yes, that's true, but that is not the equality we seem to want in the west. statistics show that female engineers are still a stark minority in the west. we are far from achieving equality here. in muslim countries and in china there are way more women in those fields. there is a school of thought that believes that the reason for that is because in the east, women can't get equality at home, so they find it at work. whereas in the west, women are expecting to get equality at home and are therefore not looking for it at work. my personal guess is that in the west career is more important to men than family, whereas in the east family matters more, and women only achieve equality in the areas that matter less.

traditionally picking up the slack would mean for the man to go earn more money. but women want to keep working. and, this is part of the issue, in middle to lower income families they have to. we have created a situation where a single income is no longer enough to support a family. the economic change is not financial freedom for women as much as a financial dependency on both parents working.

and the narrative we are creating and that we seem to want is that men help in the household and with childcare. and that too is happening but only just enough so that everyone supporting that narrative can point to an example, but not as much as everyone thinks. even in households where both parents are working, most of the housework is still done by women.