Pink Jobs, Blue Jobs, but Now They Are Purple

A very good friend of mine and his wife often discuss pink jobs and blue jobs.

Confused?"

"A man and his wife are arguing about who should bring the coffee each morning.

The wife said, “You should do it because you get up first, and then we don't have to wait as long for our coffee.”

The husband replied, “You are in charge of cooking around here, and you should do it! Because that is your job, and I can just wait for my coffee.”

His wife quickly says, “No, you should do it. You're in charge of drinks. Plus, the Bible says that men should make the coffee."

Her husband smirks and says, “You’re crazy. I don’t believe you; show me where it says that.”

She goes to get the Bible. Then, she opens the New Testament. She points to the top of several pages. It clearly says, .... "HEBREWS."

Times Change

People have long associated blue with boys and pink with girls. It all goes back to when boys wore blue. This color was believed to be strong enough to scare away evil spirits from nurseries. Since society valued boys more than girls, they wore blue for protection. Pink was associated with girls because they were said to be born of pink roses.

I remember that my mom took on specific jobs without question. My dad, however, did others, even if there didn't seem to be that many that he did.

It was commonplace that cooking was done by the women of the house. It was a “pink job.” The cleaning was also a “pink job.” In fact, my mother got lumbered with most of the domestic duties.

Cooking, cleaning, tidying, polishing, dusting, making the bed, and so on.

Blue jobs were those jobs that typically had an ample feel to them. The more masculine approach, “beating of the chest” type of jobs. Mowing the grass, taking out the bins, and gardening.

The distribution of jobs is always deemed to be a bit one-sided, to the benefit of my father and his blue-collar jobs. In the past, in marriage, this often made sense when the husband worked outside and the wife stayed home. Both my parents worked, so I couldn’t use that as an excuse.

It gets tricky in some cases. Take, for example, washing up the dishes. In a balanced relationship, it may be that the husband washes and dries the dishes and the wife puts them away. What happens when you have a dishwasher? Are the same rules still in place, or has putting away the dishes after the cycle finished become a “pink job”?

Driving has usually been seen as a “blue job” for couples. That is, unless the husband has had too much to drink. Paying the bills – “blue job”. Calendar events or organizing medical appointments, for example, “pink jobs.”

So it goes on. Three decisions may be based (theoretically) on where the skills lie. For example, women are often more organized.

Choosing furniture or items for the house feels “pink.” Actually picking up items or assembling flat-packed pieces is definitely "blue."

The advent of the purple job

We now find ourselves in an era of gender equality. The role of the woman is no longer to stay at home and raise the children and take care of the house. So what were once known as “pink jobs" and “blue jobs” has lost their meaning.

Enter the “purple job.”

There are no boundaries with jobs anymore – they are all fair game for either party. If you live by yourself, you will know what I mean. A man can’t say to himself, washing and cleaning are pink jobs, I don’t do them because there is no one else to do it (unless you get a cleaner in, which is cheating!).

A woman is now doing more jobs that used to be male "blue" jobs. Also, having a helpful male neighbor can be great if she lives alone, but we’ll skip that for now.

I am interested to know from readers – do you still have “pink” and “blue” jobs, or have they all become purple?

I would love to know.

Till next time,

Calvin