Husbands Create 7 Hours Of Extra Housework A Week, Says Study
In today's day and age, women are still doing the majority of the housework.
Auttapol Sangsub / Shutterstock A marriage is more than just two people tying the knot and bounding themselves to each other in the name of love.
A true and successful marriage is a partnership between spouses; they assist and support each other through the bumps in the road, and take on different responsibilities for their new family.
The idea of the husband going to work, and the wife staying home to take care of the house and kids, is no longer the norm.
Yes, it still happens, and most stay-at-home moms are choosing this rather than being forced into it.
The good news? Studies show that husbands are helping out more around the house. Compared to 1976, where women did 26 hours of work while men only did six, the percentage for women has lowered while men's had gone up. Great job, men!
The bad news, however, is that wives are still doing a huge chunk of daily household chores.
Why is that? Studies suggest that despite that old idea withering away, there are still some societal expectations for upholding traditional roles.
In a study by the University of Michigan, researchers found that women spend more hours doing housework than men, regardless of whether they're single or married, and no matter how many children they have. In the event of a marriage, they do at least seven more hours of work than their husbands.
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And according to data, as of 2014, 83 percent of women and 65 percent of men do housework. On an average day, a woman spends 2.6 hours doing it, while men spend 2.1 hours.
Interestingly, but not surprisingly, 20 percent of men tend to do the "women's work" — cleaning, cooking, and laundering — compared to 69 percent of the women. Eight percent of women do the "men's work" — lawn and garden work — compared to 11 percent of men. Yes, yard work is hard and very time-consuming, but what about after you finish mowing the lawn, painting the fences, and trimming the hedges?
The BLS data also revealed that 22 percent of men spend 1.8 more hours doing leisure activities compared to 17 percent of women who spend 1.3 hours.
The amount of work women do also extends to children. In a survey done by Pew Research Center, researchers found that among working parents, more fathers placed importance on having a full-time and high-paying job, while mothers were more concerned about flexible schedules to take care of the children.
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Furthermore, a Groupon survey revealed that out of 2,000 women, two-thirds admitted that they continue to do more housework than necessary, because "lack of confidence or cash" makes it difficult for them to break out of the working mom/stay-at-home mom stereotype.
Society expects working moms to still do work around the house while judging stay-at-home moms for not helping with the expenses.
So, husbands, when your wives are nagging you, please just wash the dishes while she takes care of a million other things around the house. Do it without complaining about her nagging. Or better yet, do it yourself without her asking. Trust us, she will appreciate that more.
Remember, marriage is a partnership. You can't be in a partnership without taking your own brunt of the work.
Caithlin Pena is an editor and former contributor for YourTango. Her work has been featured on Thought Catalog, Huffington Post, Yahoo, Psych Central, and BRIDES.