Gender Roles and Homeownership – Part II – Observations

It’s been a few weeks since I wrote the homeownership post.  And there has been some healthy conversation around it.  Nobody got offended, thoughts and views were shared.

So, during the past few weeks, I have been paying attention to gender roles around this topic.  And it’s empirical evidence to my initial point, that most women just don’t like to do home improvement or projects.

• Facebook Sales – due to my recent move, I’ve been selling a lot of things on closed neighborhood Facebook groups.  Most common comments?

“Let me check with hubby” (not kidding)

It was the ‘hubby’ that had to figure out the transportation, assembling, disassembling and usually the pick up on heavy items.  On my end, it was also a male (my young son) who did the disassembling and hauling up and down the stairs.  There was only one ‘sort of’ exception to this – heavy wooden rocking chairs from my veranda….a woman came to pick them up, but it was again a guy who loaded her car.

• HGTV House Hunters – yes, it’s a reality show of sorts, but it can be entertaining.  Reoccurring theme:  husband says “I don’t want to anymore projects, I like house X because no project, house  Y has too many projects, I’m tried of project.”
• General Facebook posts – women showing off home improvement photos that their husbands completed.
• Work chit chat – guys at work talking about their never ending projects in the house.  I have not heard one woman yet (and I work with successful women) referencing  anything around this topic.

So yes, the trend seems to be that maintenance, projects, etc., are guy things.  I recently talked to one man who said now that he can afford to pay someone, he’s fed up with project and doesn’t want to deal with it.  He is a multi millionaire and likes to enjoy his free time with other activities such as travel.  There are exceptions of course.  There is a local bath remodeling company owned by a woman (and she is hands on, not just doing the business part).  But the trend is real.  So my decision was the right once, I can’t do it myself, so don’t do it.  I like to analyze my decisions, maybe too much, even after the decision was made.

I do notice that more and more people are saying (both genders) that they are fed up with home projects.  But again, the man is default guy if both hate it (most of the time, always exceptions).

Now if I just didn’t have to experience the most unethical realtor who was my first listing agent on my house (I fired her, but it’s costing me lost time and $ to have encountered her-that is another post yet to come, how NOT to choose a realtor and waste thousands and thousands of $s while stressing to death). So my homeownership is still far from over but I’m really looking forward to the day it is.