The Guardian

Want to be a male ally? Start by helping to clean the house | Moira Donegan

Liberal men say they want to be equal partners in housework and parenting. But it hasn’t happened
Half a century after second-wave feminists began demanding gender equality, women still do more housework, eldercare, and childcare than men. Photograph: Voisin/Phanie / Rex Features

Imagine if the dishes stopped getting done. Imagine if no one did the laundry, and it piled up, stained and mildewing in hampers and in piles on the floor. Imagine if no one fed the baby, or changed her, and imagine if no one made dinner. Imagine if no one scheduled grandma’s cardiologist appointment, and no one reminded her of the appointment after it had been scheduled, and if no one drove her to the appointment on the morning she was supposed to go. Imagine if no one vacuumed, or washed the windows, or picked up the various detritus that accumulates around the house.

Imagine that this goes on for a week, two weeks, two months. Imagine the domestic fights behind closed bedroom doors.

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