Yes, he recognizes that the more entrenched the norms, the more courage it takes to confront them. He told me he thinks that standing up to unfair norms is nothing more than exactly what men everywhere should be doing. I thought that, in many ways, what these men were doing was extraordinary. They were also trying to persuade other men in their village to adopt the same approach in their own homes. They spoke with pride about how they were bucking tradition by sharing household chores with their wives, co-managing their finances and making big decisions together. While we were there, I met with a group of men who were working to shift gender norms in their community. Two summers ago, Rory and I took a trip to East Africa - just the two of us - to see some of the work our foundation is doing in Malawi. When we talk about these issues at the dinner table, he (and his friends!) have a lot to say.īut there is one memory in particular that I hold in my heart. Across 18 years of conversations, sharp observations and everyday actions, he’s demonstrated his belief that gender equality is something worth standing up for. To me, the fact that we haven’t always managed to keep these biases out of even our own household underscores how important it is to teach kids to recognize them and call them out when they see them. These are little things, but they’re also exactly the kinds of unconscious behaviors that, over time, contribute to societal expectations that men should do the heavy lifting, and women should handle the housework. I was also disappointed to notice that I often held our daughters to a much higher standard than our son when it came to keeping their rooms clean. I will never forget the moment a few years ago when I realized that I had been asking Rory to take the garbage out and not his sisters - a task that studies say usually goes to boys more often than girls. Of course, anyone who’s tried parenting won’t be surprised to hear that the realities in our household didn’t always live up to our ideals.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
June 2023
Categories |