Australian Men don't do household chores

The other day I read an article in the Sydney Morning Herald about an Oxford University study that showed men in some countries are more likely than their Australian counterparts to do the household chores and thereby make marriage a more attractive option to their nation’s women.

“Stone the crows!” I AM flabbergasted. The main reason I am flabbergasted is that, being the helpful husband I am, I do quite a bit of the household chores. Perpetuating the stereotype of the useless male is not something that sits well with me so I wrote to the author of the study and received the following reply: “I am sorry if you feel all your hard work as a husband and parent is not recognised in this study.” Fair enough, not every husband has the inclination to come home and cook for the family after a (sometimes) stressful day at work. It then occurred to me…the study isn’t about Australian Men at all, it is about how Australia is still stuck in the dark ages. This from the study…..

“The study constructs an ‘egalitarian index’ of 12 developed countries, based on responses to questionnaires about gender, housework and childcare responsibilities. Norway and Sweden top the egalitarian index, with Great Britain in third place, followed by the United States. At the bottom of the index are Japan, Germany, and Austria, with Australia languishing as the least egalitarian.” So let me just spell it out….according to this study Australia is the LEAST egalitarian nation of those surveyed. To be egalitarian is to believe in the equality of all people. So there’s your answer. As much as we’d like to believe Australian’s to be egalitarian we simply are not. There are too many examples where this is true (immigrants, indigenous people, gays).

Being one of the least egalitarian nations is probably why a political party like The Greens battles for votes. The Greens are an egalitarian group in a non-egalitarian nation. If Australians do consider themselves to be egalitarian then this needs to start reflecting in the way we vote. We have recently had 11+years of one of the most oligarchical leaderships the country has seen, KRudd is continuing down that path. I guess it is going to take sometime before people are de-programmed.