'Shame on you idle men' says a New Zealander

Published: Friday, 04 October 2019

HAVING been refused by one web publication I am trying yours, as you quote 'telling it like it is', so we shall see, writes John Stewart.

My wife and I, who live in Napier, New Zealand North Island, decided on a boating holiday in England for three weeks but I was immediately struck by the fact that it is more often than not the women who do the work whilst the men either sit or stand at the tiller barking orders, that does not seem right.

Child's play

Our family was always brought up to believe that it is the man that does the work, and in the case of boating, it would be the woman who steers the boat, after all it is simply child's play controlling a boat at 3mph and less, and it can be mastered in minutes.

I realise that your country has a peculiar sexist structure, but to my mind it is not right that women should be struggling with both heavy lock gates and having to work difficult sluices, whilst the man just sits there watching.

Struggling

My feeling were brought home by a report I saw of the work needed at Leicester, with the woman seen struggling attempting to move the sluice, whilst I gather it would be the man stood there taking the photograph.  I know that could just have been for the sake of the photograph, but all too often I saw it in real life during the three weeks.

I realised it would not have been too bad for the younger ones, but  there were a great many that I would call past their prime, as it seems this game attracts the older generation, that were really struggling, so shame on you idle men.