Showing posts with label RV gender roles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RV gender roles. Show all posts

Sunday, April 17, 2016

RV GENDER ROLES



Text copyright © 2016 by Carol Stone.  Photos © 2016 by Thane Puissegur and Carol Stone.



Any gathering of RVers will include at least a couple of instructive sessions. When we attended a rally last year, the activity for one morning was advertised as both instruction and sharing about common RV mechanical problems. It sounded really useful for any RVer. But then I noticed this was supposed to be for the men, and the “ladies” were expected to go shopping or do something else that might be considered feminine!

I was furious, and thought, Who came up with a stupid idea like that?  Many women travel solo or with other women; because boys tend to be better trained than girls in mechanical matters, this session would likely be even more useful for women than for men. Why not let the men go shopping instead?

Then I thought about how my partner and I divide the work when we travel. I have to confess that he does the typical “male” things, like dealing sternly with mechanics who want to overcharge us, and I do the more “female” things, like doing most of the cooking and cleaning. Have we fallen into our parents’ old gender-role patterns? What a disgusting idea! I am a feminist, and he is a modern man in most ways. Yet, we seem to be conforming to traditional roles.

Some of the tasks in RV travel require more physical strength than some people have. I have arthritis that prevents me from doing some things. Other chores may require special skills; my partner is less comfortable with computers than I am. This has little to do with our genders.

When the dualies meet the road, what it comes down to is not gender roles, but teamwork. The person who is more skilled at one job, or more willing to do it—my partner, thank heavens, is more able and willing to empty the blackwater tank than I am—should do it. The other person(s) should do other tasks as appropriate. No job should be defined as one for “men” or “ladies,” though. And please spare me from being excluded from a helpful session about RV maintenance.