Every time I travel in empty early morning or late night local train women’s coaches, I am reminded that ‘Time is gendered’!” read a friend’s social media status. I had not given a serious thought to the idea of time as being gendered till then, but when I started down that path, gender in time is all I could see.
First of course is my friend’s example — when do women or other gender and sexual minorities use public transport? Not in the early mornings or late nights, certainly not the first to step in and last out of a train station. And definitely not during peak hours, when too many people is only an excuse for a few men to stand close and scratch or rub away every itch. If I were ever to write about the gendered nature of sharp objects, I will remember to include that men are unafraid of them.
Then there is the day-night dichotomy, the reason we will need ‘reclaim the night’ walks for many years to come. I think of the ways by which anyone but a man outside at night is described. It’s all the cuss words that take away from the labour that goes into sex work; at the root of which is the ‘deserving’, ‘wanting’, ‘not surprising’, or ‘bad’ victim of violence.
Time makes one question, if the private realm is really private, for studies from across the world have shown disparities in gender based time usage. Women tend to have longer days, spend more of their time with household and families, engage in more child care and lack absolute leisure time — cutting vegetables, folding clothes or doing household chores while the radio or television plays in the background does not count. In most households, women’s plans where they can make them require prior notice and permission, and their schedules are planned to sync with the household, be it the elderly or children.
Beyond the household the most ‘private’ we can get is with the body, and the biological clock is ticking, isn’t it? For whom would be the appropriate question, and by the ways of menstrual cycles, family planning, pregnancy, raising children, and menopause, the time is ticking for a select few i.e., for those with a bleeding organ. Freezing eggs happens to only those who can produce them, and career growth is denied to the same sample because guess what? The clock comes first.
Ticking takes us straight to flying and running - the three most common ways to talk about time. Women are ticking their way out of checklists yes, but the world is still under construction when it comes to flying and running. So history is being made, and we must set our hearts to preserve its plural dimensions, because what we have now to talk of the times by gone is a singular male version. But that gender is at the root of it all being the most basic social construct is something we must train ourselves to see without having to set our hearts to it.