Gender roles and ger building

From what I have observed, Mongolian culture has pretty much prescribed roles for men and women. Males show off their muscles, even when they are small. A few days ago, I saw some kids unloading firewood from a truck. As they did so, they jokingly showed off their “six-packs” and biceps. Their biceps were hard when they flexed and tightened their muscles. Of course, they don’t really have the six-packs, but they were still muscular enough. They are quite strong boys. I don’t think Hong Kong boys would be so muscular. Girls were not involved in this job.

Sara, a staff member, informed me that Mongolian families do not have particular preferences for boys or girls; that boys and girls are treated as equal and females do a lot of the work that men do. I believe this, as Sara did a lot of hard work, too. But as I see it, jobs that require considerable physical strength are always performed by men (such as building a ger), whereas cleaning, mopping, and cooking are done by women. At any rate, this is what I have observed around the camp, in walking around the area and based on my limited interactions with neighbors in the work camp house.

The building of a ger:

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.