Being forced as a child to do these things doesn't help. As a female child, though, I absorbed without question the idea that these were my jobs, which I would be expected to do all my life. It took years before I finally shook off the childhood associations and noticed how I actually felt about household chores. I discovered that I didn't mind them. Work in itself is not a bad thing - it is necessary for a good life.
Household work is as pleasant as any other.
On all those counts it beats sitting through a faculty meeting or writing a column. Another thing I came to realize is that the nurturing and maintenance jobs hold the world together. Their social worth is inestimable. The women of Iceland made that point dramatically one day in 1975. All the women in the country, paid and unpaid, took a day off and gathered together for a discussion of women's rights.