Housework

This is old news as it is from back in April 2008 but only now did I run across it. The University of Michigan did a study of housework, the number of hours performed by men, women, single and married. In 2005 and 1976.

It found:

Having a husband creates an extra seven hours a week of housework for women, according to a University of Michigan study of a nationally representative sample of U.S. families.

For men, the picture is very different: A wife saves men from about an hour of housework a week.

It is interesting that what appears to be the original article based on the study, and other articles found under google, all have the same headline (or a similar variant): Exactly how much housework does a husband create?

My question is this: why does it take a woman 7 hours to do what a man can do in one hour?


Also in the study is the fact that women are doing less housework now and men more:

Overall, the amount of housework done by U.S. women has dropped considerably since 1976, while the amount of housework done by men has increased, according to Stafford. In 1976, women did an average of 26 hours of housework a week, compared with about 17 hours in 2005. Men did about six hours of housework a week in 1976, compared with about 13 hours in 2005.

Why isn't this the headline of the study and articles? The study doesn't differentiate being married and single people so it is hard to tell if women are doing less housework because the men are doing more, or what the reasons are for the change.

Also interesting is this:

They supplemented the analysis with data from questionnaires asking both men and women to recall how much time they spent on basic housework in an average week, including time spent cooking, cleaning and doing other basic work around the house. Excluded from these "core" housework hours were tasks like gardening, home repairs, or washing the car.

Oh, I guess doing home and vehicle maintenance (often the work of men) is excluded because they study's authors feel it is not "core" housework. I see. Why would this be excluded except to devalue the contributions men make around the home?

The study and articles (just look at the title!) would appear to be biased against men. It reminds me of another article where it was found that a woman's attitude influenced the amount of housework and child care men did. In relationships where women were critical of their partner's housework abilities and contributions, the men then did less, even if the men started out equally sharing the chores. In relationships where women were supportive of their partner's housework abilities and contributions found the men doing more.