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

[MumsnetGuestPosts]

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

[DrYangHu]

@Longtalljosie

Yes I think that’s right - and to some in the wider family there is a sense that you are only excused having a real career if you have succeeded in having an immaculate home. Without it any professional success is able to be dismissed as you not coping.

Yes, many scholars have reported on how gender double standards exist for women when it comes to career/work and housework. A major cause of the 'work-home double-bind' experienced by many working women: books.google.co.uk/books?id=St_6kWcPJS8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+second+shift&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj13ZzhgZTkAhX6UBUIHfCCDtYQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=the%20second%20shift&f=false
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0891243210361475

[DrYangHu]

@Lexilooo

I'm not sure what the answer is but I am a woman who does less housework than her husband - you are welcome to study me!

I think it is much more complex than just being about earnings. Earnings and working hours play a part but so does background and parental examples, playing to your strengths/skills/preferences, and mess tolerance level.

Personally I think my father allowing his daughter to see him hoover/clean the oven/bleach the loo despite being the main earner was a really important lesson, equally as important as teaching me to change a car wheel or wire a plug.

Yes, exactly, thank you - many other factors play a role too, which is highlighted in some (of my) other studies. In this very specific study, the results show that even when gender ideology, parent background, cultural context, family structure, children's care needs, time availability and many other factors are taken into account, earnings and financial organisation still play a significant role.

[CassianAndor]

as mentioned by others, whilst DH is good at housework he doesn't think about it much.

He is also far more focussed and thorough when, for example, cleaning - but that's because he doesn't think about anything else whilst he's doing it. So I might come in from work to find the bathroom sparkling but it's 7pm and our daughter has only just been given her dinner. Whereas I have timings in my head all the time and so would do a less-thorough job but DD would get her dinner at 6.

It's the 'always thinking about everything' that irks me.

[DrYangHu]

Thank you again for your questions and comments, everyone! Unfortunately, I'll have to wrap up and sign off - apologies for not being able to engage with all of your posts.

As many of us have discussed / mentioned in the thread, domestic gender inequalities are also noted in other (and sometimes less visible) forms - emotional work, cognitive labour, etc.

Hope our discussion would be a useful first step to help de-normalise some of the persisting gender norms and assumptions pertaining to housework. It takes our individual initiative as much as policy intervention, welfare provision, and social/cultural changes to achieve gender equality - evenly - both at home and at work.

It is great to see in the thread that many men do do housework, and many of you share domestic labour equally at home. On the whole in society - still way to go.

[HepzibahGreen]

RE men who CAN "see" dirt-
The interesting bit being these men had all sadly lost their mums in childhood, and had grown up with the role of looking after the house and younger siblings while dad worked.
YY the ONLY man I have ever known who just got on with housework and did more than his wife lost his mum aged 10 or so. Most men grow up just not really believing any of it is their job because they only ever see women doing housework.. And when they become lazy husbands everybody blames their mother!
Basically boys need to see men clean and tidy and organise domestic things as a normal, regular thing.