Mannenwerk

 Here in the Netherlands a lot of the work is still divided into vrouwenwerk and mannenwerk. Each has its inequalities for the people doing them and make them wish that the other gender knew how hard they really work. 

I grew up doing heavy work as soon as I got big enough to do anything. It gave me a lot in common with all of my predecessors through the ages, kids who got put to work as soon as they could be useful. Sometimes I listen to old interviews from people who grew up in the late 19th century or read memoirs from the odd literate worker from earlier times. All of them had that experience and all of them were broken down from lives of heavy labor. 

The work I did as a child and when I was young was what would be classed as "mannenwerk" here. That is, work that is done by men and not by children or women. 

When I started working here, I started in cleaning because that's almost a mandatory part of being an immigrant woman anywhere. Cleaning is considered "vrouwenwerk", or work done by women. It is devalued because it is so necessary. If we paid the women who do it what they were worth, it would cost too much. They work a lot harder than they get credit for and they keep the world ticking along. Without them, we'd have to do it or get used to living in our own filth with wastebaskets that never get emptied and dishes that never get cleaned. Not many men choose to do this kind of work because it wasn't taught to them growing up, for whatever cultural reason.

Then I decided to go to school and become a landscape gardener, a "hovenier". This is also heavy work. It involves a lot of standing out in the rain and always being dirty and cold and tired. It is physically demanding, and many of the men I worked with had old injuries that bothered them or chronic conditions from doing hard work all day long for decades. 

How they felt about me seemed a bit mixed. Some of them were pleased to have a woman there who was willing to share their hardships. They respected that I was there with them standing out in the rain trying to screw two pieces of wood together or raking together wet leaves and branches to haul to the trailer. We were in it together as far as I was concerned. 

Others used their job to feel physically superior to others who couldn't do the job, like men in offices or women. Me being there and doing the work and bearing the hardship contradicted this belief that they were automatically superior or that women were automatically weak. I represented an exception, and I took away the complaint they had that women weren't willing to do the heavy, unpleasant work because I was right there doing it. 

Still others didn't feel that I should have to do the heavy, unpleasant work and end up like them, broken down and always in some degree of pain. They wanted to spare me that fate, even if they understood that I was used to it. 

I can understand the first and the last point of views, but the remaining one, the using it to feel superior to others is a little harder to understand because it stems from insecurity. It reminds me of a time when I was getting chewed out and belittled by my foster father when I was there to help him. I asked him point blank if he wanted my help or not, to which he had no answer. That's basically how I look at it. If there is work to be done, and somebody is there trying to help, for God's sake, let them. 

I personally found it really interesting to work as a gardener. I liked the men I worked with and the experience led me to have a lot of respect for them. They were intelligent. They had common sense. They did professional work and took pride in it. They were generally nice people to spend time talking to. They were also incredibly hardworking and strong. It was a worth getting to know them, and in doing so I came to understand that the working class is made up of the same kind of people the world over. 

I really have to look into turning this experience into a Cultural Anthropology degree or something.