Problem Statement:

How might we help men recognize and share emotional (and other forms of gendered) labor?

10 Divergent Ideas:

• Present men with a list of gendered tasks and have them think of the last time someone did that for them, as well as the last time they did that.
• Challenge men to do a “feminine” task for 3 another male identifying person in their life and see how they react.
• Keep a labor journal for labor that you do and labor that is done for you.
• End group meetings 5 minutes early for men with the intention that they are responsible for cleaning up meeting spaces.
• Pair men up with another man to keep each other accountable. This way they have someone to talk through tricky situations, and are not relying on the women and non-binary people in their lives.
• Verbally acknowledge every time someone does gendered work for a week, and thank them for it.
• Use role playing and dance for men to physically manifest their feelings on masculinity and femininity.
• Compare a list of gendered tasks to who did them in their household growing up. (Did women and men do equal numbers of tasks? Did they take on tasks that took roughly the same level of time or energy? Or was there a skew?)
• Watch a movie and pause it every time gendered labor is done for a male character.
• Explicitly claim ownership over managing all household duties for a week and see what additional considerations come with managing such work.