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I agree with your basic sentiment, that it's wrong that we so often assume that housework is women's work, and that it would be better if that gender expectatio

I agree with your basic sentiment, that it's wrong that we so often assume that housework is women's work, and that it would be better if that gender expectation were not taken as a fundamental given. I disagree with the view that the washing machine, and other domestic labor-saving devices, haven't been deeply beneficial for hundreds of millions of women, even though it is still a mistake that we still see doing the laundry as a job for women. I disagree because changing cultures is really hard and really slow, while changing technology is, by comparison, incredibly easy and fast. And it is absolutely better to make easy, fast changes, whenever that is possible, than to sneer at them because they do not solve the underlying problem. They still solve some part of the problem. Sometimes to a significant degree. That matters: billions of hours of trivial human labor have been saved, many of them going instead to the leisure, study, and thought necessary to move people toward the real solution.

aaron695 10y ago
> that it's wrong that we so often assume that housework is women's work Have you seen the work men do in poor countries? Do you really expect women to be doing this work and the man stays at home doing house work? I do see women carrying huge bags of concrete, masonry, pulling carts along occasionally. And I find it heart breaking. It's body ruining as a man, for women to be doing it is an even lower level of poverty that they are at. There is a lot of 'let them eat cake' going on here.
- YeGoblynQueenne 10y ago
  No, I think what's going on here is "let them use washing machines". Like- Problem: women are treated as domestic slaves. Solution: get them domestic appliances. Well that's just ridiculous.
- frostymarvelous 10y ago
  Exactly the same argument I advanced to @YeGoblynQueenne. Where there's no option, you have to split the roles. And where you split the roles, you can't make one party burdened unnecessarily.

aaron695 10y ago

> that it's wrong that we so often assume that housework is women's work Have you seen the work men do in poor countries? Do you really expect women to be doing this work and the man stays at home doing house work? I do see women carrying huge bags of concrete, masonry, pulling carts along occasionally. And I find it heart breaking. It's body ruining as a man, for women to be doing it is an even lower level of poverty that they are at. There is a lot of 'let them eat cake' going on here.

YeGoblynQueenne 10y ago
No, I think what's going on here is "let them use washing machines". Like- Problem: women are treated as domestic slaves. Solution: get them domestic appliances. Well that's just ridiculous.
frostymarvelous 10y ago
Exactly the same argument I advanced to @YeGoblynQueenne. Where there's no option, you have to split the roles. And where you split the roles, you can't make one party burdened unnecessarily.