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The place of a woman is in the kitchen. Really?

12 août 2016, 09:57

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What are you doing in Parliament, Hon. Sandhya Boygah, if the place of a woman is in the kitchen? “If the job of the housewife is to cook, work in the kitchen and she also has to welcome guests at home and cook for them”? (sic), you are certainly in the wrong place. You should be at home cooking, cleaning the house, doing the washing up and wait for your husband to come back home so that you can serve him first, attend to him while he is eating and be the last one to eat.

You may have “heartily thanked the Minister of Finance to have thought about the housewife” (sic). I am sure the Minister of Finance is intelligent enough to know that bringing down the price of cooking gas will not only bene- fit the “housewife” but the whole family. “God bless the Honourable Minister” (sic). By the way Boygah, we have stopped using the word “housewife”. Please add the word “house director” or “house manager” in your dictionary as hopefully this might help you the next time you talk on women. Although according to you a man is “the head of the house and the woman the heart of the house”, I am sure the Minister of Finance will agree with me that a woman apart from being the house manager is also the Minister of Finance in the house. If she does not control the budget the whole family may die of starvation. No wonder women are always being criticised by their male counterparts when it comes to women in politics. With Parliamentarians like Boygah, I cannot blame them for calling women “vases à fleur”. Being a “vase à fleur” in Parliament is your choice Hon. Boygah, but for God’s sake do not put all women in the same “vase à fleur” as you. Gender activists are working hard to break stereotypes and taking women out of the box. Instead of giving a helping hand, you are not only putting them in a “vase à fleur” but closing the lid of the flower pot.

“Being a ‘vase à fleur’ in Parliament is your choice Hon. Boygah, but for God’s sake do not put all women in the same ‘vase à fleur’ as you.”

We are no longer in the Stone Age when men went out hunting to bring food so that women could cook to feed the families and the communities. Stop adding salt on the wound and denigrate women to an inferior status and confine them to the domestic space. Women have rights although they may be in opposition to your traditional and patriarchal values.

It is true that women continue to face tremendous barriers to be able to succeed. Women have limited access to productive resources such as land, finance and information and are disproportionately affected by poverty, violence and discrimination. Bringing down the price of cooking gas can bring some relief to the family budget but it will certainly not solve all the problems women face. It is a well-known fact that compared to men, women tend to spend more of their income on family needs such as food, medical care and schooling.

There are so many women and men out there who are breaking stereotypes. We now have women getting higher salaries than their husbands/partners. These men not only appreciate but are prepared to help with household chores as this is helping to have a better quality of life in a healthy environment in the household. Have you not seen men cooking, cleaning the house and feeding children, Boygah? When we bought a new washing machine my husband not only taught me how to use it but helps with the washing up although he is disabled and can use only his right arm.

Although still marginalised on a wide variety of issues including poverty and gender-based violence, modern Mauritius has brought profound transformation in the lives of women. Very slowly we are seeing the erosion of traditional segregated sex roles. Girls are doing better than boys in education. The percentages of women in posts of decision in the public sector have increased dramatically. Men have understood that if their wives are getting better salaries than them, they too must make the effort and understand the socioeconomic development and transform cultural attitudes towards gender equality

By telling us that the place of a woman is the kitchen you are not only pointing your finger at men to tell them that they have no right to cook and help with household chores, you are also blaming Sir Anerood Jugnauth, Prime Minister of Mauritius, Boygah. The Prime Minister signed the Sustainable Development Goals in September 2015. Goal 5 is a standalone goal to achieve gender equality in all spheres of life and this is what the Executive Director of UN Women, Dr. Phimzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, said at this historic moment of the signature “We are pleased with Goal 5 which deals with key barriers of gender equality and women’s empowerment and points us to the action required. Clearly to achieve Agenda 2030, we must achieve substantive, transformative and irreversible gender equality and women’s empowerment. This means making choices that focus on universal, strategic, bold structural changes — changes that must also be rights-based. Goal 5 says we must end all forms of discrimination against all women and girls”.