Fathers and housework
Since it's Father's Day Tuesday, I thought we might discuss a recent paper on men's contributions to household duties by sociologists at the University of California-Riverside and Ben Gurion University. The research found that men’s contributions to household chores have doubled since the 1960s, to more than 30 percent of the total from about 15 percent.
The average woman with children who is employed full or part time is doing two fewer hours of housework per week than in 1965. Yet she's doubled the amount of time she spends with the children, and fathers tripled their contributions to child care.
"Men and women may not be fully equal yet, but the rules of the game have been profoundly and irreversibly changed," the paper says.
How does this play out in your house?
Comments
This is an interesting research project, but like many sociological endeavors, it fails to fully define what exactly is being measured. "Housework" is a term that could mean a variety of tasks, and althought the study cites, shopping and childcare, it does not make an important distinction, which is that men and women often perform different types of housework.
Excellent point. Tell us more -- how does the housework get divided in your house?
Posted by: Robert | March 11, 2008 4:12 PM
for us it is whatever needs doing, pretty flexible, except there are things he just doesnt seem to want to do, like laundry. not sure why. just by default, i do it.
Posted by: kken | March 11, 2008 8:51 PM