Is a Parenting Product Negating Gender Stereotypes?

By Ernest Dempsey

Over the centuries, educational progress and social struggle has reduced the gender roles of men and women in many parts of the world. In the developed west, women now enjoy many privileges that formerly used to be the perquisites of men. Still, the gap created by centuries of disparity between gender roles lingers in our time. One of the most common manifestations of this gap is the particular duties in parenting a child-the 'who does what' issue. An interesting study reveals that women (or moms) are the ones expected to change the baby's diapers.

The study in question was made by Greg Allen, an American filmmaker and writer, who was doing research on the number of public men's room in New York that were facilitated with diaper-changing facility. Allen's findings pointed that most men's rooms lack a diaper-changing table. Most of them also lacked enough space to change a baby's diapers. In contrast, more women's restroom had the diaper-changing facility as well as enough space and furniture to clean a baby. The social implications of these facts are pretty clear: dads are not expected to change a child's diapers, even if they want or need to do so.

How can technology alter social stereotypes? Here is an interesting example. Abiie LLC has recently invented a baby carrier that will do away with the need of using a public restroom for diaper-chaining. The new pram is called BabyDeck™ Stroller and it is equipped with a diaper-changing table that is part of the stroller's seat. In case of the need to change the baby's diapers, the parent has just to move the baby's bottom slight to unfold the table and change the baby's diapers in a couple of minutes.

While it may sound not so amazing an innovation from a sociological viewpoint, BabyDeck™ Stroller is likely to dramatically change the parenting roles that are prevalent in our modern society. With the restrooms out of the diaper-changing scene, the responsibility of diaper-changing is automatically divided equally between parents of both genders. The appearance of BabyDeck™ Stroller, therefore, negates traditional gender-based stereotypes.

For parents, BabyDeck™ Stroller is a relief at large; for the single parent, it is a real gift. Today many dads want to be an active parent, as useful as moms. But the absence of diaper-changing facility in men's rooms preys upon their opportunity to be that way. For them, it is time to cheer up. But what about dads who have been hiding from diaper-changing during traveling with their babies on account of the same pretext? The implication is not hard to decipher!!

More about BabyDeck™ Stroller
http://www.mybabydeck.com/

Greg Allen's Story

Ernest Dempsey is the pen name of Karim Khan. Dempsey works as a research associate in geology and is doing his Masters in English Literature. A founding member of the World Audience Inc. (New York), Dempsey is the author of three books