4.4 Physical Science teachers’ personal and professional ‘gendered’ experiences
4.4.1. Personal Experiences of gender at home and community as a child
4.4.1.1 Gendered Division of labour at home and community: We grew up doing different chores
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equally. The findings also highlighted that teachers believe that there is no gender equity in education in general because in schools there are large numbers of male school principals as compared to females. This trend was also observed when I was doing recruitment at the schools, one female principal was found.
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work as their mothers and boys would do the work done by their fathers. The findings showed that household chores were divided according to femininity and masculinity. Nhlanhla responded, “it was according to gender lines that the domestic types like housekeeping, cleaning cooking was for my sisters and the hard work-manual work, like looking after animals, and making repairs all that were for the boys”. David added, “we grew up doing different chores. Our sisters prepared meals and washed the dishes. They knew that it was their responsibility to feed us. Boys’ work was tearing the land, grazing cattle and so forth”. Smanga summed up the household chores of these teachers as “girls were doing domestic work like washing dishes cleaning the house, cooking and doing all the work that was supposed to be done by girls. We as boys were doing gardening, looking after cows and goats then the work was divided according to gender lines. You could not find me washing the dishes, because even if I am willing but my parents will shout at that one”. This division of labour according to gender lines is consistent with what Connell (2006) affirms that in many societies and cultures, certain duties are performed by females and some by males.
It was surprising to find that no male participants felt bad about the different labour division because they thought that it was tradition and culture, whereas female participants felt that it was not fair to them. Male teachers indicated that this is how it should be done because of their culture and tradition. When teachers were asked about how this division of labour made them feel, Nhlanhla stated, “it was fair. I had no problem with it because I found it not to be difficult because it was part of the culture. When I grew up I was always told that this is for girls this is for boys and we just joined that band work so we had to do our work as assigned to boys and girls assigned to their chores, we never thought there could be any change to it. We just grew up with it, lived in it”. Smanga also agreed with Nhlanhla “I didn’t feel bad because the way I grew up it was like that and now where I am, because I am an educator now I see that that was wrong but by that time I did not feel bad. I thought it was cultural, it was procedural we should live with it”.
The male teachers also indicated that there were no specific issues with different labour division because this is what was happening in the community. David elaborated: “this division of labour was so because our society had categorised them as either male or female roles. It made me feel as one going through what the society believes a man should do in order to be accepted in a society”.
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On the other hand, female participants indicated that this was not fair to them because all the domestic work was done by them and they said that this was too much to attend to. Their household chores were so demanding that they did not have even time to play with other children, whereas boys would have enough time to go out to socialise and play with other boys. It was even worse if you are a first-born in your family because you will be expected to look after your siblings. Lattifa unhappily stated, “I felt very sorry for my sisters because they have to do all the work and also look after us. And they were beaten time and again even for crimes they did not commit”.
Nonetheless, the male participants did not see anything wrong with different labour divisions at home while it was in practice, but they indicated that it affected them as they grew older. Since the labour was divided according to gender, they did not learn how to do domestic work. When it was time for them to start working and becoming tenants or to live on their own, they indicated that they struggled because they were supposed to do their own household chores. Some of them even could not cope when it was time for their sisters to get married because they were expected to do cooking and other feminine chores. Smanga stated, “I was a tenant one day where I was doing girls’ work. Washing dishes cooking etc., it was very difficult for me because they never groom me to do that in the earlier experience but later it takes some time for me to keep the house clean and to cook. And everything, it affected me in a big way”.
David also added, “this changed with time when my sisters got married. My brother and I started cooking. We lost that gender privilege of eating meals that we never cooked”. These results are consistent with what Joseph (2011) found in the study of boys’ perceptions about gender. He found that females and males received different treatment at home. Work was divided according to gender. This gendered division of labour corresponds with what Walters and Manicom (1996) called the first pillar of patriarchy. This is “the sexual division of labour that assigns men and women to different occupations and thus to different levels of prestige and reward” (p.23). This gendered treatment channels boys and girls to different levels of expectations, as they grow older.
According to the interviews, four out of six participants grew up in households that were dominated by girls. The findings revealed that the older girls in the family attended to most of the household chores and looked after their younger siblings while their parents were working. This girl domination exposed these girls to more gender inequity, because some of them were doing tasks that could had been done by boys. The findings presented above highlight the cultural norms of
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division of labour according to gender lines. From the findings, it was noted that in almost every household participant’s, the work was divided by gender. This resonates with Kimmel and Holler (2000) that “labour is divided according to gender lines (as well as by age)” (p.50). Labour is assigned to males and females according to their gender. This means that in families and societies, there are tasks that are reserved for men and others are reserved for women. From this perspective, the gender division of labour is explained based on the biological meaning of gender. This means that if you are a boy you are expected to go hunting and if you are a girl you will cook and do the washing.