Team up: Redefining the gender of domestic labor
Domestic housework is what keeps the private space alive and going. Since the private sphere historically has been a space of women, also has been housework and its culturally gendered tone. Can there be a consensual distribution of these activities in the household? Giving this power to users could restructure the gendered character of domestic chores.
Domestic activities have a vital role in most of the households. They have been present since the begining of history and they seem to not go away soon: these chores are what keep the private space alive and going.
One of the most anchored cultural aspects about housework is that it is a gendered activity. The private space has always been the space of women and with this also comes housework.
In the last centuries many innovation has been made around devices and appliances to optmize them, but this dynamic has been established from up to bottom: product to user. Does the user have the power to tackle the behaviors and relations from bottom to up –user to product? Can there be a consensual distribution of these activities in the household? Giving control to users is a powerful tool to restructure the gendered tone of domestic chores, thus it brings back the debate to the private, the micro, the specifics and details, and personal experiences around housework.
A system of communications helps motivate participants into engaging in housework activities in a playful way. One device gathers information around time spent in housework and another one keeps track of it. The component of personalised and customizable incentive the user establishes, helps engage them into not looking at housework as a task but as an activity to find benefits from and to reach an established goal. This incentive relationship intends to shape and adjust gender behaviors around the domestic sphere of housework by involving inhabitants of the home. The value of this information is important in a sense that it can be given the relevance the user defines in that specific time, relationship and context.