Post 3.

Being Puerto Rican there are very rigid gender roles in my culture. Women do all the housework and men bring home the bacon. My family has always been a mish-mosh of all that. When I was younger and my parents were together, my dad actually did alot of the cooking and cleaned alot. That was a main cause of arguments in my household though. My father felt my mother should be doing all the housework. With my aunts and uncles its a mixture in their homes. As I've gotten older I noticed the men in my family are helping out more and more in the household even cleaning. Sometimes whoever cooks is the first person home from work, but the majority of the cleaning falls in the hands of the women. The men in my family do help alot with other things. The men were raised with the idea women do the housework so they don't always know how to do certain things, like wash clothes.

I used to always consider myself a feminist. I never wanted to be in a relationship where I did all the cleaning or cooking. I know how to clean because I was raised with only my mother who is OCD with cleanliness. I can't cook because my dad was always a better cook than my mom and he hasn't taught me. I never thought I'd fall into the "stereotypical" woman role, until I met my boyfriend. He's completely clueless about housework and cleaning, so I end up doing most of the work. I do teach him and he's willing to learn, so I guess that isn't really sticking to typical gender roles. Since we've been together he's learned alot and now volunteers to do alot of things. I do know that in the future I won't allow myself to do mostly all of the housework because a) I refuse to fall into that gender role and b) I'm just too lazy.