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Men go to camp to learn `women's skills'

A high-school student learns how to take care of a baby at a ``Nursing and Housework Camp,'' which was attended by 60 high-school teachers and students in Taipei yesterday, International Women's Day. The camp included cooking classes and other duties traditionally seen as women's responsibilities. PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES

As women around the world united to celebrate International Women's Day yesterday, a group of men in Taipei rolled up their sleeves to learn parenting and cooking skills in order to complete their transformation into enlightened modern men and support their better halves.

About 60 male high-school teachers and students went to "Nursing and Housework Camp" yesterday to hone their skills at what was traditionally considered women's responsibilities. They awkwardly held baby dolls while trying to give them baths, change their diapers and feed them with bottles. That was followed by a cooking course taught by celebrity chef Chen Hong (陳鴻).

Organized by the Taipei City Government's Department of Education and held at Taipei's Taojiang High School of Nursing and Home Economics, the one-day camp invited male teachers and students to appreciate women more through housework practice such as nursing and cooking.

"As traditional gender roles and social structures change, parenting and other housework become a co-responsibility shared by men and women," said Kao Ching-neng (高清能), a teacher from Taipei Municipal Sung Shan High School of Commerce and Home Economics.

"I feel it's necessary for me to learn these skills and share housework with my wife," said Kao, who is getting married soon.

Joy Chang (張靖漪), director of the Nursing Department at Taojiang High School, said the camp could help improve men's understanding of the challenges working women face.

"Gender equality should not be a feminist issue, but a collaborate efforts by both men and women," Chang said. "This camp provides an opportunity for men to understand how much effort women put into balancing work and family, so that they can be more supportive."

Hu Jun-an (胡俊安), a teacher trainee from Daojiang said that he never knew giving a baby a bath could be such a Herculean task.

"It is really hard to hold a baby in the tub and wash her body using one hand," Hu said. "I think I need more practice."

Exchange students and teachers in training from abroad were among the nervous and excited men in the camp.

"I was so scared about breaking the baby's neck when I tried to put her in the water," said Michael Torres, a US high-school student from San Antonio, Texas, who is on a one-year exchange student program at Daojiang.

Torres said that he never had such classes when he was in the US and is excited about the chance to learn the skills.

"I think this is good practice for all men, and I will be happy to share responsibility for taking care of babies and doing other housework in the future," Torres said.

Aeba Shogo, a teacher trainee from Tamagawa University in Tokyo, Japan, said that he was impressed with the school's efforts to promote gender equality through the camp.

"In Japan, male chauvinism still dominates society, so learning housework skills is a fresh experience to me," he said. "I think it's interesting and now I know how hard it is for women to do all this tedious housework."

The Taipei City Department of Education said that it hopes to debunk some myths about gender roles.

Hopefully this camp can help more people accept that women can have successful professional lives, and men can also stay home and do housework, the department said.
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