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How many men do you know that stay at home?
to take care of kids or had the option to take paid leave when their children were born.
Natasha Catalino says there's generally more acceptance for women to move between professional and domestic duties than the men.
And the issue remains our gendered expectations on work and nurturing responsibilities.
Natasha is an economist who offers ways we can move away from these outdated mindsets and
allow more men to choose their own work-life balance.
I'd like for us to explore a less of the gender equality debates,
equality for men in the home, the first small step could be taking paternity leave.
We need men to see the reward of taking this time with their family and to feel secure enough to take on their fair share of
So what's getting in the way?
Well, I think our mindsets might be getting in the way.
So I grew up with amazing parents and a very traditional model.
Now fast forward to And my husband, Peter, and I have chosen a different set up.
And several years into our marriage, I realized something.
It was 6.13 in the and I was frantically making four packed lunches for school and in my head running through the dentist appointments,
the and the pickups for that week, this burden of project managing family life.
And looked up and I saw him in the front room pedaling on his exercise bike, watching a movie.
And in that moment, I realised I am recreating my parents' setup.
Now, it turns out I'm not alone.
In fact, the majority of us still believe women should be responsible for managing their home and raising their children.
We know it doesn't need to be this way.
We can learn from the younger generation.
And this generation, more than any generation before it, cares deeply about work-life balance.
So perhaps they'll make different choices.
The other group we can learn from are same-sex couples,
freed from the traditional gender stereotypes of how to divide the home task, asks, they have to discuss it and decide consciously.
And what we see is by deciding consciously so they are more balanced.
How do you divide your home responsibilities?
Do you Or is society deciding for you?
It's not just a question of who should be doing these things at home.
It's also a of who's competent to do it.
And here an ingrained belief in society is that of male incompetence.
It sounds like some of you might be too.
As a new parent of twins,
I would stand watching over my husband while he changed the nappy and I'd say to him,
hey, you missed a bit there and get that bit.
Well, he solved the problem by leaving me to finish the job.
And I realized I'm disempowering him.
And this view of male incompetence is not only disempowering men, but it isn't helping women either.
This view of male incompetence is so ingrained.
Whether you're watching The Simpsons and you look at Homer Simpson
or you're watching The Children's Cartoon Pepper Pig in which Daddy Pig is a bumbling fool he can't like a barbecue,
he can't read a map in fact all he does is lie on the sofa watching TV
Are we sending our children about the role of men in the home?
Will people look back on us today and see equally outrageous biases against men in the home?
We've come such a long way in realising the barriers women face at work.
As we continue working to remove them,
let's also remove the barriers that men face outside of work and perhaps then each of us can choose our place on this spectrum and regardless
All of us can have it better.
The Talk you just listened to was recorded in Basel Switzerland.
All TEDx events are independently organized by volunteers who believe in TED's mission of ideas, Special thanks to the organizing team at TEDx Basel.
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