In perhaps the least surprising study results ever, researchers have found that married men create roughly seven hours of extra housework for their wives every single week. In turn, wives save their partners from a full hour of chores in that same period, showing just how uneven the distribution of labor is in modern marriages.
- This just isn’t fair. The study out of the University of Michigan found that women end up doing way more around the house because of their husbands, though that’s not exactly shocking. “It’s a well-known pattern,” said study director Frank Stafford, of the university’s Institute for Social Research. “There’s still a significant reallocation of labor that occurs at marriage — men tend to work more outside the home, while women take on more of the household labor.”
- Things get worse when kids are involved. That’s right—not only do women have to clean up after their grown husbands, they also have to look after and clean up after kids too. Isn’t it wonderful being a woman?
- Cleaning is a full-time job for married women. While single women spent the least amount of time cleaning (only 12 hours per week) and married women in their 60s and 70s spent twice that, it was married women with kids spend roughly 28 hours a week cooking, cleaning, and doing laundry. That’s nearly a full-time job!
- I guess things have slightly improved since the ’70s. We’re nearly half a century on from the 1970s, but married women’s housework has only gone down by about 2 hours a week. Back then, they were doing 28 hours a week, so I guess there’s been some small improvement. Sigh.
- It’s time to switch things up. Regardless of your relationship situation, if you have a partner, you should be equals. Housework is not a woman’s job, nor is raising or looking after children. Both people should be pitching in and trying to make each other’s lives easier. It’s just that simple.
