#ShareTheLoad: This award winning campaign video is questioning the issue of gender stereotype in many homes

Even though they are working out of the home in increasing numbers, women in India--like in much of the world--still do the majority of work around the home. A new advertisement for laundry detergent used the ad as an opportunity to challenge India's patriarchal traditions, with a message from a father to his adult daughter recognizing her tireless work and pledging to #ShareTheLoad. Read about it and watch the video below, and click through for more information.venturesafrica.com - “Why is laundry only a mother’s job?” asked Ariel India at the end of their recent campaign launched with the hashtag #ShareTheLoad. Since its launch, the video has garnered over 10 million views, with over 200 thousand shares, and hundreds of comments with varying opinions on Facebook. Clearly, the video has touched a nerve to gain such an enormous amount of attention.

The two minute video details the complexities in the life of women who juggle being wives, and mothers, while working a job, with no help from their partners, and how parents (fathers) are responsible for passing on these cultural stereotypes from one generation to another.

Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook has described the video as one of the most powerful videos she had ever seen. As a big advocate for social change, Sandberg said that the video shows how stereotypes hurt everyone and has failed to evolve overtime due to parental negligence. “When little girls and boys play house they model their parents’ behaviour; this doesn’t just impact their childhood games, it shapes their long-term dreams,” she said in a Facebook post.