our preconceived notion is that the mother should be at home and the father is the breadwinner … not in the case of the seahorse

I believe we all carry preconceptions that are there in our subconscious … we do and they are society driven, crammed into us from birth…. it would be just your luck to stumble upon a tribe who believe all men caught wearing chick jeans should be publicly flogged

Increasingly today the woman can be earning much more than her partner - we all know this but don’t generally consider it when making assumptions. …. the rule here should be don’t make assumptions.

Someone in the Coven (who will remain nameless) was caught assuming that …. ‘men wearing pink shirts either bat for the other side or are German’! Quite how deep in the subconscious this notion lies is up for debate but we imagine it was placed there somewhere in the shallows

Freud’s theories about the subconscious and the unconscious mind are enough to send the Witches to the latter state so we won’t dwell on those for now …

WoE

’stay at home’ Dad who has to face a sea of women at a toddler group? Until something becomes the norm, it will stick out and attract comment
I don’t things have to be the norm as such, in the case you mention above there will always be more women looking after children than men I suspect. What we should look for is the point when it is not worthy of mention.
It goes back to the original point, our preconceived notion is that the mother should be at home and the father is the breadwinner.
Increasingly today the woman can be earning much more than her partner - we all know this but don’t generally consider it when making assumptions.

Best
RC

Your point about the subconscious…. it’s so in your face the difference between the sexes that we fail to see how any of it can be subconscious, depends which way you look at it with regard to basic programming.

We do have female friends who have held down what would be considered traditionally male jobs… because it’s still a relatively new concept (re Dino’s comment about generations) they no doubt attract sexist comments. What of a man working in a traditionally female world or a ’stay at home’ Dad who has to face a sea of women at a toddler group? Until something becomes the norm, it will stick out and attract comment …. very much like our latest hippy outfit which thankfully should fall under the male roving eye radar, but due to its sheer fabric will be worn over a boiler suit

In answer to your initial question… yes, most people are sexist but is it inherent? In the beginning when we were living in trees was it present then? The need to survive would dictate that women could hunt as well as have children and in some societies were the hut builders too. In short then it depends in what society and at what time you live that dictates widely accepted gender norms.

WoE

I concur!

RC can be at times very sexist in his posts and comments, but with him being asexual, he must be split in his ‘chick jeans’ (probably literally) as to what side he wants to take.

Jordan

I see it too with the US Presidential Candidates. Note Hilary Clinton could potentially be
the first woman president.
The same principal applies to race, Obama the first black president.
I understand the historic importance of this but still we feel the need to tag somebody in such a way - which means there’s still a long way to go.

I saw a headline the other day which stated …
Openly gay MP …
The subject was about finance matters, other contributors were not prefixed by
openly heterosexual MP !

Rod

Never a truer word spoken…. recently we put this very point to a gathering of women whose ages varied as did marital status etc…. so a mixed bunch you might say. The answer came back loud and clear that no one was interested in a man who’d had hundreds of sexual partners… not even if he was gorgeous and rich. We were expecting a debate but there was none… it was noteworthy as a subject where everyone agreed which rarely happens within the Coven walls. Truth to say we don’t know of any woman who has had hundreds of sexual partners but if we did, we would wonder at how she managed it with all the other time consuming elements of female life

As Witches who have to occasionally advise young witchlings about the world and its ways…. the tricky subject of how to dress often arises. We tell them a judge was famously heard to say in a court room ‘that a woman should be able to dress as she pleases without the threat of unwanted sexual advances’… and we fully agree but nature has other ideas and since we live in the real world there are always consequences. We also add that fat old Witches can get away with what they want on the whole

WoE

To take your point about a woman possibly being seen as ‘left on the shelf’… interestingly we know of none in our acquaintance. They were all on the shelf at one stage, some found the construction a bit dodgy so they got off, closely followed by the china The word ’spinster’ conjures up an image of an elderly woman from the past.

Recently we overheard the plaintive cry of a woman calling out that dinner was ready… a man was heard to shout ‘do you expect me to stop what I’m doing?’…. answer, ‘yes, I had to stop what I was doing to make it’! All of which goes to show that while both parties may be working full time these days, old roles sometimes die hard.

Until 50% of fathers stay at home to look after their children, we don’t see things changing any day soon.

WoE

Even if it’s not many they clearly feel the need to do so.

I suspect the modern ladette culture may be changing some of this but it’s still unquestionably there
Cheers
Rod