Devina Mehra: Why does ‘women’s work’ get taken over by men once it starts paying?

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Quick, tell me which gender has more natural affinity and skill in the following fields? Make-up. Sewing.

Cooking. You are likely to tell me that while it is not as if men can’t be trained in them, women are naturally better in each of these fields. But now comes the kicker.

In the Indian film industry until a few years ago, women were not allowed to work as makeup artists, as per the bylaws of The Cine Costume, Makeup Artists and Hair Dressers Association. They could only be hair-dressers. Yes, women were not allowed to do make-up once it became a paying profession.

A woman who recently graduated in hotel management told me that the hardest department to break into in a hotel is the kitchen. Deliberately, the atmosphere is made such that it discourages and even drives away women. To give only one example, abusive language is often used.

Silai-kadai (sewing-knitting) are considered feminine hobbies, but how many women tailor masters do you know? In a city that is a major garment export hub, there is not a single one in any manufacturing unit. Immediately, the pattern becomes clear. When a skill is unpaid and unvalued, it is a woman’s domain, but if the market is willing to pay a price for it, women are systematically discriminated against and kept out of that domain.

The very thing that was women’s work within the household becomes something she is incapable of doing when it pays well. You have men, sometimes even at high places, questioning whether women have the same aptitude and skills in maths and technology as men. But there was a time when nearly all the computer programming and war-time code breaking was done by women.