all this talk about rights and equality...

The sauna at the gym (yes, the gym again) is a perfect place for ears dropping.  It is small and the women there tend to talk fairly loudly. There are a couple of friends, in their early fifties, who come regularly. Neither of them works, both of them are married and neither of them has children at home. Yesterday they were talking about household chores.

“Oh, I can’t be bothered with cleaning, I have a made coming twice a week.” The other one thinks that cooking every day just takes too much time, so she pre-prepares meals on Sundays for the weeks. She doesn’t clean the house either.

This is how it works. In the morning they get up, prepare breakfast and then come to the gym – five times per week. Afterwards, they have lunch with friends. The other lady has a massage once a week, and obviously has her nail done, her feet done and gets facials on a regular basis. The family comes over for a meal every week, sometimes twice a week.

The other one has two grandchildren so she collects them from school every other day. This is when the other one reads.

I was listening to their conversation and started thinking that their life didn’t sound too bad at all. I wouldn’t mind being able to have a good night sleep every night, do sports without feeling like I should be doing something completely different and to read and actually have some sort of general knowledge in my head. And as an addition it would be nice to look like them in 30 years time.

I do understand that all this talk about women's rights and equality is important and that I should be proud being a strong, independent, Nordic woman. But when the dust balls are biting my ankles because I have been too busy to even do vacuum cleaning or when my nails are like those of a lumber jag, I curse the whole women’s liberation movement to the earth’s furthest corner.

And I hope everybody is having a great International Women’s Day.