UNDERSTANDING SOCIETY Chore wars
New research findings from the Understanding Society study show that although the gender gap in housework had been narrowing gradually, even when women are the main breadwinner, they still do more housework than their partner. By Sarah Womack
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HEY CALL THEM the ‘chore wars’ and for good reason. With the huge influx of women in the workplace, the issue of whether domestic chores are shared has
become a hot issue for many couples. Does the woman complete a day at work and come home to do a ‘second job’ cleaning the house and looking after the children? Or does the man return from his job, roll up his sleeves and get stuck into the washing, ironing and childcare? Or do they share? More likely, the rise in working couples means marital discord, uneasy compromises and the sense of exploitation.
Housework is still perceived as
women’s work, and men are still often expected to be the breadwinners
Research carried out by Dr Man Yee Kan from the University of Oxford of more than 1,500 married couples, included in the British Household Panel Survey, shows that in the first decade of the 21st century, wives still undertake three quarters of the housework – that’s 15 hours compared to the husband’s five. You would expect women to do less dusting and washing-up if they are the main breadwinners – but no. When they earn 65 per cent of the family income, their housework actually increases rather than decreases, while men who earn 65 per cent of the family income do less. However, the more money women and men earn compared with their partners, the less housework they generally do – perhaps a reflection of the fact that they can bargain for a smaller share of domestic chores. The research is especially interesting amid
separate findings showing that women aged between 22 and 29 in employment now earn more per hour, on average, than men of the same age. Figures unearthed by Mary Curnock Cook, chief executive of the Universities and Colleges Admission Service, during research into the gender gap in education, found that women lead in the pay stakes. The lead is slight – their median pay is now just over £10 an hour compared with just under £10 an hour for men – but it reverses a historic trend.
10 SOCIETY NOW SPRING 2012 ”
So why, when women are bringing home the bacon, do they still assume the dominant role when cooking it – and washing the plates afterwards? Dr Kan says: “Gender ideology still poses a
barrier to gender equality in the domestic division of labour.” Women had not rid themselves of the idea that
they were responsible for work around the house. “Housework is still perceived as women’s work, and men are still often expected to be the main breadwinners,” she said. “It may be that men who already feel they fail
to perform the traditional male role economically tend to be more sensitive about being seen as also playing the ‘female’ role at home. And women who are the main breadwinners feel that they should also be mainly responsible for housework.” Her research about the domestic duties of men and women, using recent data from Understanding Society, found that men and women who don’t go out to work at all tend to do more housework than their working partner, but educational background also plays a part. The amount of housework changes, for example, depending on whether the woman has been educated to degree level. The more qualifications a woman has, the less likely she is to regularly get the Hoover out. Other research undertaken by Dr Kan, Oriel
Sullivan and Jonathan Gershuny, based on time- use data from the 1960s to the early 2000s, found that the gender gap in housework had been narrowing gradually. Nevertheless, there was a view of whether household chores were ‘men’s’ or ‘women’s work’. ‘Routine housework’ such as cleaning, cooking and caring for family members was viewed as ‘feminine’ while ‘masculine’ roles included non- routine chores like DIY, car care and outside work. As fears of an economic depression loom, the
extent to which couples share responsibilities at home is increasingly pertinent, not least because work overload leads to stress, with its concomitant risks of marital breakdown, unemployment, debt and emotional depression. Social researchers and unions have increasing concerns about the level of stress in the workplace – for women, and for men. The woman who wants to ‘have it all’ – the
career, a husband and children – realises she is in fact ‘doing it all’ – the job, the housework, the
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