USA – CIRCA 1950s: Couple in kitchen. Women in opposite-sex marriages may contribute more to their family’s income, but they still have to shoulder more of the workload at home, according to a new report.
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USA – CIRCA 1950s: Couple in kitchen. Women in opposite-sex marriages may contribute more to their family’s income, but they still have to shoulder more of the workload at home, according to a new report.
George Marks / Getty Images
A new report confirms what many already know to be true: Women are bringing home bacon and frying it.
Even as their contribution to family income has increased in recent years, women in heterosexual marriages still have to do more housework and care than men, a report from Pew Research Center had found.
Furthermore, by 2023, the majority of people believe that society still values men’s contributions at work over their contributions at home, according to a report based on three different national surveys. .
Kim Parker, director of social trends research at the Pew Research Center, said: “I think public attitudes are falling behind the economic realities that couples are facing today. .
The percentage of men who are the main breadwinner or sole breadwinner in their families has fallen as women enter the workforce in large numbers, entering lucrative jobs and outstripping men, Parker said. gender in terms of educational attainment.
What Pew calls “marriage equality” is on the rise.
Last year, 29% of marriages were “equal,” with husband and wife each contributing about half of both spouses’ total income. That compares to less than 10% in 1972.
But in “marriage equality”, wives still spend more than twice as much time on housework as husbands (4.6 hours per week for women compared to 1.9 hours per week for men) and nearly 2 hours per week for caregiving, including childcare.
Meanwhile, husbands spend about three hours more per week than wives on paid work and more than three and a half hours on leisure activities.
“We’ve seen the gap close over the years with men taking on more hours of housework and childcare as more women go to work,” Parker said.
“But that imbalance – we still see it today. It’s certainly not equal.”
The imbalance stems from attitudes about where women and men belong
That can partly be blamed on attitudes and expectations about the roles of men and women at work and at home, Parker said.
More than half (57%) of the 5,152 people surveyed by Pew said society values what men do in the workplace more. Only 7% said they think society values what men do at home more.
Meanwhile, only 20% of respondents said that society values what women do more at work, while 31% think that society values women’s contributions more in the family. (The rest said society values contributions to work and family equally.)
Young Americans are more likely to say that women’s contributions to the family are more valued by society.
“They’re almost more skeptical of it,” says Parker, noting that older Americans are more likely to say that society values the contributions of women in both areas.
“They’ve probably seen the change in their lifetime,” she said. “While for young people – they may just be seeing an imbalance right now, they haven’t experienced the advancements that women have made in the workplace.”
The new head of the Women’s Policy Research Institute says she’s excited by the growing attention paid to the persistent imbalance in American marriages.
“I think in the past it was assumed that you had to play certain roles and that’s what women do, no matter how much or how little you earn,” said Daisy Chin-Lor, who has earned as much as — and then most of all — her husband during her long corporate career, and still shouldering heavier workloads at home.
“In today’s world, I see my son taking a more active role in parenting because he wants to, because he can.”
Most Americans believe that children learn well when their parents focus equally on work and family
The majority of survey respondents – 77% – said that children of working parents are better off when both parents are equally focused on work and family.
Only one in five said children do better when dads are more focused on work and moms are more focused on family life.
Only 1 out of 50 people say the opposite – that children are better off when moms are more focused on work and dads stay at home to take care of things.
Within that data, there were significant differences in opinion depending on the political leanings of the respondents. More Democrats than Republicans say it’s better for both parents to focus equally on work and family (85% Democrats vs 68% Republicans) and nearly 3 One in 10 Republicans feel that children are better off when dads are more focused on work and moms are more on kids and home.
