Cohousing-L Mailing List: male/female work issues

[Robyn Williams (zen]

Meant this to go to all:

> Hi y'all
>
> I've been trying to keep out of this one, however this discussion will
> contribute to a planned community re-vision. My experience is not
dissimilar
> to Kay's:
>
> We have 5 men : 11 women
> The development was driven by the women, mostly low income, sole parents
(at
> the time) wanting security of tenure.  The few male partners over the
years
> tended to stay away from the development work ("I don't want to just sit
> around talking, I'm a do-er").  Only one man has really extended himself
and
> he paces himself carefully.  One other usually does his 'fair share'.
>
> The women continue to organise everything - landscaping, maintenance,
> finances, common house development, social - including the hard yakka
> (physical work).  Men rarely come to meetings.  Rarely cook, occassionally
> clean-up, the reason offered is full-time work, however this hasn't
> prevented one single, working woman from fitting it in to her very busy
> schedule.  The same reason is given for not coming to busy bees ("a man
> needs a rest on the weekend", "I'm too busy at the moment").  These are
all
> terrific, relatively aware guys.  What's interesting is the level of
> tolerence for this from the women; while noticed, it's rarely addressed.
> The work that we pay dollars for is "men's" work - carpentry,
wall-building,
> etc - although the women have done their best to do alot of this
themselves.
> I might add, there's a range in willingness amongst the women too.
>
> I'd love to hear from more men on this topic as I want to understand this
> dynamic.

Or are we over this discussion?

> Regards
> Robyn
> Pinakarri Community