Division of labour

Where is our daughter?

She hath not appeared…Nor to us hath tender’dThe duty of the day.– Shakespeare, Cymbiline III, 5My noble father,I do perceive hereA divided duty.– Shakespeare, Othello I, 3EVERYONE has assigned duties in life, or at least they should. In both of the above quotes, this duty is carried out by daughters, women, females. And therein lies the problem. As Shakespeare also said… “Aye, there’s the rub.”But should duty, work or labour be the domain of a specific gender? Who dictates that women should do specific tasks only, and men do other types of tasks? Is there such a thing as ‘woman’s work?’ The Bible did say that women were hewers of wood and carriers of water, but I can’t recall any mention of what labour-intensive tasks men were supposed to carry out.From ancient times, in almost all civilisations, women were assigned certain tasks. They kept the house clean, looked after the children, washed the clothes, stitched the garments and generally looked after the everyday chores.The men, on the other hand, did the hunting, fishing, bringing home the food, fighting to protect the clan or village and building the structures. Even in cowboy movies, the Indians always said that captured white women were useless because they couldn’t do the tasks such as cleaning the buffalo carcass and other domestic stuff that the squaws could do.The rules were specifically defined and both genders knew who did what. We’ll find out more about this division of labour right after these responses to ‘Worthless MBAs’.Hi Tony,My theory on the main reason for the MBA malady and the like, is perhaps due to the Jamaican demographic profile. It appears that for the population over 15 years old, there are about 44,000 more women than men. With this abundance of women, what are they to do but share and share alike?! It may not be the ideal thing to do and we may not condone it, but that’s the facts of life and food for thought.WickhamHey Teerob,Clearly there is a shortage of good men, that’s why women will be with a man who is married but so called available. The figures say that the genders are about equal, but what they don’t say is that the male population is divided into worthless men, non-working men, gays, stay-at-home momma’s boys and married men. So voila, the women will settle for the lesser evil, the married men. At least he has a job and was good to a woman once.SheilaMr Robinson,You’ve done it again and mashed some corns. Too many women have no self-worth or self-esteem [that"s] why they choose to be with another woman’s man. They may buy into the lame excuses, but the bottom line is, they are poaching another woman’s man. How would they feel if the roles were reversed and their husband had another woman with them? You should write about worthless mistresses who have no shame.KarenNature is beautiful and perfect. Every single creature has its assigned role, from the majestic eagle to the Johncrow to the maggot, and none is greater than the other. In a hive of bees, every bee knows what it’s supposed to do, as there are the worker bees, the soldier bees who protect the colony, the drones, and, of course, the queen whose task it is to lay the eggs. The same goes for ants and other animals such as lions and elephants. So what of man, who is supposed to be of a higher order?If you delve into the realm of economics, noted 18th-century economist Adam Smith postulated the theory of division of labour. He said that it’s far more efficient if each person was assigned a specific task to complete the whole rather than try to build the whole by himself. Ergo, some people make the tyres, others make… Please see our E-Paper for the full version of this article

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Division of labour