Sonam Bajwa On Facing Sexism At Home: Why Are Household Chores Gendered?

Sonam Bajwa seeks to bring difficult issues to light that Indian society may not be ready to address or confront just yet with her most recent film. Godday Godday Chaa will explore how Indian women experience inequality in their own homes, and during the film's promotion, the actor also disclosed that, like many other women, she had personally dealt with prejudice and inequality at home.

In her statement, the actor cited numerous instances where women in Indian families frequently experience sexism. From forcing daughters to learn cooking skills and other household duties while letting sons get away with it quite easily, to allowing sons to spend the night away from home while not allowing daughters to do the same.

Sonam Bajwa On Facing Sexism At Home

Sonam Bajwa admitted that while her brother played, her mother used to make her work in the kitchen despite the heat. The actor additionally offered a couple of things that the majority of us will undoubtedly agree with, including that we have all experienced inequality in how sons and daughters are treated since we were young and that this inequality is deeply ingrained in our society.

It was so normal in childhood when a girl child was asked to help their mothers in the kitchen and talk and laugh more in a feminine way, while a male child was asked to avoid wearing colours like pink and not cry "like a girl" whenever things went wrong. But it was all sexism, as there was no correct way to talk or laugh as a woman, and there was no rule that men cannot express their emotions or cry.

Even then, when a woman behaves ambitiously, she is reminded that she needs to give time to family as well, and when a man goes into the kitchen, he is reminded that it's great to have cooking as a hobby.

Furthermore, until you sit down and give it some thought, you won't realise how deeply ingrained it is in our homes alone. Remember how our mothers used to serve snacks and tea to guests when they visited our home, not our fathers?

We have so normalised it that, even now, whenever anyone comes to visit, the women in the house automatically go to the kitchen to offer them things while everyone else sits in the living room. They never questioned it before, and they may not question it now because we have already adapted it very well.

Suggested Reading: Have Seen This Happen At My Home: Navya Nanda Calls Out Household Sexism

Although this pervasive gender bias is part of a larger phenomenon in Indian society where, for a variety of historical, social, religious, and economic reasons, families typically place a higher value on sons than on daughters, these cooking and daily living skills are essential for both men and women to lead normal lives.

However, it is so rooted that many men grow up unaware of how to handle household responsibilities fairly because they simply weren't taught or observed their fathers doing this.

As the actor also revealed that her brother is now responsible for cooking and cleaning on his own while living in Canada, where they don't have access to domestic workers. She jokingly sees this as a form of "revenge." She asserted that she told her mother that she could have helped her brother if she had taught him the basic from a young age as well.

Similarly, somewhere, people are beginning to understand and accept this, and things are efficiently changing. We hope that the next generation will stop passing down these inequalities to their children and instead let the boy go grocery shopping and cook some pasta for the guests visiting home. Moreover, it won't turn him into a "bad man" or "not the ideal man." We wish the mothers of this generation would not excuse assigning cooking responsibilities to their daughters but not to their boys.

Views expressed are the author's own, not the platform's