New study blasts theory that women do more work

[.]

New study blasts theory that women do more work
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6744A620100805
August 5, 2010
By Isabel Coles
Reuters

He may leave his socks lying around and avoid emptying the dishwasher, but a new study shows husbands do as much work as their wives.

London School of Economics sociologist Catherine Hakim's research shows that when both paid work and unpaid duties such as housework, care and voluntary work are taken into account, men do pull their own weight.

"It's true that women do more work in the home, but overall men and women are doing the same, which is roughly eight hours per day," Hakim told Reuters.

In fact, the study of how people use their time found that men in Britain spend slightly longer on "productive" work each day than women.

"Feminists are wrong to claim that men should do a larger share of the housework and childcare because on average, men and women already do the same number of hours of productive work," Hakim said.

She said the data overturns the long-standing theory that women work a "double shift," juggling a job with household chores, and working longer hours than their husbands.

The study, "(How) can social policy and fiscal policy recognize unpaid family work?," used data from Europe-wide Time Use Surveys.

"Results were similar across Europe, except in the ex-socialist European countries, where there is less of a tradition of men chipping in," Hakim said.

In Scandinavian countries, men were found to work more hours than women.

Hakim hopes to draw attention to the bias of government policy across Europe, which tends only to see paid jobs as real work and said there is evidence that men are beginning to demand the same options and choices as women, with more claims of sex discrimination from men.

"One-sided policies that support employment and careers but ignore the productive work done in the family are, in effect, endorsing market place values over family values," she said.

"Policy-makers need to be aiming for gender-neutral policies."

[The Biscuit Queen]

 

[outdoors]

[AnubisRox]

"Policy-makers need to be aiming for gender-neutral policies."

Ohhh yeah. NOW they say that! 

[slayton]

Great find,

but I'm not expecting any major changes in... well anything. Kinda like it is with the wage gap shite.

[slayton]

Found the full study - report, HERE (pdf) it is.


And here is the official site with the article (at The London School of Economics and Political Science webpage):

Women's 'double shift' of work and domestic duties a myth finds new research

Feminists are wrong to claim that men should do a larger share of the housework and childcare because on average, men and women already do the same number of hours of productive work. In fact, if we consider the hours spent doing both paid work and unpaid household, care and voluntary work together, men already do more than their fair share, argues LSE sociologist Catherine Hakim in a special issue of Renewal: a journal of social democracy.

Until recently, unpaid work such as childcare and domestic work has been hard to quantify and so mostly ignored by social scientists and policy makers. The development of Time Use Surveys across the European Union, however, has provided data on exactly how much time we spend carrying out both paid and unpaid productive activities. The findings show that on average women and men across Europe do the same total number of productive work hours once paid jobs and unpaid household duties are added together - roughly eight hours a day.

Catherine Hakim said: 'We now have a much more specific and accurate portrait of how families and individuals divide their "work" and this data overturns the well-entrenched theory that women work disproportional long hours in jobs and at home in juggling family and work. Feminists constantly complain that men are not doing their fair share of domestic work. The reality is that most men already do more than their fair share.'

While men carry out substantially more hours of paid work, women will often choose to scale down their hours of paid employment to make time for household work when starting a family. In Britain, men are shown to actually work longer hours on average than women, as many will work overtime to boost family income when the children are at home while wives switch to part-time jobs or drop out of employment altogether.

Couples with no children at home and with both in full-time jobs emerge as the only group where women work more hours in total than men, once paid and unpaid work hours are added up.

The article argues that in societies where genuine choices are open to women, the key driver to how work is divided comes down to lifestyle preference, not gender. Individuals fall into three categories: work-centred, home-centred or wanting to combine work and family (adaptive). 80% of women fall into the adaptive category, Catherine Hakim finds, with only 20% wanting a work-centred lifestyle.

Despite this, most European policies are geared towards full-time worker carers and ignore unpaid work, although there are several countries that are starting to support family work. Finland, for example, operates a homecare allowance system that is paid to any parent who stays at home without using state nurseries, effectively paying the carer for their work. In Germany, the income-splitting tax system for couples recognises the work done by full-time homemakers by aggregating and then splitting the spouses earnings between into two halves, reflecting the idea that both benefit from the home/work arrangement.

'Instead of looking for the one 'best option' policy, governments should offer several', says Catherine Hakim. 'One-sided policies that support employment and careers but ignore the productive work done in the family are, in effect, endorsing market place values over family values. But the altruistic and community values embraced by home-centred or adaptive individuals, such as sharing, trust and cohesion, are equally as important to a social democracy.

'Furthermore, there is evidence that men are beginning to demand the same options and choices as women, with more claims of sex discrimination from men. Policy makers need to be aiming for gender-neutral policies that cater for all three main lifestyle choices.'

(How) can social policy and fiscal policy recognise unpaid family work? by Catherine Hakim is published in a special issue of Renewal: a journal of social democracy, out now.

A copy of the final report can be found here (PDF).

Contacts:
Dr Catherine Hakim, LSE, 020 7955 6655, email: [email protected]|
Jess Winterstein, LSE Press Office, 020 7107 5025, email: [email protected]|

Notes:

The special issue of Renewal: a journal of social democracy aims to contribute to the modernisation of the Labour Party that is necessary for it to win at the polls and begin the process of transforming British society. Other articles in this issue question market values and market rationality.

[AnubisRox]

He may leave his socks lying around and avoid emptying the dishwasher, but a new study shows husbands do as much work as their wives.

They normally like to take pot shots at men in the last line of a story like this but this time its the first salvo. They really want to mitigate this study real badly.

[Billy]

My personal study confirms this study.
Women just whine a hell of a lot!

[Captain Courageous]

My personal study confirms this study.
Women just whine a hell of a lot!

And they resort to stereotypes in a New York nanosecond!

[wractor]

And "Click-SLAM", the comment thread/discussions were closed, just like that...

I read the one woman's diatribe: "I get up at 5, bring him coffee in bed..." (Sweet of her, I thought)
"Then I get home and start cleaning..."

For f**k's sake, stop CLEANING all the time, then, damn it! What kind of husband even ASKS his wife to clean the place? I've lived with 5 women and would never dream of telling them to clean ANYTHING.
Ironically, women seem to keep cleaning (and buying things they don't need) for "company" that they never end up having!

I remember Ray Romano's routine "Furniture you could never touch, china no one's ever gonna use...everything in my mother's house was for a special occasion, that hasn't happened yet."

[Kyo]

Here's my take on what counts as "work":

It's only work if someone else demands that you do it.

So if the husband demands that his wife clean the kitchen, or cook some food, or whatever, then she's "working".  If she's at a parent-teacher conference because their child's school requires her presence, then that's "work".

If the husband puts in an eight-hour day because he and his wife require a roof over their heads, etc., then that's work.  If he stays three hours more, not accomplishing anything, just to get away from the wife, then that's not work.

If the family lives in a faraway suburb because the wife wants a big lawn and a two-car garage, then the husband is "working" every minute of his commute beyond the six minutes it used to take him to walk to work when he lived in an apartment in the city right near the company.

If the wife is wasting huge amounts of time cleaning things to a level that no one but herself demands, then that's not housework.  That's her indulging in a hobby.

[dr e]

Very good points Kyo!  I don't think I ever thought or heard about this sort of differentiation.  The commuting example is powerful.

Here's my take on what counts as "work":

It's only work if someone else demands that you do it.

So if the husband demands that his wife clean the kitchen, or cook some food, or whatever, then she's "working".  If she's at a parent-teacher conference because their child's school requires her presence, then that's "work".

If the husband puts in an eight-hour day because he and his wife require a roof over their heads, etc., then that's work.  If he stays three hours more, not accomplishing anything, just to get away from the wife, then that's not work.

If the family lives in a faraway suburb because the wife wants a big lawn and a two-car garage, then the husband is "working" every minute of his commute beyond the six minutes it used to take him to walk to work when he lived in an apartment in the city right near the company.

If the wife is wasting huge amounts of time cleaning things to a level that no one but herself demands, then that's not housework.  That's her indulging in a hobby.

[dr e]

My personal study confirms this study.
Women just whine a hell of a lot!

I would love to see a study that quantifies who complains in a marriage.  I am wiling to, um, go out on a limb, and claim it is more often the ladies.   

"Honey, we need to talk...."

[The Biscuit Queen]

DrE, I would agree. Women do often set unrealistic standards for cleanliness when it suits them, and do often include their wants as needs, and are willing to complain about it.

However I also would qualify that with men are usually willing to live with a lot less happiness without complaining which is not always a good thing. Some men will allow themselves to be miserable for years rather than bring up their needs and how they are not met. My father in law is one of them, as is my uncle. They have just accepted they are unhappy so avoid contact rather than trying to fix it. For decades.

It is frustrating living with someone who assumes all the problems in the marriage are the woman's emotional inability to see clearly, and who feels that not complaining means being a good spouse. Not complaining about socks on the floor or the car not being clean is being a good spouse; not 'complaining' about your spouse being deeply (and noticably) depressed for months or years is just negligent, codependant or inattentive.

And no, it is not the husband's job to fix the wife, but it is the spouse's job to get the other the help they need, be it medical or emotional. It is like if I failed to encourage my husband to go to the doctor if I notice him being obviously ill for months. Why is it we fail to find our emotional needs important?

[Billy]

DrE, I would agree. Women do often set unrealistic standards for cleanliness when it suits them, and do often include their wants as needs, and are willing to complain about it.

However I also would qualify that with men are usually willing to live with a lot less happiness without complaining which is not always a good thing. Some men will allow themselves to be miserable for years rather than bring up their needs and how they are not met. My father in law is one of them, as is my uncle. They have just accepted they are unhappy so avoid contact rather than trying to fix it. For decades.

It is frustrating living with someone who assumes all the problems in the marriage are the woman's emotional inability to see clearly, and who feels that not complaining means being a good spouse. Not complaining about socks on the floor or the car not being clean is being a good spouse; not 'complaining' about your spouse being deeply (and noticably) depressed for months or years is just negligent, codependant or inattentive.

And no, it is not the husband's job to fix the wife, but it is the spouse's job to get the other the help they need, be it medical or emotional. It is like if I failed to encourage my husband to go to the doctor if I notice him being obviously ill for months. Why is it we fail to find our emotional needs important?

BQ, it is probable that the men have touched different issues with the spouse over the years and found that the wife only made things worse by Screaming and stomping her feet and the men just retreated. This is how some wives deal with the Husbands complaints. They just don't seem to care and rather avoid the issue.
These men will just settle for things the way they are rather then leave because the truth is "men want peace in their homes" at all cost.

We settle for less rather than cause War on the home front. Many men will remain miserable for the sake of the children.. 

When they realize that the wife don't want to hear anything negative about themselves and resort to such behavior they just back off.


We are suppose to complain if we think our spouse is depressed? I don't think that is considered complaining to try to get them help themselves.