Women take on masculine roles when they enter the workforce and compete with men for greater achievement, higher positions, and earning more money. We learn all the way back in Genesis that it is the man’s role to be a provider and not a woman’s (Genesis 3:16, 19). If a woman is working, a man will not feel as great a need, if any, to work by the sweat of his brow to provide for his family.
Women also take on masculine roles when they try to take over leadership in the home instead of trustingly looking to their husbands for guidance and a strong arm to lean on. The leadership position was given to husbands by God Himself. This doesn’t mean that we have no opinions or wisdom, especially in our own sphere of the home, but often women neglect looking to their own husbands for guidance. Even taking over the masculine chores around the house takes over something a husband can and should be doing, unless there is a real emergency where he is unable.
Some women think they are “helping” their husbands by doing these things. But really, they are hindering their husbands, because the wives are taking on the husbands’ role instead of focusing on their own duties. When we take on masculine roles instead of letting our husbands do them, it harms the family. It is detrimental to our husbands’ feeling of being needed as the leader, protector, and provider for his family, which God created him to be.
— Blessed Homemaking, Ways Women Take on a Masculine Role, May 2, 2019
When my DD was in labour in hospital, she rather hoped that one of the UK’s only male midwives would deliver her baby – but he went off duty. That child’s first kindergarten teacher was male, very good at his job and loved by all. And if I left the ‘masculine chores’ to my husband, paint would be peeling and the garden waist-high in weeds…I enjoy doing those things and he admits, do them better than him. Never thought of it being ‘sinful’ before. And here in the Uk we all love a reality TV show, a sewing competition. The male competitors make some amazing stuff…never thought of that as wicked and unbiblical before either!
The “masculine” and “feminine” roles evolved in a time when women, often pregnant and/or with small children, did well to limit themselves to tasks which allowed them to avoid unnecessary pregnancy complications and keep an eye on/teach the young ‘uns. Men, physically stronger, took on the tasks that required strength. But I’m sure there were a lot of tasks, especially seasonal ones, where everyone in a group pitched in. If it’s harvest time and clouds are threatening, you all get out there, leave everyone’s kids with the heavily pregnant women, and the rest of you get that crop in.
This business of strictly-defined gender roles is a modern luxury, and people who are proud of living in poverty in order to achieve them are fools. Poverty, at least in the US, is an extremely precarious state. To voluntarily raise children in that situation is cruel. If you must do so, if that is the hand you’ve been dealt, you do your best. But to voluntarily lay down your best cards is silly.
In ny house, we all partake in getting tasks done that need to be completed. Certain tasks are divvied up based on who likes doing that task more. Other tasks are shared by all. One’s genitalia and hormone levels aren’t part of the consideration process.
Blessed Homemaking is homemaking where all pitch in with whatever needs attention. Christianity of the ilk portrayed in this bit of twitdom writing is simply a template for diminishing the wonder of life, for harming the everyday.
“…for harming the everyday.”
Exactly.
In my house my husband cooks & I stack/load up the firewood that we need. Sometimes he does laundry. Sometimes I climb on the ladder to get to the gutters. I AM “helping” him & he IS “helping” me. Neither one of us is hindering each other. We both have a “role” in this 41+ yr. marriage. It has NEVER harmed our family. My husband is an independent person full of self-esteem, a leader, protector & co-provider for this family who was created by…his mother & father.
As ObstacleChick truly said in her comment on the previous post: “There’s evidence that gender and sexuality aren’t just binary but rather on a spectrum.” But most people don’t know that. Yes, Christians say the darnedest things…when they lie.
I clean house, wash dishes, and do laundry, along with what is “traditionally” expected of husbands. Polly does 99% of the cooking. She loves cooking. She’s an expert seamstress. I love tinkering with stuff, working on computers, working in the yard, etc. I have a son who does ALL the cooking. His wife hates cooking. They live on a small hog farm. She grew up working the fields, castrating pigs, and feeding livestock. She has a bachelor’s degree in business and farm management. No one worries about whether they are fulfilling proper gender roles. We all have things we like to do, things we do well. And then there’s other work we just do because that’s what families do — work together.
Fundamentalists spend way too much time obsessing over “Biblical” gender roles. It simply doesn’t matter.
Thank you for that Matilda from UK. As you say, we don’t have this trivia about gender roles in UK. Even amongst the dying lot known as Christians.
Recently I stood myself to a history / archaeology trip to Crete looking at the advanced Minoan civilisation going back 4000 years when Abraham only started purportedly wandering across the desert of Mesopotamia hearing voices in his head that he & his seed must overthrow & annihilate the neighbours because HE was chosen by Yahweh. The Minoans were a peace- loving extremely wealthy group back then(unlike their neighbours across the sea in the Fertile Crescent who were forever wasting energy in warring against each other). Interestingly the women organised the barter trade with Egypt & other wealthy peoples. They supervised the smelting of gold & silver and their jewellery- making & kept the “books”. The men went out sailing to do their bidding for the wealth they accumulated. How interesting is that 4000 years back before the Israelites decided that their chosen god Yahweh was to be male ? Therefore Male=Good & perfect.
Female=Evil & idolatrous (unless she was virgin of course)
I feel like the gender roles are kind of based on the “women are weak” kind of mindset, my opinion is far different. I believe that gender does not matter in these situations, as a nonbinary person, I can do any job well!