Women still do ‘majority’ of household chores, study finds

In the recent world of the fight for gender equality where women are slowly stepping outside the four walls of the kitchen, a new study has unfortunately found that women are still doing the majority of household world when living with a male partner.  The reveal that was conducted by University College London (UCL) and published in the journal Work, Employment and Society. The researchers assessed data from more than 8,500 heterosexual couples who were interviewed for the UK Household Longitudinal Study between 2010 and 2011.

The result showed that women do approximately 16 hours of household chores every week, while men do closer to six. The analysis also showed that while both the individuals in the couples were in full-time employment, women were found to be five times more likely than men to spend at least 20 hours a week doing household chores.

The couples assessed for the study were split into eight separate groups depending on their professions. They identified two small groups where men’s contribution to housework was equal or more than that of their partners.

In one of these groups - making up six per cent of all couples - women were the clear breadwinners, while the other group - just one per cent of all couples - the man remained at home and did more than 20 hours’ domestic labour with women even doing two thirds of work even in this group.

 “Our study suggests that even couples who share egalitarian ideas about the roles of men and women may not be able to counter potential obstacles to equality in the UK,” said Professor McMumm.

The study overall was surveyed on couples who were both duel-earners, with both members tending to be employed full-time. Within this group, 45 per cent of men did no more than four hours of housework a week, however 44 per cent of women worked between 10 and 19.

"The female-earner group was the only group in which men's contribution to the housework was similar to that of their partners, and this group had the highest proportion of women with educational qualifications higher than those of their partners," the researchers wrote.

The researchers concluded that their study suggests that "gender equality in divisions of work" among modern couples in the UK is "rare", further confirming that "gender norms remain strong".

"Changing attitudes around gender norms is one avenue for encouraging change in this area’’ Professor Anne McMumm, lead researcher on the study added.