Asking men to cook isn't telling women not to cook

Many Tamil men came to the idiotic conclusion that by encouraging men to do housework – cooking, cleaning and everything in between, it is the relieving of women doing housework, namely meaning that girls need not learn cooking.

Now, let's get to the facts.

On Indian men doing housework:

“A recent survey by Organization for Economic co-operation and Development (OECD) says that an average Indian man has the dubious distinction of spending all of 19 minutes a day on routine housework, among the lowest in the world.

Three other Asian nations scored low on the index — Japanese (24), Korean (21) and Chinese (48). So where can you find a man who does housework? In Slovenia where men spent 114 minutes a day on unpaid housework, followed by Denmark and Estonia.”

Japanese women, who choose to pursue careers after marriage are called ‘devil wives’ because it’s their social construct that a woman should stay at home and manage the family. Note Nobita and Shin Chan’s mothers. Yay, we’re not alone.

On Indian women going to work and earning:

“Despite the quiet revolution in women's employment around the world, India has been an anomaly, with female workforce numbers+ continuing to slide. A mere 27% of working-age women were working in paid jobs in 2015-16. A decade ago, in 2004-05, this share was 43%, the same as in 1993-94. In rural India, the slide has been much worse as agriculture fails to absorb them. India was ranked 136 among 144 countries on the economic participation and opportunities index in the Global Gender Report 2015. Clearly, something is wrong somewhere in our society that prevents women from working.”

What we are doing is equalising things and normalising Indian men doing housework and Indian  women working and earning. The goal is, both men and women going out to earn and taking equal responsibility in managing the house and children. If either spouse chooses to stay at home, a source of income should be undertaken –work from home because you can’t run to your spouse for every little thing.

I don’t know if it’s stupidity or inability of reason is at play here for these Indian guys but I think they just don’t want the status quo to change. They also bring irrelevant sentiment like love and care where housework is concerned. All we’re doing is achieving balance. It’s subliminal for Indian women to learn housework but not working and earning. It’s the reverse for Indian men. What we want to achieve is housework as a gender neutral survival skill and financial independence for everyone.

We can only encourage something where there is a set of people is lacking in. Basic common sense. Women are already doing housework typically and men are already going out to work typically as per stereotyped gender roles – wouldn’t it sound absurd if we encourage women to do housework and men to go out to work when both are commonly manifesting factors? It's like encouraging boys to play American football and girls to play netball.

Hope y’all understand!