Philosophers seeking answers to why women still do most of the housework and men seem oblivious to those tasks have proposed a new theory: that men and women are trained by society to see different possibilities for action in the same home environment.
According to this theory, women look at a crumb-strewn countertop and see an implied action, 'being cleaned'. The men only see the crumbs and not the need to pick them up.
Tom McClelland, from the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, and Professor Paulina Sliwa, ensure that the imbalance in the distribution of domestic tasks does not have so much to do with economic factors or with women being the ones who more often they take more flexible jobs to care for children, but with the psychological notion of "affordability", with how we perceive things as tempting or linked to certain actions.
"Neuroscience has shown that perceiving a possibility can trigger neural processes that prepare us for physical action. This can range from a slight impulse to an overwhelming compulsion or sense of obligation that requires mental effort not to act on that possibility." , commented Professor Sliwa (who now works at the University of Vienna) explaining the research, detailed in an article published in the journal Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.
According to the Cambridge philosophers, when a woman enters a kitchen it is very likely that she perceives the "possibilities" of certain domestic tasks: she sees the dishes "to wash" or the fridge "to fill". Instead, according to his theory, a man can simply look at the dishes in the sink or the half-empty fridge without experiencing the "mental pull" of those possible tasks. And, over time, the researchers say, these small differences in perception add up to significant disparities in who does what and configure an unequal distribution of housework.
"Tasks can irritate the perceiver until they're done or distract from other plans; if resisted, it can create felt tension," the Cambridge researchers explain, noting that this puts women at a dead end: or inequality of workload or inequality of cognitive load, of psychological exhaustion.
And why this different perception? According to the philosophers, it has to do with unwritten "gender norms", with the roles that are traditionally attributed to women and men and that lead to different perceptions of their abilities and to consider that some skills have an explicit gender, such as cleaning or personal grooming.
This causes social signals to be sent and perceived from a very young age that encourage actions in certain environments, so that if girls are somehow expected to do more housework than boys, "this trains their ways of seeing the domestic environment, of seeing a countertop as something 'to be cleaned', according to McClelland.
However, the Cambridge philosophers specify, their theory of the perception of gender capacity does not excuse men who do not get involved in domestic chores, nor does it mean that women, because they are more sensitive to detect the necessary tasks, have a natural affinity to make them. They assure that the fact of having this perception deficit does not imply that men cannot make an effort to realize and do the tasks.
"We can change the way we perceive the world through continued conscious effort and habit cultivation," says McClelland, who believes men should be encouraged to resist gender norms by improving their sensitivity to potential chores. .
"A man might make a resolution to sweep up the crumbs every time the kettle is waiting for it to boil; this would not only help him to do the tasks he does not see, but would gradually retrain his perception to see what needs to be done at the moment." future", exemplifies the philosopher.
But not everything has to be personal effort. The Cambridge researchers point out in their article that public interventions and political decisions are also needed. They believe that a very useful measure is shared parental leave, because it offers parents the opportunity to develop their ability to perceive the care tasks that are required.
Sliwa added that her focus has been on physical actions such as sweeping or cleaning, "but perceptions of gender capability could also apply to mental actions such as planning and remembering," which are also more commonly undertaken by women.
