Skill gap threatens traditional ‘manly’ roles

Men are missing the ‘manly’ mark when trying to mend their motors and machinery around the home, according to a survey commissioned by Crucial.com, the computer upgrade specialists. Despite only a third of women believing that blokes still have the skills to mend things such as their underperforming car or their slow computers, the pressure is still on for men to undertake those traditionally male tasks.

Regardless of this expectation and UK household’s reliance on technology and computers in the home, manly skills just aren’t keeping up. Over half of men said they find the thought of upgrading their home computers hard-drive extremely confusing, with 39% saying that they’d be baffled by upgrading their computer memory. In addition, a quarter of guys said that even changing the oil on their car would bamboozle them, with 38% perplexed by the thought of changing the brake fluid.

Nearly two in five women think that men should be able to upgrade the home computer to ensure it no longer performs slowly and nearly three quarters of women (73%) said that mending an underperforming car was definitely a job for the man of the house.

Quentin Wilson, star of Fifth Gear and car expert said, “I’m lucky that I know a bit about motors, but guys are clearly falling down on the skills needed on lots of tasks around the home. Like many people I rely on computers to navigate the internet, look at photos and watch videos just as I rely on a car to get me from A to B, yet I, like many men, don’t feel comfortable with a simple upgrade if my machine is performing slowly.”

In fact, most women said that UK blokes are now more likely to have only the basic skills to do the simpler things in life, such as a cut the grass (80%), put up a picture frame (72%), or washing up the dirty dishes (68%).

Roddy Mclean, “Taking out the bins, fixing the car and cutting the grass have traditionally been considered roles which guys have undertaken, but the home computer is one which blokes have had added to their list. However, it’s really not as confusing as people think. In fact, a computer memory upgrade can take less than 15 minutes to do and upgrading your hard-drive is simple to do yourself, even if you haven’t done it before.”

For more information you can visit crucial.com/uk.