Do they not have anything better to do?

[ruby27]

Researcher Xavier Ramos, has been looking at the division of work between men and women in British households. What he has found is that when it comes to housework, on average women do almost four times as much as their partners � men averaging five and a half hours a week, compared with women's 19.

As a women this seems a tad unfair. Do you think this is right, is housework the domain of women?

[Pippa68]

It is unfair if the both of them go out to work.

If the woman is at home, then I go for the traditional outlook..it's her job ;o)

[beryllium]

A mans work is never done.

[ruby27]

Pippa68

If only one of the couple is in paid employment than that person should not have to do an equal share of the home work. (Try telling that to my unemployed partner who does nothing at all, apart from doing depressed). But, this says average, I am not sure how this works out. I still doubt with the likelihood that men on average do more paid employment than women, that taking that into the equation this is an equal and fair division.
But men prove me wrong

ruby27
bitter and twisted feminist

[littleone85]

When I was doing my sociology degree, there was some research that we looked at specifically to do with male unemployment and gender roles and they found that in the majority of cases the women (who were in full time work) still did the most domestic work in the home. Plus it was found that women also grossly underrepresent the hours they spend on domestic chores as women tend to multitask where as men do one thing at a time,
From what i've seen and studied it seems like despite all the progress women have made in reducing gender splits in such things housework still seems to be mainly the domain of women. It makes me cringe every time I go round to the boyfriends mums house and she offers my partner something to eat (which he always accepts because he's a gannet!) and she always says 'is she not feeding you?' GRRRR

[weeal]

when i was married (12 yrs) we both worked and i did everthin, and he golfed

never again lol

[jno]

it's voluntary (I hope), so you could always stop washing his socks for him and see what happens.

[VillageVicar]

I used to become so cranky when people would say, with some incredulity �doesn�t your wife work?� My retort was always the same: She jolly well works harder than I do- she takes care of the children when I'm away, she keeps the house tidy, and she puts up with me! I never could accept using the term 'housewife.' When asked where did she work, my response was that 'she works at home.'

Fr Bill

[ojread2]

They should come to my house to research

We both work, me part time, him full. We have a child for whom I do everything unless I have a staff meeting then he has ot out her to bed (twice a month)

He does zero, zilch, yadda, nothing. Today I went to work taking said child with me. He has 4 days off so I left the washing up. Was it done when I got home? Nope, and did he get his lunch made for him? Nope. I lost it totally. Told him unless he pulled his weight indoors I was doing no more cooking or making of his meals. So there!

Anyway, OT rant but we ALL know women do most of the housework so why do we need some MAN to tell us this after being paid a few �1,000 first?

[jno]

oh look, the google ad on this thread (at least on my screen) says Learn How to Please Your Partner by Giving a Refreshing Massage

Obviously picked up on your claim to be a feminist, ruby.

[B00]

I'm flabbergasted they spent money researching this to come up with the ground-breaking outcome that women do more housework than men- I could have told them that for nowt.

[Pippa68]

Actually BOO I think I would have charged at least 50 quid ;o)

[Louisa 69]

If both are working then i believe that housework should be shared. It's not fair if one person is responsible for the upkeep of the home. But that is my opinion... probably why my fiance calls me a nag :))))

[Dassie]

You all miss the point here! It says in British households not British citizens! You have all these middle eastern men and foreigners with 3 wives (who are regarded as second class citizens in their culture) living here therefore the women do all the work and this distorts the findings. If this was based on the true British working class then it would be better as you would only have the lazy couch potatoes on jobseekers watching TV all day whilst their partners went out to work.

[China Doll]

Did he not have any hoovering to do in the hour it must have taken to research this?

Shelves probably need dusting too....

[ruby27]

ojread2 and BOO, you are so right, but that makes it all the more depressing.

Dassie, sorry not sure whether your answer was tounge in cheek or not, hence the no stars yet.

Well I have just emptied the dishwasher, unloaded the washing machine, re loaded and put the bread in the oven to proove. However he is working very hard watching the football. So which one of us is the idiot?

[Dassie]

Tongue in cheek ruby except for the last part about men wanting to be waited on at home!

[EngTeach]

Father Bill- Your answer made me smile. When I was in grade school we had to interview both our parents. My mom was a stay at home mom then and she made me say she was a Domestic Engineer.

[bundleone]

You cant change nature, it was always a man who provided and a women cooked and cleaned,
although now most women go out to work for at least part of the time that domestic instinct is still with most of us,, I must say I actually enjoy putting a meal on the table for my husband, but then he often gets out the ironing board and sets to.

[WoWo]

I do way more than my wife does. We both work full time, she works 30 minutes longer than me but I do pretty much all the house work, cooking (proper meals from scratch), cleaning, washing up etc, the only thing she does is the washing, I'm not complaining but that takes about 10 minutes as it's collect the clothes from the bedrom, put them in the washing machine and then turn it on (we both hang it up together).

I think it also comes down to some extent that women are generally more house proud, my wife isn't particuarly so she doesn't generally clear up.

On average I'd say I do 10-15 hours a week and her 5. Just the was it is round our house.