Why Forcing Married Couples Into Traditional Roles Can Make Them Hate Each Other
Baking won’t make you the perfect wife.
“I’m ready for marriage, my boyfriend is so lucky,“ she wrote on her Instagram while disclosing a photo of a cake she’s baked.
They aren’t engaged. They’re nowhere close to marriage. The reasons she wrote that are 1) she wanted the world to see how good a baker she is, which is fair enough and 2) she comes from a country that still puts a huge value on a woman’s ability to be a great housewife if she wants to find a husband.
The Czech Republic is one of the most sexist countries in Europe, so none of this surprises me. I grew up there. I grew up being told that if I want someone to marry me, I need to know how to cook, bake, do laundry, iron clothes, mop the floors, clean the windows, the list goes on. All of this while also graduating from a university, preferably with a doctorate, and working a job that makes me really rich.
I need to be an accomplished independent woman and a loyal cleaning lady/full-time mother/housewife at the same time.
No pressure, though.
