Jackie Jarvis writes

“Housework is what a woman does that nobody notices unless she hasn’t done it.” Evan Esar American Humorist (1899 - 1995)

This year is supposedly the 40th anniversary of our freedom from male domination.

The Women’s Liberation Movement shook society to its very core, proclaiming that we’d suffered enough oppression at the hands of men and that it was our turn to take over the world.

Believing that this was the dawning of a new and exciting era, we all jumped aboard the gravy train, demanded equal rights, an end to the glass ceiling and the freedom to incinerate any article of underwear associated with gender stereotyping.

Now, four decades later, I’m celebrating this glorious revolution by ironing my husband’s underpants.

In spite of all the advances that have been made in redressing the male/female imbalance, why is it that women still appear to bear the brunt of carrying out the lion’s share of the housework?

We all know that men create far more mess and dirty linen than women, but even the most highflying female executive can find herself unwittingly catapulted into the unenviable role of head cook and bottle washer once she leaves the well-ordered confines of her office.

“Even the most high-flying female executive can find herself unwittingly catapulted into the unenviable role of head cook and bottle washer”

And as I set to scrubbing out another toilet, because it’s a dirty job but someone has do it, I begin to wonder was it really worth ripping off my bra and burning it at the stake of emancipation all those decades ago.

I certainly have it all, and in spades now! I should have been more careful about what I wished for!

This leads me to the conclusion that all us so-called domestic goddesses have well and truly made a very uncomfortable rod for our own backs.

We’re just so good at keeping the homefires burning that our families step aside and let us light our own matches.

A recent study carried out by MindLab International on that most hated of domestic duties, the ironing, is a case in point.

The source of many a household dispute, it appears that this thankless task should be left to the females of the species.

While men may be particular about how their shirts are pressed, their female partners, it seems, are far more proficient at actually carrying out the task –now there’s a surprise!

And then there are the dreaded household chores, which are still regarded, even in this so-called enlightened age, as women’s work.

One in five people in the Midlands admit they still see cleaning as essentially a woman’s job.

More than 20% of people questioned in a poll by Karcher thought that a woman’s place was in the home and that it was their duty to scrub floors, vacuum and polish.

And most surprising of all, nationally, more women than men believe cleaning to be specifically for the girls.

Whoever coined that well-worn phrase ‘A woman’s work is never done’ was spot on. But the burning question is: who do we blame for that?