Teh One Who Knocks
06-13-2019, 10:57 AM
By Anna Cincotta - Working Mother
https://i.imgur.com/eMz3ERs.jpg
Gender roles force girls to think twice about liking baseball more than ballet, and hurt boys who prefer dolls over trucks. But even the ways in which we perceive cleanliness are not immune to our subconscious internalization of society's expectations, according to new research.
A study recently published in the journal Sociological Methods & Research, and covered by The New York Times, has found that even though men are no less likely than women to notice messiness, women are held to a higher standard of cleanliness, and are more likely to be judged for sloppiness.
The study involved showing participants images of clean and messy rooms. Men and women did not differ much in being able to detect clutter. However, as the Times article notes: "When participants were told that a woman occupied the clean room, it was judged as less clean than when a man occupied it, and she was thought to be less likely to be viewed positively by visitors and less comfortable with visitors."
Although respondents looked down upon both men and women for having messy rooms, when they believed the messy room was occupied by a man, they said that the room was "in more urgent need of cleaning and that the men were less responsible and hardworking than messy women," the Times reported. The researchers note that the respondents might have been feeding into the old thinking that men are lazy slobs.
“It may activate negative stereotypes about men if they’re messy, but it’s inconsequential because there’s no expected social consequence to that … [i]t’s that ‘boys will be boys’ thing,” says Sarah Thébaud, Ph.D., study co-author and associate professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
What's more, most of the time, participants said women would be responsible for cleaning a messy room, particularly if the woman was in a heterosexual marriage, and she and her partner were working full-time, the Times coverage of the study noted.
The findings contribute to existing research that don't paint a particularly pleasant portrait of women's roles at home. A study from 2018, also mentioned in the Times article, found that even if men are home full-time, they're still less likely to take full responsibility for the cooking and cleaning than women are, and that moms with husbands or live-in male partners actually spend more time cooking, cleaning and doing laundry than their single counterparts. They also sleep less. In other words, having a man at home seems to increase the housework workload for moms. (And as we reported in 2017, it's a similar story with childcare—moms still handle more of it when dads stay at home.)
As Times reporter Claire Cain Miller points out, change proves difficult because of the deeply embedded nature of social mores and societal pressures, and to improve the status quo we have to start challenging gender roles and stereotypes with young boys. Got a son? Give him a mop and broom.
Now, imagine what moms could accomplish if they prioritized themselves instead of their families and homes every once in a while—if they had the time, space and support to do so.
https://i.imgur.com/eMz3ERs.jpg
Gender roles force girls to think twice about liking baseball more than ballet, and hurt boys who prefer dolls over trucks. But even the ways in which we perceive cleanliness are not immune to our subconscious internalization of society's expectations, according to new research.
A study recently published in the journal Sociological Methods & Research, and covered by The New York Times, has found that even though men are no less likely than women to notice messiness, women are held to a higher standard of cleanliness, and are more likely to be judged for sloppiness.
The study involved showing participants images of clean and messy rooms. Men and women did not differ much in being able to detect clutter. However, as the Times article notes: "When participants were told that a woman occupied the clean room, it was judged as less clean than when a man occupied it, and she was thought to be less likely to be viewed positively by visitors and less comfortable with visitors."
Although respondents looked down upon both men and women for having messy rooms, when they believed the messy room was occupied by a man, they said that the room was "in more urgent need of cleaning and that the men were less responsible and hardworking than messy women," the Times reported. The researchers note that the respondents might have been feeding into the old thinking that men are lazy slobs.
“It may activate negative stereotypes about men if they’re messy, but it’s inconsequential because there’s no expected social consequence to that … [i]t’s that ‘boys will be boys’ thing,” says Sarah Thébaud, Ph.D., study co-author and associate professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
What's more, most of the time, participants said women would be responsible for cleaning a messy room, particularly if the woman was in a heterosexual marriage, and she and her partner were working full-time, the Times coverage of the study noted.
The findings contribute to existing research that don't paint a particularly pleasant portrait of women's roles at home. A study from 2018, also mentioned in the Times article, found that even if men are home full-time, they're still less likely to take full responsibility for the cooking and cleaning than women are, and that moms with husbands or live-in male partners actually spend more time cooking, cleaning and doing laundry than their single counterparts. They also sleep less. In other words, having a man at home seems to increase the housework workload for moms. (And as we reported in 2017, it's a similar story with childcare—moms still handle more of it when dads stay at home.)
As Times reporter Claire Cain Miller points out, change proves difficult because of the deeply embedded nature of social mores and societal pressures, and to improve the status quo we have to start challenging gender roles and stereotypes with young boys. Got a son? Give him a mop and broom.
Now, imagine what moms could accomplish if they prioritized themselves instead of their families and homes every once in a while—if they had the time, space and support to do so.