New article shows women still do twice as much housework as men.
by Jody Dallaire
Two Université de Moncton professors in psychology, Mylène Lachance-Grzela and Geneviève Bouchard, recently published an article titled: Why Do Women Do the Lion’s Share of Housework: A Decade of Research. The authors reviewed ten years’ worth of research (from 2000 to 2009) about household sharing of unpaid work in the United States. They define “unpaid work” as routine tasks like meal planning, cooking, cleaning up after meals, grocery shopping, laundry, yard work, household maintenance, paying bills and car maintenance and repairs.
The research looks at individual factors that determine how many hours spouses spend on household chores. For example the number of hours each spouse spends at their paid job affects the amount of time they spend on housework, as does each spouses’ level of income and education level. The research also examines how the gender attitudes of each spouse impacts unpaid labour distribution. For example, one study showed that men do less housework when they face challenges to their masculinity in the workplace. Another study showed that women do more of the housework because “the cleanliness of one’s home is a reflection on women’s competence as a ‘wife and mother’ but not of men’s competence as a ‘husband and father’.”
Even when women and men work equal hours outside of the home, women do more unpaid work in the home.
The Lachance-Grzela and Bouchard article also looks at how society at large impacts how men and women negotiate the division of labour in the household. For example, it is rare for women to negotiate a more equal partnership in countries with conservative regimes that promote traditional gender roles. Similarly, there is a more egalitarian sharing of unpaid work in countries where government policy actively promotes gender equality.
What I found most interesting about the research is that even when women and men work equal hours outside of the home, women do more unpaid work in the home. Similarly, men that have a more egalitarian view of women are associated with a decrease in the number of hours their spouse spends on household chores but does not translate into an increase in the number of hours that they spend doing unpaid work.
Although Lachance-Grzela and Bouchard highlight evidence that political efforts and social policies do impact the division of labour in the home to some extent, why and how this happens is not yet understood. They believe that part of the reason the research is inconclusive is that social policy initiatives are changed too often and not allowed the necessary time to take effect.
Andrea Doucet, a sociology professor at Brock University in Ontario, makes a similar argument. She outlines that in Sweden and Norway, mentalities have shifted away from the “male breadwinner/ female caregiver model” of work and family. This change in mentality did not happen overnight though. It took decades.
New Brunswick women spent 29 hours per week (4.2 hours per day) on unpaid labour, as compared to 17 hours per week (2.5 hours per day) for men.
Although the research by Bouchard and Lachance-Grzela focuses on the United States — where women do two-thirds of the unpaid housework and men do one third (13.3 hours per week as compared to 6.6 per week) – their findings look comparable to the data available for Canada generally and New Brunswick specifically.
The recent Equality Report for Women in New Brunswick, released by the Women’s Issues Branch of the New Brunswick Executive Council Office, reports that in 2005, New Brunswick women spent 29 hours per week (4.2 hours per day) on unpaid labour, as compared to 17 hours per week (2.5 hours per day) for men. These statistics translate into women doing 63 percent of the work while men do 37 percent. The available Canadian data show that in 2006, 44 percent of women spent more than 15 hours per week on unpaid household chores, as compared to 23 percent of men.
Why should we care about who does what percent of the housework? Personally I think that society as a whole will benefit if we did away with gender stereotypes about what is women’s work and what is men’s work. Until women no longer have to do it all, gender equality in both the private and public spheres will be elusive.
About Jody Dallaire
Jody Dallaire lives and works in Dieppe New Brunswick where she writes a weekly column on women's equality issues and matters of social justice.
Email: jody.dallaire@rogers.com.
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