Gender Roles

I took Margot to a makeup class of Making Music Meaningful this morning. Interestingly, because the class was held on a Saturday, as opposed to a weekday, a lot of the regular parents swapped places with their partners. This meant that about half of the parental attendees were dads as opposed to the more typical percentage of 90% women, 10% men. This change from the normal gender balance gave the class an exuberant, although initially cautious, energy (probably because a lot of the dads felt like I did when I attended the class for the first time!).

I really am grateful that I can hang out with Margot on a daily basis, as opposed to just weekends or after work, even if it’s only for a short time. I wonder if my generation will be considered the trailblazers of a more even distribution of parental responsibility or if we will just be considered a historical anomaly?

When you think about it, if you value the idea that a baby should stay home with one of his/her parents for at least a year, it should really make no difference which parent stays home; let the parents sort it out. However, guys are resistant - I know I was. As I blogged about before, a lot of us are worried about the professional consequences.

It will take a serious paradigm shift for us guys to get over our fears. I suspect that change may only come if forced upon us. For example, I’ve read lots of articles that state that the majority of graduates of medical and law schools in Canada are now women. I don’t think these women will be too impressed when their partners demand that they take a year off just because they're afraid of what their coworkers might say or because they don’t want to risk standing up to their boss.

I always sneak a few peaks at the faces at the faces of the other parents in my music class. Today I noticed that, once the other dads settled in, there was only one emotion on most of the their faces: joy. We don’t know it, and we wouldn't admit it if we did, but the sooner change comes the better off we will be.