Who was making the argument that men are inherently more capable of doing physical labor?

“The fact that chores are often still gender-divided might say something about why they are so. Men more often do the heavy-lifting chores, while women more often do the detail-work chores. That is a reasonable division in many homes.”

But I admit it would have been better if I’d said “it makes nonsense of the argument that the gender-based division of labor has anything to do with the physical nature of particular chores”

which is more directly relevant to what Kai actually said, as well as to what you and MattJ were arguing earlier.

The gender of the worker is irrelevant to my point.
Use of snowblowers or lack of washing machines in the 19th century are irrelevant to my point.

THe division of labor in the household is just the historical traditional division dating back decades or centuries. I don’t think the way we usually split up work necessarily makes sense or is the ‘right’ way to divide labor between genders. I never said nor meant to imply such. I’d be happy to have a girl mow the lawn if she wants and I see no reason not to. I can’t imagine why a girl would necessarily feel upset if she isn’t taught how to mow a lawn or feel cheated out of such a wonderful opportunity.

Never quite figured out how men are better equipped to sit on a riding mower than women.

Of course this was all a moot point because my dad was/is a perfectionist about his yard and rarely even allowed either of us to help if we actually volunteered.

But this does not imply that labor requiring great physical effort is, in and of itself, more deserving of reward than labor not requiring great physical effort. The notion that the “worth” of a job is proportional to the amount of physical effort required to perform it is… well, the word “Neanderthal” springs for some reason to mind.

At home, we had expected chores that were unpaid, and others we did for payment. Unpaid: dishes, weeding, raking, vacuuming, etc. Paid: cleaning the bathrooms, mowing the lawn, cleaning the gutters, washing and painting the walls.

With my toddler who is almost three, we haven’t started an allowance yet, but she loves to help put laundry away, and clean whatever I am cleaning, and she is very skilled at putting utensils in the utensil drawer from the dishwasher. She’s at an age where she wants to be part of it all. When she is a little older, I plan to give her an allowance that accounts for the expected chores, and give her optional add-on, extra money jobs. If she refuses chores, allowance gets taken away because that IS teaching about money. I’m responding here to Trent’s statement:
“Taking away their allowance deprives them of the opportunity to learn about money management, while taking away toys or free time doesn’t deprive them of anything of significant importance.”
I think taking their allowance away when they aren’t doing their expected chores totally teaches them about money management. You don’t do your part at work, you don’t get paid.