Sexist comment on Homes Under the Hammer about son and daughter roles

[Villanousvillans]

On an episode today of Homes under the hammer, a couple with two children have bought a plot to build a house. The man is a builder. Dion Dublin asked the boy if he gets stuck in with dad to knock walls down. He then turned to the girl and asked her if she would help mum with interior design and fluffy cushions.

This blatant everyday sexism in 2026 is disturbing.

How many girls aspire to work down sewers, dig up roads, work down mines, climb an electrical pylon to fix it? and even if they did it doesn’t mean they have the physical strength that makes them a better candidate than a man.

How many boys aspire to work down sewers, dig up roads, work down mines, climb an electrical pylon to fix it?

Well seeing as it’s mainly men who do these jobs I would say quite a lot.

Being a woman in some roles still surprises people. I am quite the novelty for being a female farmer. I usually get mistaken for a work experience student. I take it as a compliment that I look young enough to pass as a student 😆

I know other women in male-dominated roles. Our physical strength tends to alarm people who don't know us well, and we get the Spanish Inquisition about our occupations when we're outside of our normal working environments! I don't mind, though; it's nice when people are interested in my job.

Seriously, though, gender stereotyping does need challenging, rather than reinforcing on national television...

gender stereotyping does need challenging, rather than reinforcing on national television...

100% this!

On the same episode was a woman and her nephew i think, she had done up most of the house herself, it was impressive. I did notice the cringe comments to the little girl too. (Was on my lunch break while WFH, HUTH is my treat)

I bet you get called 'the farmer's wife', rather than 'the farmer' too?

One of my work roles is to provide some specialist training to the emergency services. They have dummies of various weights from small child to obese adult and we use some of these in the training. For our own H&S reasons we use a large child/tiny adult size (I think it weighs about 40 kg?), none of us can move them by ourselves and we have a special two person lifting procedure.

But when the fire fighters and paramedics come for the training, all of them can pick up these dead weight dummies with ease, including the tiny women.

I wish someone would have prepared me for the reality of the world and maybe I wouldn't have walked into a male dominated industry thinking they'd accept me because of shifting societal norms.

I wanted to prove that I could be anything I wanted and, when I grew up, I just wanted to be a SAHM and bake with cats.

Thanks to a lot of people, I wasted a lot of years trying to be something I wasn't just to prove a point.

🤣

How many parents gender stereotype their own children from conception? "I want a girl so we can get our nails and hair done and have the never ending spa days'' how many parents but boys lots of ''boys'' toys nd girls all the ''princess'' stuff, how many boys do they sign up for dancing classes and girls for football?

whenever suggestions of what to buy a girls and boy for presents as they are out of idea how many gendered items are suggested

Does the stereotypes start at home?

I did decide to study a STEM subject partly because of trying to prove I could do it after growing up in a sexist family.
But it’s all fine. I’m good at my technical job. So is my female boss.

🙋🏻‍♀️ Hello!

There are 4 others in my building maintenance company.

Well we will never know if they aren’t given the option. The town where my Granny lived had a female plumber and she did really well as some people especially females felt safer with her in their home. She did a good job, tidied up after herself and didn’t treat women like idiots…. Which has been my experience of some male tradesmen.

Another advantage of a female plumber or another tradesperson would be that she might be one of those Mumsnetters who won't shit anywhere else than her own toilet .

Conversely if she hasn't mastered the unique to Mumsnet skill of predictable bowels that will reliably go in the short window between waking and leaving the house in the morning and she does use your toilet, she'll be sure to leave it clean, even if you don't have a toilet brush.

However, she might judge you if your entire house isn't totally spotless and she'll deny you the chance to post on Mumsnet about the plumber having a shit in your toilet and leaving a mess, so it's not all good....

on YouTube and other social media platforms it’s common to see women undertaking renovation of houses these days. Appreciate that the norm is for men to undertake this type of work but it’s hardly unknown for women to do it. My bathroom was completely renovated/replaced by a woman who undertook the bulk of the work herself but also coordinated other trades at various points to provide an excellent finish on time, on budget. Great work.

Fortunately, it is not a family farm, so I have never been mistaken for being the farmer's wife. I just get a lot of shocked looks, or people asking where the herdsperson is (hello, it's me), and queries as to whether or not I can drive a tractor. My standard reply is, "Yes. It's not too different to driving a car, except that I can see over the bonnet!" They look positively amazed if I sail by in the JCB😁

I imagine that, like farming, fire-fighters and paramedics have to be physically strong. Some jobs are excellent for building muscle and fitness, so no gym time is required!