An interesting debate about the politics of housework and how there is still a division between gendered work. Unpaid and undervalued housework is still considered to be women’s work and the guests suggest that this is connected to society’s views about what is considered to be work. They also talk about how this points to wider stereotypes about women as the more caring sex and how this allows men to opt out of roles that involve care (nursing, care work) or labour like cleaning.
It made me think about ideas of masculine work and reminded me of the idea of masculinity as something that is earned through performance whereas feminity is treated as being an essential quality of a woman’s body (ref).
I realised that these are longstanding concerns of mine and the program has helped me shift my idea for my project from a general project about music and health, to one that seeks to deepen the dialogue about gender in society using games.
Reference
BBC. (2025). Wages for Housework – then and now. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0027t58 [Accessed 12 Feb. 2025].
