This school in Spain found a pretty magnificent way to fight off gender inequality. They do this by educating their male students about basic household chores like ironing and washing clothes.
And, this seems like quite a good idea considering the fact women carry the biggest burden in terms of cleaning.
Spanish School Decides to Fight Gender Inequality
In fact, a UK Household Longitudinal Study found that among 8500 heterosexual couples, women spent around 16 hours of household chores on a weekly basis in opposition to men who do only around 6 hours.
And, even if the woman also worked, there was a tendency to leave the cleaning and maintenance to her.
In the 40’s and 50’s, it was expected from women to ensure the house stays clean and tidy and husbands were not expected to help.
His job was to go to the office or factory and the woman’s place was ensuring the home stays clean and food is cooked on the table.
Despite being very far away from how once society looked like, there’s still a lot more gender inequality than one may think.
And, it’s present in different spheres of life. But, this Spanish school is looking to change the belief that women are the only ones who should do all the cleaning chores at home.
Spanish Male Students from this School Learn Household Chores
The Colegio Montecastelo in Spain located in Vigo, at the north-west of Spain, has introduced a home economics class for boys only.
It involves learning skills like cleaning, ironing, cooking, and sewing. It also includes learning some more ‘boyish’ schools like plumbing, carpentry, masonry, etc.
The goal of the classes they created, according to the school’s representatives, is to train boys about domestic things and how to do them efficiently, sustainably, and comfy.
Gabriel Bravo, the school’s coordinator explains that it seemed like a smart idea to teach their students how to do these things so that when they have their own family one day, they know that a house is a thing of two and both sides should participate equally.
Although it started as a class, it has now transformed into a movement that everyone appreciates, including the parents of the students. And, some dads actually offered to participate and help teach the students.
The volunteers include some parents, teaching staff, and school campus representatives.
Despite the students first being resistant towards the class, they learned that housework can be really simple when you know what to do.
Bravo said that it was a first for some of the students to actually hold an iron so the classes aren’t just instructive, but fun.
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