Is it because the assignment of these jobs dates to that brief time and culture when women were housewives and men worked outside the home? It’s as stereotypical as white picket fence.

That's one take, sure.

But look at the examples again.

Taking out the trash involves lifting something that's usually heavy, twice. So the person that's more likely to have the higher upper body strength handling it makes sense.

Mowing vs gardening, you have a similar difference; particularly looking back at pre-powered mowers. Again, the person with the advantage of muscle mass is going to have less trouble doing it.

Cooking inside vs grilling? A lot less sensible. I really think that comes down to meat and fire rather than any practical reasons.

If you also look at the division of labor for those tasks through the lens of when they became stereotypes, you might notice that trash and mowing are very much a part of suburban life compared to rural or urban. The era when that became the way things work here in the US (where the stereotypes are mostly from) was one where the wife was at home and the man out at a job. Not universally so, but close enough.

The division of mowing and trash is also split along the lines of what needs doing steadily vs what needs doing irregularly, but takes more time to do at once. In a lifestyle where one partner has less day time available at home, them handling tasks on weekends and/or at end of day makes more sense as well.

The whole post war era here in the US shifted home dynamics into that kind of weird dichotomy. Not that the idea of women's work vs men's wasn't a thing everywhere, or that it only existed during that time. It's about this type of home tasks being split up by the standards of the lifestyle people thought they should have.

There's also the mess factor, and a shit ton of people born before the eighties or so and after maybe 1900-ish definitely had a concept that women shouldn't have to get dirty on a regular basis. Gardening in the suburban sense is a vastly different one than in the rural sense. In a suburban area, you're either talking flowers and decorative plants, or a small vegetable/"victory" garden. Neither of which is as messy or as large as an acre of crops to handle.

Mowing is a high sweat, messy job. Grilling compared to indoors cooking is a tad messier by virtue of the soot and ash.

I kid you not, doing home health back when the generation before the baby boom was solidly into old age, the more suburban a family was, the more likely they were to have the assumption that women shouldn't have to deal with the more physical, messier home maintenance jobs. Baby boomers carried it over for sure, but for them or was often that they grew up with that paradigm and didn't question it until later. I had way less gen-x patients that had a sustained home paradigm, so there's less direct observation for that, and next to zero for millennials.

I'm not saying it was right. I'm not judging it one way or another, not really; people can have whatever home arrangements they want, ain't none of my business. I'm just saying that it isn't as single facet as the screen shot tries to make it. It is/was a product of a full cultural shift and it wasn't as arbitrary as that makes it out to be.

I mean, mowing the lawn probably dates back to when you had to use a scythe for that. That was actually quite physically demanding labour.

Bringing out the trash might similarly originate from when trashcans were out of metal and didn't have wheels. I can certainly imagine those being annoying to heave outside when you don't have an excess of core strength...

Taking out the trash involves lifting something that’s usually heavy, twice. So the person that’s more likely to have the higher upper body strength handling it makes sense.

Which is why, as we all know, doing the laundry is a man's job.

There’s also the mess factor, and a shit ton of people born before the eighties or so and after maybe 1900-ish definitely had a concept that women shouldn’t have to get dirty on a regular basis.

Oh yeah, that's why changing baby's diapers is almost always a man's job.

Repairing the coolant loop of a nuclear fusion reactor is women's work!

(And also...)

You're only supposed to load like 8 pounds of clothes at a time - easily into the woman work territory. /s

Taking out the trash involves lifting something that’s usually heavy, twice. So the person that’s more likely to have the higher upper body strength handling it makes sense.

Massive reach, unless you're regularly throwing out lead.

My garbage is always 40 pounds cause I pack it down wait until well after I should have taken it out.

Nah, you take one of the 30 gallon cans, stick a bag in it, and it can be a tough lift when full. Not so much because of the weight, though a twenty pound weight isn't going to be a surprise. It's the way you have to move to lift the bag out. It relies more on arms and back, so you can't really use your legs properly.

Without a bag, evena 15 gallon can is awkward to lift and walk with. A bigger one is again a more upper body thing.

Besides, I didn't say a woman couldn't get the job done, just that it makes more sense for whoever has the better upper body strength

The examples in the post didn't include those, so neither did I. Don't read into it beyond the examples used

I just want to recognize a really interesting, high effort comment. I’ve been thinking a lot about this stuff as I deconstruct my upbringing and this comment was really edifying for what it is: a thoughtful take, not portrayed as fact, but presented reasonably.

I wish I had more to add to the conversation, because I hate to just write a long upvote but there we have it. Really great read, thanks for taking the time.

I am so glad my husband was a single dad.

I cook, he cleans dishes & wipes stuff down. I put away dishes. Daily

I do the gardening, it's because I care and the food garden is for cooking - but my ex (despite his overall inability to work) was an incredible organic gardener and I did not touch the yard. We pay someone to mow and edge.

Husband walks the dog and feeds the pets. Takes out the trash. Daily

He washes the towels and sheets. Weekly.

I clean filters and maintain the appliances. Once in a while.

He cleans the windows and washes the cars. Once in a while.

I handle the finances, mostly. I am tech support also. He plans long term and plans vacations for us.

We both work demanding jobs, and have someone come in biweekly to do the real house cleaning.

Basically we both are doing half of what we were before.

Actually, grilling was a marketing thing. Companies realized men were an untapped market for purchasing cooking supplies, but they had to convince men that there was a form of cooking that was ‘manly’ enough for them to do, because when grills were first invented cooking was very, very much ‘woman’s work’ and any man who touched it was ‘weak’ and ‘girly’ and perhaps ‘hen-pecked’.

A grill, which was outdoors (rustic! woodsy! living off the land!), involved fire (manly!), and mostly meat cooking (even more manly!) was basically the solution they found.

My husband grills because I'm guaranteed to burn the shit out of myself

That's how we did diapers. The mother handles all the inputs, which is technically more because the baby is growing.

Random advertisement for cloth diapers, it's less work than it sounds and saves crazy money.

I require you to use these cherries, as opposed to others

I stuck to the topic of the post and didn't veer off. Anyone wants to start a different branch of the discussion, that's fine. But that's not what the comment I responded to did. They complained that I didn't expand on the topic.

Ohhh providing examples that conflict with the narrative is complaining. Got it

but this is lemmy, there’s a pantsless scyther right over there

As a straight male... Who still thinks like this?? It couldn't be the majority of us in 2026, could it?

No, the dismissing tone of the message providing this contradiction is the problem.
It does not have the form of simple nuances or counter-arguments. It has the form of an attack on the previous commenter's credibility.

And to be clear, about the core of these comments, form aside.
I do not fully agree with the explanations given, while I recognise the reasonning as sound. I am just pretty sure there were and still are additional contributing factors, especially when not focusing on the USA.
I do agree with thu counter examples. (Again, not with how these were given.)

Shit is progressing real slowly saldly

And by "us" you are referring to specific countries right, because it definitely isn't so in all countries.

Some might say it's regressing even

If counter examples to highlight flaws in blanket statements are an attack to a person's credibility then idk what to tell you.

I am pretty sure this the image American movies portrayed for decades.

And idiots take it as a blueprint to be the least helpful person in the household.

The whole image fails when the woman is working or the man is a decent person.

Nah, think of it positively ~ you're optimising the amount of trash per bag. For the planet, of course.

I'm just saying that it isn't as single facet as the screen shot tries to make it. It is/was a product of a full cultural shift and it wasn't as arbitrary as that makes it out to be.

I don't think trying to provide a more nuanced explanation qualifies as a blanket statement...

If you go to the toilet beforehand then there will be no shit to burn out of you.

Like and subscribe for more faecal top tips!

Oh god this makes way too much sense...

I’m not triggered but I don’t know if this sub is useful. I don’t know any straight people who think like this.

Fun fact: this was basically the opposite tactic they took from automatic cars. Everyone loved how easy automatics were to drive. Back then manual gear changes and actual physical steering was hard to do without a lot of upper body strength (and often even with lots of upper body strength). But using physical strength to drive a car was MANLY.

So the ads were basically all like, ‘we know you, a manly man, can handle an manual car. But buy a nice, easy-to-drive automatic for the wife!’ That way guys could save face and claim they were just switching to automatics ‘for the lady’.

Are you in tik tok and instagram? Facebook or Twitter?

Idk about the majority but there's definitely a demographic of people who genuinely think that way.

Sadly I know plenty.

Are you in tik tok and instagram? Facebook or Twitter?

No, I am on Lemmy for a reason.

My comment had an important follow up, posted only 7 minutes later, that makes your response to me quite silly.

But even if I ignore my follow-up comment, beacause you maybe didn't even notice its existence... If you don't know how to read a three-sentences message without ignoring the first two-and-a-half, I don't know what to tell you.

looking back at pre-powered mowers

Oh my god as a kid when we got the push mower with the extra lever for the wheels, my life was changed

That wasn't very smart.
Pro-tip: if you don't reply to a person, a message won't go to their inbox.

Also your insult falls flat since you clearly don't know how to edit a comment.

Likely a leftover from times when women stayed at home and men worked. Women were expected to take care of all the daily chores.

Less sensible in this day and age, but also less common IMO. I know couples with much more even division of labour, both young and old people.

I refuse to engage further with your shit-stirring.

I say it's regressing

I'm devastated, truly.

I grill as often as possible, still only once a week.

Travel to Missouri

Yeah that's why you dont see that stuff