Ariel’s new film aims to address inequality in division of household chores

After a tiring day at work, it is nice to come back to a spotless home (or step out from your home office) and groan luxuriously while sinking into your sofa while grabbing the TV remote from its conveniently placed basket. Yummy snacks magically appear by your arm, and perhaps a giant, steaming mug of tea or coffee as well. A delicious dinner later, you spend time chatting with friends or reading a book before heading to bed and disappearing under freshly laundered sheets. You’re not worried about the morning because you know that you’ll wake up to hot coffee and breakfast, and that there’ll be a freshly pressed suit waiting for you in the cupboard for the next day’s work. While I’ve carefully avoided mentioning any gender, I think it’s more than obvious that we’re not talking about the daily life of a woman here. For women, whether they be stay-at-home moms or top executives at some MNC, the day plays out very differently.

By the time he’s up in the morning, she’s already finished planning not just her day, but his as well. She doesn’t have the luxury of waking late because the house help will be arriving at a certain time. She needs to dry the clothes from last night’s wash, isolate a batch of clothes for the dhobi who’s coming soon with a batch of freshly ironed sets, which must be sorted and paired and placed in cupboards, and there’s still meal planning and prep to be done. By the time he’s left for work or begun his day in his neatly organised work-from-home office space, she’s already been up for hours, is completely exhausted and is having to juggle phone calls and work email while chopping onions for that curry he loves so much. And this is a day that doesn’t factor in kids, pets, relatives, guests, or ill health. Uncomfortable truths While he might think we’re exaggerating, she knows that this is the unfortunate reality for the majority of women out there, herself included. In fact, many men, even loving husbands and doting fathers, will find this surprising. According to a third-party survey, 7 out of 10 women say that their partners did help in the early days of the lockdown, but also that they stopped helping later. That same survey suggests that while 80% of the women agree that their partners know how to do household chores, their partners choose not to participate. The uncomfortable truths don’t stop there. 77% of women feel they need to adapt their schedule to their husband’s wants, and 73% of men agree that they’d do their share of the work if they were staying with other men. It’s easy to see that most men just don’t appear to see or treat women as equals and end up taking them for granted. See equal Ariel, with its #ShareTheLoad campaign, has been working for years to address this inequality and to drive conversation around it. A marriage is a partnership of equals, after all, and it’s important that he understands that her time is as valuable as his. #SharingTheLoad isn’t just about helping with the chores, it’s about accepting joint responsibility — not just for yourself, but of the people you care about. Little things go a long way towards establishing a more equal, more caring partnership. He could simply pay more attention to his partner’s needs, wash up after himself, understand that she wants to sink into that couch just as badly as he does. Waking up early himself to help set the table for breakfast, or learning to operate the washing machine and helping in the kitchen isn’t a chore or a favour, it’s a responsibility that comes with being part of a family. How about we all do our part to make things more equal? When we #SeeEqual, we do indeed share equal. #ShareTheLoad! This article is written by Studio18 on behalf of Ariel.