According to Stats Canada, we've moved into a service economy. Many service industries deliver personalized and specialized services, and as a result, are very labour intensive. Women are more likely than men to hold service jobs. The attributes that impress in this sector include stellar communication skills, patience, impulse control, compassion, empathy, intuition, strong interpersonal skills, the will to be a team player, adaptability, time management and multitasking. Interestingly, these are the same attributes generally discouraged in men and encouraged in women by the patriarchy.
We're moving into an egalitarian culture. The tide turned with the exit and decimation of the Harper government in 2015. Egalitarian culture favours empathy, sensitivity, inclusiveness, the will and the ability to be an equal partner (in friendships, partnerships, and parenting). Again, these are attributes discouraged in men and encouraged in women by our culturally ingrained patriarchal systems.
Just as modern day women are primarily the providers of services, women have traditionally been the keepers of language (mother tongues), the keepers of shared stories and imbedded wisdom (old wive’s tales) and the keepers of food (mama’s home cooking). In an unspoken way, women have been the uncelebrated keepers and teachers of culture. When Baby Boomer women left the kitchen, starting in the 1960’s, and corporations stepped in to do food preparation, the knowledge that inoculated future generations failed to be passed on.
Already we’ve forgotten. It only took a few short generations to make it happen.
Corporations and industry use seductive tactics to convince us that kitchen work is drudgery from which women should be freed. This position successfully sold many household furnishings and appliances after World War II. This position also paved the way for food companies to take over a task that was once obligatory and made the task optional. Betty Friedan sealed the deal with her book “The Feminine Mystique.”
Corporate marketing campaigns use feminist ideas, like housework as a form of oppression, to fuel consumerism by subtly inferring that we have better things to do with our time. They pair “cheap” and “easy” to create convenience, helping to make sense of how today’s destructive Fast Food Culture gained its strength.
Breaking up with Fast Food Culture is an opportunity. This consideration creates a fresh perspective on our place in the world and may compel a complete overhaul on the way we choose to live. It will require being able to hold space for new thoughts and ideas without criticism, judgement or needing to control the process and outcome. It will require us to be in touch with and trust our own intuition and wisdom. It will be a process and a practice that evolves with daily intention.
The power in this process is in awareness.
It starts with caring. It starts with understanding connection. It starts with personal responsibility (a ground breaking act in a global Fast Food Culture). It starts when we face the damage created by decades of industrially prepared food and how it has eroded our connection to each other, connection to our root cultures, our health, the land, the water and the taste of what real food actually is.
We must face how we value and label ‘woman’s work,’ - food prep, creation and storage. We must face how this has been dismissed, undermined, devalued, and made invisible. We must face the serious societal health challenges and consequences of these choices. We must face the difficult question of: 'How does this apply to my own life?'