Nick Nakashian
Gender roles are filled very day, and often if we don't take a step back to think about our everyday lives, we will miss the ways in which we participate in gender. I work in the produce department of a large grocery store cooperation. In our department we have both men and women on the team. However, I feel that there is a definite separation between the work for men and the work for women. Most of the men in our department work out on the floor, working with the displays and keeping them stocked. This position requires a lot of physical labor; moving heavy boxes filled with products, and unloading delivery loads. All the women in the department work either in the back, chopping fruits and vegetables, making juice, or in the floral department. There are no men that work full time in floral, and even when I was hired I was half joking asked if I wouldn't mind doing feminine work in floral if they needed help.
I feel that this department represents a very traditional and almost outdated way of doing gender; letting the "big boys" do all the heavy and physical work, while the girls prepare food and decorate flowers. And to most people there really seams to be nothing wrong with this setup, perhaps most people would agree with letting the men do all the heavy lifting. However, I believe that it is the small situations like this that translate large-scale gender roles and expectations.
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