The age-old systematic gender roles that are promoting gender inequality make things harder for everyone. Although they’re often focused on women, they also put unnecessary pressure on men, and it starts from a young age.
Namely, Dr. Raina Brands recently shared that her son’s daycare incorporates annoying and potentially dangerous instance on ‘traditional’ gender roles, despite being told to the contrary.
As it turns out, the boy’s father drops their son off to daycare every day, and he was the one to fill all the paperwork and intake meetings. So, the dad has been listed as the first contact and primary caregiver of the boy since day one. And yet, if the boy is sick and needs to come home early, they call her. Why? Because of systematic gender inequality. Check out her Twitter thread below:
Our son has been in daycare since the beginning of the year. If he is sick and needs to come home early, they call me. If they want to give him paracetamol, they call me. If he has injured himself they call me. So what? đ§”1/4
â Dr Raina Brands (@RainaBrands) March 2, 2022
I have repeatedly asked them to call my partner first. I have asked them to put a note on my file about that. I have asked the manager. Today they called and I asked them to always call my partner first and 2 hours later THEY CALLED ME AGAIN. What makes this more absurd is.. 2/4
â Dr Raina Brands (@RainaBrands) March 2, 2022
…the fact that my partner has always been the main point of contact! He filled out all of the forms, he did all of the settling-in sessions, and he drops our son off every morning. But they are incapable of viewing him as a primary caregiver. (3/4)
â Dr Raina Brands (@RainaBrands) March 2, 2022
When I say gender inequality is a self-reinforcing system, this is what I’m talking about. (4/4)
â Dr Raina Brands (@RainaBrands) March 2, 2022
This is how people responded to the story:
ONLY thing that stopped the nonsense- Went 2 the school. Made sure I met wi person(s) responsible 4 calling & their leader. 1 question: âIf I canât trust you to make a simple call to the designated person, why should I trust u wi my child?â Havenât been called since. 1/2
â dedance BLM, she/her (@mdanceur) March 3, 2022
This has happened to my wife and to me so many time. Iâd also like to kvetch about the number of times I had to change my son *on the bathroom floor* because only the womanâs bathroom had a changing table.
â Dave Hilton (@djhilton7) March 2, 2022
I was a single father with sole custody. They would continually insist on calling her mother first even though the mother would even tell them I am the main contact
â Chris From Jersey (@ChrisFromJerse1) March 3, 2022
Source: comicsands
