As a small person I was curious about everything. I learned technology from my dad and home stuff from my mother. It never occurred to me that these were exclusively "his" and "her" things. As a result I knew how to cook a meal, wash clothes, iron for myself, and quite a bit about eddy currents while still in grade school.

It was amazing when I got to college and noticed that my classmates (all male) could do none of the "her" things and very few of the "his" things.

Forward in time, after my parents retired, my mother spent a few days in the hospital and I was visiting. When he and I came home from the hospital one evening, my father asked, "can you do laundry?" He had been shielded from "her" things for his whole life. He was clueless about how to operate a washing machine. (He had learned how to heat water on the stove and deal with frozen dinners in the Microwave Oven.)