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MBABANE - Members of the public praised the women who did not wait to be rescued by men but went ahead and pushed the car out of the flooded river.

Many Facebook users commended the women, and said it was admirable that they went ahead and pushed the car, something that would have typically been expected to be done by men.

“Gender roles in society mean how we’re expected to act, speak, dress, groom, and conduct ourselves based upon our assigned sex. For example, girls and women are generally expected to dress in typically feminine ways and be polite, accommodating, and nurturing. Men are generally expected to be strong, aggressive, and bold,” said one member of the public on social media.

Stereotypes

Another said; “These exaggerated gender stereotypes can make things hard, imagine if these women waited for men to rescue them, they were stuck there for three hours but they managed to make it out.”

When speaking on this, Hlatjwako said the important thing to remember was that traditional gender roles were not brought into existence a few hundred years ago.

“Gender roles are as old as civilisation itself. Gender roles were

Women pushing a car out of the flOODED rIvEr. INSET: The car after it was pulled out of tHE rIvEr. vital to human survival back then, as far back as the stone age, yes that stone age, where the latest technology consisted of things like sharp stones and bowls. But these women proved yesterday that things have changed now. For example, getting a meal for your family was not a 30-minute trip to the nearby store, it was a three-day hike to the forest and you could still come back empty-handed. Life back then was not as easy as it is today.

And so gender roles were born. Men and women both recognised their strengths and weaknesses to help each other survive. Each gender role was just as important as the other,” she said.