and more noticeably, outside families more familiar with the traditional ways of parenthood deemed the men as extraordinary, and the women as 'lucky' to have them. Whereas, the men were never told how 'lucky' they were to have a wife so involved in child care and home chores. However, conclusively, I think dual responsibilities between the parents allowed for both participants to be more emotionally and physically connected to their children. The study shows that this generally occurs between well educated couples, who decided to wait until their late twenties to conceive. Though more difficult in the sense that it deviates from the norm as well as how they were raised as children, I think the attempt of the exclusion of gender in household tasks creates a better home life.