The chart reveals that the number of hours per week spent on unpaid work is unequally distributed between men and women.
In households where there are no children, women are reported to work some 30 hours per week in such tasks as housework and gardening. Men’s contribution to these unpaid jobs averages a considerably lower 18 hours.
When children enter the household, however, the inequality becomes even more pronounced. In families of 1—2 children, men maintain approximately the same number of hours of unpaid work as that in childless households, but the number of hours women work in the home rises to 52 per week, much of it, no doubt, due to childcare responsibilities.
Interestingly, when there are three or more children in the household, men are found to work even fewer hours around the house than before the appearance of the third child. Whereas women’s unpaid hours rise to about 56 per week, the corresponding figure for men, 16, actually represents a decrease.
The date suggest that the increased presence of women in the paid work force has not yet lead to an increased role for men in the home.
