#SharetheLoad in Laundry and Life

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I’m in the middle of reading Sheryl Sandberg’s corporate gamechanger, “Lean In” about women, work, and leadership. I’m only in the early chapters so once I’m done I will try to circle back with some thoughts about the book. Sheryl is known as a leading activist for gender equality in the workforce. As a young professional navigating the corporate ladder myself, I’m always keen to find female inspiration to help guide my way. I’ve been following Sheryl’s feed on social and a few months ago she shared this award-winning commercial for an India laundry detergent company. The ad features a very touching story about traditional gender roles at home in which a father realizes late in life that he needs to change his patriarchal ways. “Why is laundry only a mother’s job”, the ad asks. Dads need to #sharetheload too.

What I really liked about this commercial is that it hits home for the challenges of women to “do it all”. The working mother in this ad is seen running all aspects of the house all by herself, while her husband sits on the couch watching TV. A partnership in the home requires give-and-take by all parties for success. Like any complicated topic, a laundry detergent commercial can make the idea of gender roles and responsibilities comes across as overly simplistic but for a 2-minute video, it reinforces that there is a lot of work still to be done in this area.

And maybe that is the problem: there is more work to be done. It feels exhausting to me that it is 2016 and that domestic chores can still be an area of trial and tribulation. I give full credit to all working moms out there that handle a 9-5 job, have 2.5 kids, and run their households as well. While I don’t have children yet, these kinds of situations are exactly what I would like to avoid in the future. My boyfriend and I will soon be co-habitating together so we will have all the joys of taking the next stepin our relationship, but also learning how to live together and handle our domestic bliss. I know one thing for sure – we will be sharing the laundry duties.

What do the domestic duties look like in your house? How do you share the load with your partner? Tweet me @heyseto!