men's and women's work

I was drinking kava at the nakamal last night. As is typical, the guys were at one end of the nakamal getting drunk and the women were at the other end of the nakamal, slaving over the fire, watching the children and preparing the food for everyone. This scene always bothers me a little, the division of the sexes, the division of work. How could it have come to be that women have to do all the work and men just drink? Not that a scene similar to this one isn't common throughout the world, but I don't see how anyone (boy or girl) could convince themselves that this situation is good.

As is also typical, the guys were talking in the local language at the nakamal last night, and I haven't much of a clue what they were saying. The local language is a bit limited though and there aren't words for 'dispensary' and 'committee' and the like, so they just use the english words. Those kinds of words, along with references to people and places that I know, was enough for me to know that the men were talking about the dispensary's health committee, it's role and ongoing issues and such things. Certainly a conversation that needs to happen, as the dispensary lost their committee chairman a few months ago and just lost their [very organized] nurse recently.

It was probably due to the kava, but for some brief moments last night I imagined a bit of value in their system. Women take care of these problems (feeding everyone and attending to the children), men take care of those problems (governance).

Of course the system doesn't work, most of the men just want to get drunk, and you could easily talk about governance issues while you cooked your own damn food.