When we see everything that people do as an exclusive privilege that
only a certain kind of person can do, we limit ourselves, and we limit
others. More women are child caregivers than men, but that is a choice,
not some kind of Truth About How Things Are, a man is just as capable as
a woman of caring for a child. More men are tradespersons than women,
but that is also a choice, a woman is just as
capable as a man of learning and doing any trade. Our brains get caught
in childhood when we think of "who does what" and "how people are". All
men are not gigantic muscular creatures who are naturally brilliant at
building things, that's a childhood image. All women are
not weak and fearful creatures who are naturally brilliant at caring for
children, that is also a childhood image. In fact, hardly
anyone fits either image, and there are individuals from each opposite
gender who do. Making cliques and clubs out of the "kind of people who
can do a certain thing" is something the child brain does. To begin to undo this
conditioning, all we need to do is think about our own selves more
objectively, and notice how we ourselves do not fit our own stereotypes that we
hold in our heads, and then look around and see how others don't either.
Let's try to stop squishing people into childish boxes that they don't fit into.