Re: do you find that women nowadays moan more about housework than times gone by?
interesting topic,
I think its a number of factors
1) More women in careers vs. stay at home 2) Nuclear families means less help- dont have family to help 3) Distances- you spend a lot of time commuting for work, as well as for other things. 4) More expensive domestic help, rather expensive to have a daily maid (maasi in Pakistan is a whole diff issue) 5) More active individually - social, cultural, health activities- so time crnuch 6) More active as a family and in divergent activities- so you are spending time from place to place, drop one kid for soccer, another for scouts, another for karate, and then pick them up. 7) additional things u have to worry about like sunday islamic school.
There is a lot of running around, some of it is one's own doing, u can decrease social events, you can decrease activities, but at some time the question becomes quality of life, u can have a sparkling home, lavish meals, but no time to pursue anything of personal interest.
but it has its pressures and ppl complain, just like ppl in top unis complain, or ppl in great jobs still complain.
when we compare it to a bygone era where there was more help, less responsibilities, of course in comparison it will seem like women and complaining more.
Lets just say the amount of moaning is directly proportional to the amount of reponsibility/effort and stress
the bigger issue as I have seen is when shehzaday think of wonder years when they were kids and how ther home was managed, how they had 3 brnad new items for each meal with fresh homemade chapati etc, while forgetting that their mother was at home and had maasi, dhobi and a general servent in many cases, while their wives are working, running errands, taking kids for this and that, and have no or inimal family help.
they are more than justified to moan and groan then.
I loved your breakdown analysis, in fact your entire analysis. I would like to add one more reasoning if you dont mind.
Cultural assimiliation. Pakistani men married Pakistani women and each had fixed notions about roles and responsibilities according to society. For example, in Pakistan men tend to dominate society and their role seems to be to simply earn the money for the house. It was the womans role to cook, clean and nurture the children.
However, those roles have been rewritten with Western influences in places like Pakistan allowing women to start working outside of the home etc. Another problem is the intermarrying of people raised in two different cultures. If the girl is raised from a western culture, her thinking about her role is very different than what the Pakistani raised husband is expecting.
This cultural assimiliation has created overlaps and melding of boundaries thereby just adding to the entire confusion of a womans role. I personally dont think its my 'job' to cook and clean and raise kids. I believe God didnt give me a brain to do menial tasks that require no thinking. Ask my hubby and he will tell you something very different!(the MCP!)