What would you personally consider ‘man’s work’ (if any)

[Smyths]

Just curious really. I’m a bit of a feminist type and feel like I should be able to do everything a man can and be self sufficient but just means I feel hopeless when I realise I can’t. I often expect too much of myself beyond my capabilities.

What do you personally consider man’s work (if any) and would always delegate/ask a male in your family to do?

As a parent to a boy I feel really strongly about him not seeing his parents fall into traditional gender roles.

Also, I have a professional interest in career guidance and part of that is breaking down stereotypes. It's 2020 and it's so depressing that this still needs addressing.

I do claim to be a feminist and seem to be out of kilter with most people here! When DH and I built our house and basically i couldn't physically do a lot of the stuff or it took me a lot longer to the point of it being stupid me doing it and it making more sense for me to make the lunch basically. Some things dont have to be that way, eg a brick fits an average man"s hand easier than an average woman's so society could make smaller bricks and things like sand and cement could be packaged in smaller weights so they can be lifted easier. I appreciate some women are really strong so i would never say 'cant or shouldnt' but i cant centre women and be a feminist if i pretend men and women are identical or i would never think to say 'lets deliver cement in smaller packages' or lets make that tool a different shape so more women can do that.
I thought the people saying bins, lawns and drains and spiders were being lightheated

Nothing. I had the help of three female friends for a DIY job because of lifting and moving something safely.
I don't mind anything yucky. Well, I do tbh but I have to just do it. Come on!

@Mamette Sorry I wasn't clear as I was having a moan. Its the wall tiles I was going to attempt, not the floor ones.

I tried wallpapering a while back and it looks amazing, so maybe I will have to wallpaper instead of tile the downstairs loo!

Sperm donation, male stripper, gigolo.

In our house the ‘man’s jobs are - towing the caravan, connecting up the electricity and water at the campsite and emptying the camping toilet.
I could probably do all those jobs if I had to but I don’t want to!
I do bins, lawns, spiders. He does hedges as he’s taller.
We get people in (men usually) to do diy, plumbing etc as we’re both crap!

@Smartanimal

Heavy physical stuff such as mining, drilling and fixing roads, building scaffolding, working at oil rigs, breaking wild horses in, building roads and houses etc. Women would moan and faint in these jobs. Stop deluding yourselves that you could do these shitty jobs coz you couldn’t. You wouldn’t last a day you dainty damsels.

I do agree that over 90% of women could not physically do these jobs. But there are some women who can. I’ve met some- big strong women with arms like tree trunks. For things like breaking in horses though, that doesn’t take much brute strength. I’ve seen tiny women jockeys break in and train wild horses. I even saw a women’s rodeo in New Mexico and they were just as good as the men in keeping their seat.

Also surprised at some of these comments, like it’s the mans job to change light bulbs, mow the lawn, or take the bin out.

I dread to think what the women’s jobs are. 🙄

The only things I won’t do around the house are catching spiders and going up the loft - both due to fear

In fact we joke all the time about the role reversal in our relationship. We recently moved into a fixer-upper house and I’ve done the majority of the decorating (including drywalling!) and I built all of the furniture by myself. I swear the people at Screwfix are going to invite me to their Christmas night out at this rate

DH has furnished the place and loves picking up throws, cushions and ornaments.

I do everything except getting rid of spiders. His job. I even fixed my own treadmill and rewired it today as wire had snapped when I moved it.

I took both dh and dd to the side today and told them they will get pocket money for doing chores around the house. This was dd5 and dh33 I'm getting desperate and both are lazy bums.

Oh, I forgot to list my proudest moment of DIY! Before we moved out of our rented flat I fixed the broken sink by myself. I diagnosed the problem and replaced the waste and drain trap.

I felt like a real badass wielding a wrench and I kept running the tap just to gurn at my handiwork

In our house, getting things off the top of the kitchen cupboards ( I'm a short arse) and ironing. DP irons really well, I can't be fucked with it 😁 that's it really.

Fuck all. I've worked on the doors, been a copper, worked in construction etc - nothing is male only.

Do you operate it with a penis? Then it's not male only.

I'm very small, and not very strong, so DH tends to do the more physically demanding jobs in the garden and house. It makes sense. He can do them better and more easily than I can because he is taller and stronger. He also happens to be more skilled at a lot of practical things than I am, because he has been taught things differently, which I guess is a bit gender stereotypical, but mainly because he has different interests.
He's interested in cars, so he does all the car maintenance, but I maintain my own bikes, because I'm interested in that, and physically its not too hard for me as a general rule. I do sometimes ask him to undo or tighten things that I'm not strong enough for, and he occasionally asks me to help him with jobs on a car where my small hands or thin arms are an advantage. There are some jobs on our boat that are much more easily done by someone who can squeeze into a small space. For some years I managed to delegate them to a child but now I am the smallest in the family, its me who is crawling into the smelly locker with a cordless screwdriver again.
If I was alone there are things that I currently expect DH to do that I would probably be able to do if I really had too but others that I would have no option but to pay someone else to do. I don't think there are any household tasks that no woman could do, but there are definitely things that this woman can't manage.

I often expect too much of myself beyond my capabilities

You think your incompetence is caused by the fact you're a woman???

The two aren't related, OP. You're viewing yourself through the lens of misogyny and doing all women and girls a huge disservice.

I do the decorating, put up shelves, fix any electrical stuff that kind of thing. We both mow the lawns, I weed the garden, I’ll often ask DH to dig a hole for me if I’m playing something as we have rubbish clay soil.

If it’s a job that require strength he usually does it, I have no upper body strength and have fibromyalgia so am in constant pain and tire easily whereas he trains loads and runs a lot so physically he’s a lot stronger.

It’s not really Mens/woman’s work we just play to our strengths really.

Feminism doesn’t mean women are the same as men. We are different and have different strengths (literally)...what’s the issue with this?

It doesn’t mean we are not of equal Value

I don't think of anything as "man's work" really. I always think that if there is a job that needs doing it should be done by the person best suited for it or the person who dislikes doing it the least.

I dont think anything in the house is strictly my job or his job. Except the fact that he deals with all the spiders because I am scared of them.

I'm not particularly handy, but neither is he.

There is a huge difference between playing to your strengths (doing a job because you're taller or stronger) and doing a job just because you are a man or woman.
That's the difference hamster

Nothing is definitely mans work. Single mothers do the lot!

Single mothers do the lot! You say that, but I've had a leaking tap since before lockdown because I cba to search youtube for how to fix it. I got as far as finding out it's a particularly tricky type, and ran out of steam. I'll build up to it, but I just know that it's going to be a physical ordeal as well as mental because I'm quite petite.

Since xh left I've lowered my standards a lot!

There is a huge difference between playing to your strengths (doing a job because you're taller or stronger) and doing a job just because you are a man or woman.
That's the difference hamster

There isn't that much difference in your arguments if you accept that men have strengths in some areas and women have strengths in other areas.

It is never going to be perfect that x job = mans job. There will be exceptions, but if you look at all the people who change tyres, then I would suspect it would be 90+% men doing the job - because they are stronger. Whether you want to say that makes it a mans job because there are still some women doing the job, that is up to you. Generalisations always offend someone, but you also wouldn't be incorrect to say changing a tyre is usually a man's job.

Penis model

Nothing. (Other than sperm donation as suggested by a PP)

But I'm a single Mum who was raised by a single Mum. So if a job needs doing we do it!