Do people still assume that men cannot do housework?

Question

It's really getting annoying. Do you have these thoughts or know anyone with these thoughts? I'm around people who believe that men cannot do housework. For instance, I was at my work study job at the university one day and was eating a sandwich in the break room. So after I finished my sandwich, I washed off my knife and put it back. While I was doing that, this female professor was watching me and said, "You don't find too many men who know how to wash dishes anymore." and I said, "Well Dr. _____, I think men know how to wash dishes but are just lazy to do so. I get like that sometimes." and she said, "No, men just cannot wash dishes." and she went into some kinda "intelligent" rant about men who follow too closely into gender roles. All I said was "Yes, yes. I agree."--I actually didn't agree but I wanted her to go away. Anyway, that's my little experience. I'm just curious as to what people here think about men and housework in general.

Answer 1

""People" are seeing men not doing their fair share of housework"

Sure, just like "people" are seeing women not doing their fair share of "male" work, like lawn mowing, edging, auto repair, rain gutter maintenance, house painting, fertilizing, house repairs, etc.

So when are you women going to start doing your "fair" share of that work? Hmmm?

Answer 2

I think through laziness, and lack of participation, many if not most men have never learned to do housework properly. How's that for splitting the baby?

Answer 3

What a moron! (Her, not you.)

No, it's not assumed that men can't do housework -- at least not by those of us with more than one functioning brain cell.

Even in households where women do most of the housework, a lot of men do at least some of the dishwashing.

Men who don't live with women wash dishes.

She's a nut-case.

Answer 4

my husband irons, cooks and cleans. i have ironed twice since we got together!

Answer 5

Blame the media, most men are portrayed in movies and tv as being incompetent oafs who can't raise children , cook, clean or even dress themselves properly.

Answer 6

You should have told her that 50 years ago, most people believed that women were too intellectually inferior to become a professor.

Answer 7

I know how to do housework just as well as my fiancee. However, her definition of "clean" is far more rigorous than mine.

I do the dishes and vacuum FAR more often than she does. Occasionally, she will look over the work I've just done, and spend twice as long to do it again because she's unsatisfied with my performance. I never notice any difference when she finishes, but it makes her happier I guess.

She detests the way I do laundry, so she won't allow me to wash her clothes, which is fine with me. She has many times more clothes than I do, so she just saved me tons of work that she wouldn't appreciate anyway.

Answer 8

Advertisers certainly do. They always show women scrubbing the bathroom tile or running out for fast food when cooking a meal is too much of an exertion. But in my experience, men are just as good, if not better, at performing domestic tasks than women.

Answer 9

Statistically speaking, men DO perform fewer household chores, but I think the stereotype is definitely exaggerated. Look at ads for cleaning products if you want an example of this.

Answer 10

Most of the men I know do housework-they're single and take care of themselves or they're married with a wife that also works and does their share (not more or less; just their share). btw: your female professor is a jerk-.

Answer 11

Well, people doesn't think they can't , people think they shouldn't. Last week on the officce we were talking about a couple where the father was on charge of houskeeping and kids, and the mother was who earns the money, and my boss made some sexist comments as "So he was wearing dress and high heeels?". So, prejudice is the problem.

Answer 12

I would never assume this, because in my case it is not true. My husband has always been much more efficient around the house than me, anything he cleans always looks much cleaner than when I clean it.  I think your professor is talking through her hat.

Answer 13

I think that's just a very "traditional" way of thinking...and I don't think thy even really believe it, it's just a nonsensical "explanation", basically.

It's often the same way with child care. Because my husband actually takes part in the care of our child, my (crack-headed) mother-in-law thinks that "Her son" does too much...but she would think ANYTHING he did was "too much." She swears her husband never lifted a finger with their children (and complains about it), and that may be true, but that's NOT how we wanted to raise our family. Neither of us want our children growing up barely knowing their father.

It's just backwards, "traditional" thinking...let me guess, most of the people you know who think that way are older, right?

Answer 14

Personally, I have a dishwasher (Welcome to the 21st century)... *rollseyes*

When I was younger, I used to prescribe to the theory of "If you do it wrong enough times, she will stop asking you to do it". It sounds like this woman you are referring to fell for that old scam... Its saved many a man from having to do housework...

Answer 15

Men can't do housework. Ya see, the corpus callum is connected to the prefrontal cortex which is controlled by the white matter and is wired in a way in males that makes us unable to complete such tasks.

Answer 16

I am living proof that a man can and will do housework.  When i get into one of my frenzy's you prolly wouldn't recognize my place, not because of the new clutter, but it's almost spotless.  I guess it goes along with the borderline OCD i have or something.  I'll start off small cleaning one thing, find something that needs to be moved and clean that spot it's moved to, by the time all is said and done, dishes, clothes, floors, windows, tables, counters etc etc is clean.  As far as following the 'gender role'. i lived with a female who hardly ever did any cleaning, with the way i was raised i did it, even after working 10-12 hours in a day, she'd have clean clothes and dishes to eat off of.  So, I am proof that Men do know how to clean and will do it.

Answer 17

No. "People" are seeing men not doing their fair share of housework, and this is supported by research findings.  That's what women are angry about.  Scrub the toilet using your own technique: I don't give a toss how -  just do it.

All Knowing Answer Master just added one more 'won't do' statistic to the research findings.  I gave him a thumbs up for at least being up front and honest about it.  

Anyway, your Tall Tale sounds precisely that.

Answer 18

That's one person.  I KNOW men can do housework, many of them choose not to or find a woman who will do it for them.  

Your mother did a good job!

Answer 19

they can do it, just not as well.  when it comes to small details get a woman to do it, unless you want c**p stuck to your plates, and pink socks.  i like gender roles usually, i am happy to do the dusting but i'll be darned if i have to scrub a garbage can, leave the dirty heavy stuff to them