Gender Roles in Estonia

Kadi	Todd

Todd: So, Kadi, you are from Estonia. Can you talk about gender roles for the new generation compared to the older generation?

Kadi: Yes, in Estonia, we have this kind of Western type of family, a woman doesn't have to be a housewife. She can work. She can do whatever she likes. Even maybe the tendency right now is that women are becoming more masculine. Often it happens that women make more money than men do and they're the ones who bring the bread in the house. Yeah, compared to Eastern society where usually women are considered as housewives. They just have to clean and cook and raise the kids, and in my country ... no ... there's not such a thing and I think it always has been like that. I'm not quite sure but.

Todd: Who does the chores like cooking and cleaning?

Kadi: Yeah, I think we all do it. We don't have that kind of rule that women only have to clean and cook. Of course in some families, it is like that because women are better cleaning, especially, rather than men are, but yeah, men are quite good cooks.

Todd: What do people do for childcare? Like who takes care of the children?

Kadi: Nannies. Yeah. We have nannies for working mothers, they usually like hire people to watch over the children and just they play with them and also like kindergarten, like children start going to kindergarten in Estonia when they're really young, maybe from three months I think even, yeah, you can go to work when your child is like half-a-year old. Just go to work. Take a child there, and people are going to care about her.

Todd: Is the nanny expected to cook and clean as well?

Kadi: It depends of on the contract. It depends on the contract. Yeah, if you hire a person who that you say you're gonna pay him or her, usually her, like for cleaning, cooking, taking care of the children, whatever, it depends on the contract.