Household Work Factoids

Check out this fact-sheet on household labor statistics--interesting stuff! Some of the factoids include:

Gender

		is still the best single predictor who is spending how much time doing housework. And that's not true just in the U.S., but around the world, from England to Poland to Japan. 1. Women

		were reported to be doing the majority of the housework, in every nation but Russia in a 13-nation study. 2. Men just "help out" when they do chores

It isn't your imagination. In the U.S., husbands do much less housework than their wives, and when they do actually do it, it's seen as "helping out" their wives – who are primarily responsible for these tasks. But don't just blame the men for this: studies show that, for at least some women, the men are actually discouraged from doing more. Why? One reason seems to be that these women don't believe the men are as good at tasks as they are. (But that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: if they are never allowed to do anything, then they don't get the opportunity to become proficient at it.) Another suggested reason is that women, not just men, define their own roles in terms of their domestic responsibilities, and it's just as threatening for them to give them up, as it is for men to take these traditionally-thought of as "female" tasks on. 3.

70-80 percent

		Amount of the total domestic work done by American wives, regardless their employment status. 5. 50-60 percent

		Amount of the total domestic work done by Chinese wives, regarding of their employment status. 6. One in Five

Couples in Portugal who actually share all the main household chores. 7.

Yes, she is really spending all that time picking up after you –

		In the U.S., women put in additional five hours a week in housework once they are married, while marriage does not significantly effect the number of hours a man does. 12. It's the kids' fault, too –

		Children under the age of 12 significantly increase time in housework for both American husbands and wives – but the increase is three times as much for the mother's as it is the husband's. 13. Especially the boys' –

Perhaps setting a pattern of the future, while each girl aged 12 to 18 in the family increases a mother's housework by an hour – but doesn't change the father's housework. Boys the same age, however, add three hours a week of housework for their mothers, and almost one hour for husbands. 14.

40.4 percent

		of U.S. husbands say that the spouses do about equal amounts of housework. 17. 56.9 percent

		of U.S. husbands surveyed who said that their wives always or usually do the housework. 18. 66.9 percent

		of those men's wives who said they themselves always or usually do the housework. 19. 92.6 percent

		of Japanese husbands surveyed who said their wives always or usually do the housework. 20. 97.8 percent

of those men's wives who said that they always or usually do the housework. 21.

Is it more money?

		The more money a wife makes, the more likely her husband is to report that he does at least half of the household labor. But the women do not agree to the same amount of husband-done housework: they think it’s less. 30.

In households where women contribute to less than or up to half of the family’s income, the more money she makes, less housework she does. 31.

		If a wife thinks that women should be equal to men –

		she does less housework, but her husband doesn't do more of it. 37. If a wife thinks that men and women should share household work –

		she does less housework, but her husband doesn't do more. 38. If a husband thinks that men and women should share household work –

		his wife does less . . . but he doesn't do more. 39.