Experts say traditional roles have progressed at a snail’s pace

Cultural expert, Professor Gugu Mazibuko, warns against couples weaponising their genders and says they should instead endeavour to ensure balance in the home.

She’s also urged employers to provide women with the flexibility needed to accommodate their responsibilities, which include cooking, cleaning, and raising children.

Professor Mazibuko is reflecting on how life has evolved for both women and men, with women now also working in high-pressure jobs, which were previously reserved for men.

 

Prof Mazibuko says while this has slowly changed the face of modern marriages, which often involve shared responsibilities and flexible roles, certain cultural groups have been slow to adapt.

The cultural expert says parents should also prepare their children for a life in modern society and teach both girls and boys from a young age to do household chores.

 

Prof Mazibuko boys and girls should also be taught the value of financial independence to avoid finding themselves trapped in abusive relationships as sometimes abusers are their partners’ sole financial providers.

Another cultural expert, Professor Musa Xulu, says the Industrial Revolution, which was a period of major mechanisation and innovation that began in Great Britain during the mid-18th and early 19th centuries, sparked the trend of women working as households then realised that they could no longer survive on a single paycheck.

He points out that in some countries, like Greece and Rome, among others, women were historically barred from work and voting.

Xulu says the division of household chores is a deep-rooted cultural construct that has stubbornly persisted in some communities, even as societal norms have evolved.

 

He does, however, express optimism at the possibility of AI some day being able to shift stubborn cultural constructs, which in some instances perpetuate harmful practices like gender-based violence and discrimination, among others.