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Guest post: “Why are women still doing more housework?”

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MumsnetGuestPosts · 12/08/2019 14:24

Social scientists like myself are interested in housework as it provides a window into the ‘checks and balances’ of power and gender in couple relationships.

In the UK, we’ve seen much progress toward gender equality in the public sphere. For example, the rate of women who participate in paid work has increased from 52% in 1990 to 57% in 2018. Thanks to equal-pay campaigns, the gender pay gap nearly halved between 1990 and 2018, from 34% to 18%.

But it’s puzzling that progress in these areas hasn’t translated into gender equality at home. In 2015, women in the UK still spent twice as much time as men on chores such as laundry, ironing, vacuuming, grocery shopping and cooking. In fact, the time men spend on housework has hardly changed since the 1990s (less than one hour per day). As a result, working women often experience a ‘double-bind’ of work and housework.

Traditional wisdom tells us that men do less housework because they play the breadwinner role. But I can’t help but wonder why women are still doing much more housework, even when they contribute equally to household income. Why have women’s earnings not reduced their housework and increased that of their male partners?

To answer these questions, I analysed data from a national survey of 6070 working-age (20-59) heterosexual couples in the UK. In this new study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, I went beyond earnings to examine the implications of household financial organisation — how income is managed between partners and who has a say in financial decisions — for the division of housework.

I find that as couples broker money, power and housework, men both ‘exchange’ and ‘bargain’ their way out of housework.

On one hand, some men reduce their housework participation by handing over their income to their partners, and the partners who take over the income end up doing more housework.

On the other hand, some other men withhold their own income or take control of the household’s income. Such financial control gives them the power to avoid housework.
The only way in which women’s earnings can help reduce their housework burden is for them to keep a separate account from their partners. My findings show that women who manage their own earnings spend much less time (three hours per week) on housework than those who don’t.

Taking control of their own income, the women don’t necessarily have to strike a ‘no-win’ bargain with men. Instead, women’s financial autonomy allows them to use their own earnings to ‘opt out’ or in some cases ‘buy out’ of housework.

Notably, we cannot assume that professional, high-earning women have access to and control of their income at home - quite the contrary. I find that in the UK, only less than 12% of working-age women kept separate purses, another 23% managed household finances, and only around 15% controlled financial decisions.

Around 48% of working-age couples pool their income and jointly manage their earnings. In this case, housework division hinges on who controls financial decisions. If partners make joint financial decisions (69%), the division is then determined by who contributes a greater share to the joint pool.

This puts women in a ‘no-win’ situation: given widespread gender wage penalties and a glass ceiling in the labour market, men still tend to earn more than their female partners.

Much to our surprise, when women do out-earn their male partners, they are seen to do much more housework. Sociologists referred to this phenomenon as ‘gender display’ or ‘gender deviance neutralization’ — as high-earning women deviate from traditional gender norms in the labour market, they tend to reclaim ‘femininity’ by doing (more) housework. At the same time, their male partners are found to do less housework to compensate for a perceived ‘lack of masculinity’ for not being the major earner.

In addition to traditional gender norms, not being able to access their own earnings and have a say in financial decisions still present formidable hurdles for working women to reduce their housework burden. If men still monopolise household finances and traditional gender norms still hold sway, then it’s unlikely that gender equality in housework is possible, however much women earn.

Employing more women and settling the gender pay gap with gender equality flowing neatly into place at home as a result is certainly not the story this analysis is revealing. It’s important for everyone to be able to access, manage and control their own earnings.

Due to a lack of large-scale nationwide data, my research didn’t cover non-heterosexual couples. As families are becoming increasingly diverse, it is important to explore how non-heterosexual couples broker money and housework.

Dr. Yang Hu is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Lancaster University. His research focuses on changing family, gender and sexual relations, with an aim to advance gender and social equalities, and family justice.

Dr Hu will be returning to the thread on 21 August to answer some user questions

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WaxOnFeckOff · 13/08/2019 17:29

Not that I am defending some of the tasks taking less time, but our bins take a while. We have 4 different wheelie bins plus separate boxes for food and glass and we have bins throughout the house that need to be sorted and emptied into the appropriate bins and then the correct ones put out every week and then brought in. I don't do it unless DH is away but it's definitely his job as half of it involves being outside in the pishing rain or freezing cold.