Diary of a day during the COVID-19 pandemic from gender perspective

All social organizations starting from the most
basic to the state as the culminating social
organization have the family as a model. I was
raised hearing things that are mistaken about
the housework. It was always considered as
women’s job; as something that’s not for men;
and that if men did the housework were not
real men and they question their masculinity
since their duty was only working outside the
house and providing for the family. This way
of thinking that we inherited as a tradition
from our antecessors is wrong.

During the pandemic, my mom was the one
who did most of the housework. She did the
cooking, the laundry, washing the dishes,
cleaning the house, and I tried to help her by
serving tea or coffee.

My dad was watching documentaries on the
TV all day long, but I used to ask for his help
on several things. He was ready to help but I
could notice a kind of hesitation in his acts.
Even though it wasn’t anything difficult, it
happened that he told me “why don’t you ask
for help from your mother?!” That’s when I
realized that deep inside, my father considered
it as a “women’s job” that little help he gave us
with the housework.

As for my brother, he never showed interest in
the housework. Even though I asked for his
help several times, his answered “I can’t”, “I
am busy” despite the fact that he was scrolling
down on his phone.

Based on these examples, we can conclude that
we haven’t divided our work evenly between
men and women even in our family tree, and
that all the chores fall on women’s shoulders,
and we as a society should lobby to make men
aware on their responsibilities regarding chores.

Women had added responsibilities during this
pandemic since all family members have been
locked in the house. Due to this, men in the
family should show greater interest in in the
chores and help in doing equal work within the
house.

One of the principles of the article No. 3 of the
Law on Family in Kosovo states that the
regulation of family relations is based on
equality between husband and wife, respect
and mutual assistance between them and
family members.

This is why it is necessary for the society to be
aware on mass education of women and girls,
emancipating and fully integrating them into
society. This should be supported by everyone,
specifically by successful women, in order for
the remaining part of women to become aware
of the position they deserve in the society in
order to become independent and not be
considered as only capable of doing the chores.
They should be aware that they should fight
with all the democratic and legal means in
order to be equal in all jobs, be it inside or
outside the house since women should be
supported in case we aim to create a healthy
society.

This article was written by Blerina Saliuki, a student in the Department of Social Work in UP under the monitoring of professor Vjollca Krasniqi within the cooperation with SIT. This article was written within the project “Men and Boys as Partners in Promoting Gender Equality and the Prevention of Youth Extremism and Violence in the Balkans”, implemented by CARE International Balkans in partnership with SIT and YMCA in Kosovo and supported by Austrian Development Agency, and Oak Foundation.