Men’s domestic role rising
Amount of time men spend on housework and raising children has been rising says French study
THE domestic life of men is rising compared to women, according to new figures from an on-going study.
While men still spend much less time on housework and raising children than women, the gap has been closing consistently according to the report by the Ecole nationale de la statistique (Ensae) and the Institut national d'études démographiques (Ined).
The study has been taking place for 25 years.
The number of couples where the man does more housework is rising and has now hit 27%, compared to 25 years ago when the figure was 17% and five years ago when it was 25%.
While the role of women in the workplace is increasing, the amount of time they spend on domestic tasks is still much higher.
Women spent on average just over three hours a day on domestic tasks such as laundry, shopping, administration, looking after pets in 2010, compared to one hour and 45 minutes for men.
This gap of 78 minutes has actually closed significantly. In 1985 it was 138 minutes. However this has been due largely to a reduction in the amount of time that women spend on housework.
In 2010 women spent 69 fewer minutes on housework compared to 25 years earlier, for men the time has reduced by nine minutes.
The spare time freed up by ditching housework has however been absorbed by something else: children.
Here men have seen the amount of time they spend on healthcare, helping with homework, transport and more for the children rise from 22 minutes a day to 41, while for women it has risen from 82 minutes to 95.
Photo: flickr/zenjazzygeek
