Mother’s powerful response to gender-based stereotypes goes viral
‘This isn't about men helping women to run the house, it's about men actually seeing that it isn't only a woman's job’
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Your support makes all the difference.A mother’s poignant response to the gender stereotypes she witnessed as a child has gone viral on Facebook.
Darla Halyk penned the powerful post to highlight how she felt an ingrained misogyny deeply affected her upbringing.
It has since been shared more than 11,000 times, with men and women alike sharing their own experiences of gender-based stereotypes in response.
“I was a young girl when I realised there was a hierarchy in my home,” the Halyk’s post begins.
“Chores were designated by gender. Blue jobs for my brother, and pink jobs for me. Mom did the cleaning, cooking, and most everything needed to make our house a home.
“Dad mowed the lawn, fixed the cars, and played with my brother and I until he could barely keep his eyes open.”
While she praised both of her parents as role models, Halyk reveals she soon began noticing vast discrepancies in her home in terms of domestic responsibilities, explaining how she often found herself doing the “heavier” chores while the men got took on a "lighter" load.
Typically, this would involve cleaning the house and helping her mother cook meals for her family.
“My workload was different, perhaps even harder at times, but I was the girl, and it was what was expected of me," she writes.
“I felt like I was drowning and couldn't do it all on my own before our mum got home. Why was this my responsibility just because I am the girl?”
She added that while the women often exhausted themselves as a result of their domestic duties, her father and brother did little to contribute.
“I had spent my whole life watching the women in my life carry the weight of the entire house on their backs while men sat back and watched them do it. It was normal, expected.”
Halyk explained how entrenched these stereotypes can be and urged readers to try and change the ubiquitous notion that women should "do it all" which, she added, is “not only propagated by males, but females alike”.
“I want to smash the patriarchy for allowing me, my mother, and all women to believe were not capable of doing it all, without being labelled,” she continued.
“That we were and are crazy for resisting our overburdened and under appreciated workloads.
“Women aren't crazy; they are tired. They are tired of picking up after everyone in their lives. Women are angry they have gone unappreciated for so long.
“This isn't about men helping women to run the house, it's about men actually seeing that it isn't only a woman's job.”
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