What is Men's Work? What is Women's Work?

This was the question I asked my class to respond to before reading our first reading selection this year. We were reading a story called "A Visit with Grandpa" written by Mildred Pitts Walter. It is excerpted from the book, "Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World". Justin is a boy who doesn't like to do household chores. He thinks they are women's work and he finds them hard to do. His Grandpa takes him to his ranch and shows him that men can do hard work like cooking and cleaning, and also do hard work like "riding fence" on the ranch. Grandpa also teaches Justin about some of the famous black cowboys.

I decided to get my class to respond to the questions, "What is women's work and what is men's work?" before reading the text. I thought their responses were very interesting and I thought I would share them. They wrote these in groups. One group had all boys, one all girls, and the others were mixed. I thought they were going places when I looked to see that a group of girls had listed that women could be "eye doctors" but then then went traditional with "nurses" further on down the list. The lists get very interesting in how the class responded. I am just not sure who they were holding a mirror up to with these repsonses?







I find it funny that I am the one that has to teach these children about gender roles and the fact that women can do whatever the wish to do and that the gig is up for us guys.