Berlin – Pharmacies are places for women. At least that’s my observation in Berlin. The pharmacy on my street also advertises in the neighborhood. On it you can see the five women standing behind the sales counter.
Products for women also dominate in the shop window, they are just pictures in which women can be seen. On a large poster for “Lockermacher” a woman rubs her shoulder with pain oil. Inside, too, the advertising is clearly aimed at women.
Here the selection of advertising cards from the shelf right next to the front door: digital nutritional advice – on it a woman. Next to it: “Mother support and doula”. It doesn’t say what a doula is, but the advertising slogan “mothering you as a mother” does. Next to it is the advertisement of a naturopath. The pastel colors and flowers clearly appeal more to women. It says: “Nothing changes until you change yourself. And suddenly everything changes.” There is also plenty of advertising for care for the elderly – in the pictures: only women.
“Men usually only cook if they get money for it”
The self-experiment in recent months has shown that at least two-thirds of those in the queue are women. A small private survey gave a clear picture: men usually only go to the pharmacy if they need something for themselves. Women go to the pharmacy when their child is ill, when they themselves are ill and, of course, when their husband is ill.
They’re like that. A smart woman just said to me: “It’s similar to cooking. Men usually only cook if they get money for it.” That’s true: men usually rule in large kitchens, almost only men cook on television, and only a dozen women run one of the 300 starred restaurants in Germany.
That aligns with the numbers that have just been announced. The occasion is Equal Care Day. It’s about unpaid work in the household, also known as care work – regardless of whether it’s doing laundry, picking up children from school or caring for the elderly in the family. It is mostly women who do it, and the day is intended as a reminder that women and men are by no means equal in this area either.
Equal Care Day would have been this Tuesday if there were a February 29th this year. But that only happens every four years. This is exactly why the day was set on this date, to show: Worldwide, women do this work four times more than men.
In Germany, the latest figures look a little better: men spend an average of two hours and 46 minutes a day on “invisible and unpaid work” within the family, while women spend four hours and 17 minutes.