‘pink jobs’ and ‘blue jobs’

[Riverlee]

In the last month or so, I’ve heard these terms used a lot, on mumsnet and elsewhere. I’m not aware of them really being used before. Today I used the term ‘blue job’ in a jokey sort of way (to get my son to do something), and both he and dh didn’t know the term (dh thought I’d said something rude , ie, b..w job!).

where have these expressions come from? Isn’t it a step in the wrong direction?

How long do you give it - couple of days?

Well it's been around on MN for a couple of years and they haven't picked up on it yet as far as I know.

Never heard of it before. I prob do more ' blue' jobs than dh. Bins out, my car maintenance, grass cutting.
We just do what needs to be done.

Pink - feminine
Blue - masculine.

The idea of male and female jobs isn't new.

Many 'male' jobs are in the 'public' sphere - bins, BBQ, washing cars, mowing grass etc.

Whereas 'female' jobs are in the 'private' or domestic sphere like cooking inside, cleaning, sewing, ironing.

It basically goes back to the home being the woman's domain and the outside/appearance of the family being the male domain.

Old fashioned stereotyping basically.

😂love this!

Typical of a man to think you said blo* job.😁

Give over, harmful and regressive 😂

Didn’t Teresa May go on about this a few years ago in an interview?!

A cringey phrase for a terrible concept.
I agree. Even ‘said in a jokey way’ which seems to be the defence of many on this thread.

Get a grip. The people I know who say pink/blue jobs all say it in a jokey way. It’s not serious.

Yeah because joking about stereotypes is so amusing. 🙄

Lighthearted or not, if you refer to 'pink' jobs and 'blue' jobs then you are perpetuating sex based stereotypes. What a wonderful thing to teach your kids!

We use it in our household, but tbh the only pink job i do is the washing, my dh does pretty much everything else, I'm the higher earner so work longer hours.

Yes it's said in a jokey way, but I agree that no it shouldn't be used. It's all about context

For those of you that use the term at home to refer to household tasks, do you also use it to describe subjects at school or jobs and careers?

If not, why not? What's the difference?

Don’t have any. But thanks for assuming

One of my friends has talked about this, apparantly it's still very much a thing in the Police force (possibly unsurprisingly!)

All jobs are purple jobs.

Stereotyping is insidious.

Don’t have any. But thanks for assuming

🙄

Perpetuating sex based stereotypes is still a bad thing whether you have kids or not. And saying it's a joke doesn't make it any better.

If you have elderly parents, is taking care of them a 'pink' job? Because society certainly seems to think so and it's because of shit like this.

I first heard it from a family friend,
She was the type to have an adult chore chart on the wall though,
so I just assumed she had just colour coded the jobs for her and her husband.

I only read about it on this forum a few days ago, had never heard this before.

Creative stereotyping!

I've used in my circle of friends for years and years (I'm 51). Always in a jokey way.
But don't worry, I am a lone parent so all jobs are pink now. I have two sons who will not leave home thinking a household task is not their responsibility.
I like to think that if they now heard me refer to something as a pink or blue job it would spark a discussion about traditional household roles/expectations.

Spending 15 mins on MN indicates that we are WAY off men and women having equal household roles (even adjusting for how much paid employment each does) so the discussion is very relevant.

Discovereads:
In the case of spiders, I think stereotyping spider wrangling as a blue job protects me from harm. Obviously you’ve never encountered a very large spider on the stairs and thought “this is how I die”

I don't live somewhere with poisonous spiders. I'm not scared of spiders (think most of them are beautiful and fascinating) and my male partner is a bit scared, so I do the majority of the spider removal.

I don't think we could designate my jobs as pink though. He has some pink clothing, while I don't have or want anything pink.
Can't just give him pink and me blue though, as he has much more blue clothing than me.

It's almost like this isn't a useful or universal shorthand.
We do have some jobs which usually fall to one or the other of us, but if for some reason I wanted to point them out it seems seems easier just to use our names or say "him" and "me" jobs.
Eg in our house loading the dishwasher, hoovering, taking the recycling out, watering the houseplants, mending his clothes are "him jobs."
Emptying the dishwasher, cleaning the toilet, taking out the bathroom bin, doing laundry are "me jobs."

I know what it means, but I wouldn't say it's commonly used. I would associate it with rather old-fashioned couples with a certain level of income (ie., where the woman didn't have to work). But that may be totally wrong.

I just don't have time for anyone who assigns anything blue or pink. The ridiculous "gender reveal" parties (where they actually mean sex reveal) where they burst a balloon and blue or pink confetti comes out give me the utter rage.

See also the bugaboo donkey pushchair with a blue hood and pink hood for boy/girl twins. It just makes me froth, sorry if that sounds dramatic but there you are.

Don't get me started on female babies adorned with bows on their bald heads. Argh.