Task Force: Gendered Division of Labor App

Congratulations!

You have been recruited to design an application for gendered division of labor. The goal is to allow both partners to keep track of what their household responsibilities are and to ensure that each of them is equally contributing to the duties. 

Why Are We Doing This?:

One of the countless issues faced by those fighting for gender equality is division of labor within the household. It is often argued that the partner who is not working outside the house should take on all household responsibilities. This idea traditionally targeted women who stayed home to care for their families and had to give up their careers. This issue  becomes even more difficult when both partners are pursuing their careers. Here we ask you to design an app for partners to be able to easily identify what their responsibilities are for the house and to make sure that the duties are being split equally.

Steps:

1. Try to design an app for division of household labor.
   1.  What will your app be called? 
   2. What will it be capable of doing? 
   3. How will it ensure that duties are being split equally between each partner? 
   4. How will you encourage people to download your application? 
   5. What kinds of duties will it include (washing dishes, laundry, cooking, caring for children, taxes, bills, maintenance, vacuuming, making the bed, cleaning the bathroom, etc)? 
   6. What chores will NOT be included? 
2. Think through the possible objections about your app that someone could have and how you would answer them. 
   1. How often will partners be reminded to fulfil their duties? 
   2. What happens if one partner does not do their part? 
   3. Will there be “consequences” or “penalties”? 
   4. Will the app be a competitive game or simply function as a reminder app?
3. Share with the group and see if you can convince them that your app best ensures that household duties will be shared equally between the partners.

Things to Keep in Mind:

• You do not have to come up with an exhaustive list of features for your app, nor do you have to worry about the programming aspect of it. 
• Your goal is to design a realistic app that a programmer can easily put into action.