We’re beyond gender labels

By OYUNGA PALA

The view across from a 4th floor office I sit in, offers contrasts. One end pans out over a tree line, dotted with red tiled roofs with Ngong hills in the background. The direct view faces a storied construction site that is eight floors and climbing.

There is a construction boom in the city, rents are through the roof and some people are not complaining. There is a hint of looming prosperity if the changing skyline is anything to go by, for those who play in that league. The city is coming of age and the surroundings are transforming to reflect it. Down in the yard, the construction workers are busy. They start early; create such a racket with their electric drills and every new day, the building transforms before your very eyes.

I have been watching the building take shape for a while, but it was only two weeks ago that I noticed a large number of women on the construction site. Building sites are traditionally male domains. The only women I was accustomed to seeing on a building site were food vendors. Often it was a single woman seen during the breaks, serving lunch. The men would constantly tease her and she would in turn dismiss the taunts, keeping the perennial flirts at bay.

However, these groups of women were engaging in heavy labour. Their assignment was to shift poles from the ground onto a truck. Comparatively, it was the most strenuous work on the site and the most menial. What struck me though was the teamwork. Give a bunch of men the task of piling a truck with wooden poles and they instinctively switch into competition mode. How many poles must I ferrying than the next guy to win? Each man would choose his own strategy to complete the task. Contrary, the women had formed a line, passing the poles through the hands and on to the lorry. That human chain really lightened the load. Since constructions benefits from efficiency, it won’t be long before foremen realise the advantage of having more women on location especially as they do not take regular cigarette breaks.

Back on a TV production studio on the building I sit in, it is majorly male makeup artists powdering up a stream of actresses lining up for their scenes on set. The production house has more male makeup artists and hairstyles than women. All these guys come highly recommended among their contented female clients. That is not to say the male hair stylists are better than their female colleagues. Men simply have a gender advantage in this field. They are inclined to exaggerate and lump compliments and every woman leaves the chair feeling like Cleopatra.

We are seeing more female DJs and more male nurses. I grew up in a society that consigned jobs by gender. If these little hints are anything to go by, we moving into a space that is beyond gender labels. Men are starting to thrive where women ruled and women are legitimately invading male spaces. The reversed gender roles in some of these occupations brings with it a new flair; A fresh way of doing the same old thing. In some occupations, gender labels are losing their grips and being male or female does not matter half as much as getting the job done. It sounds all progressive and dandy until you try fronting a female presidential candidate.