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Tuesday, March 19
The Indiana Daily Student

opinion

COLUMN: Women at work haven't changed domestic dynamics

In recent years, it’s become increasingly normal for women and mothers to bring home the bacon, as the saying goes, but that seems to have had little effect on the distribution of domestic work among heterosexual couples.

For the year 2015, 42 percent of mothers were the sole or primary breadwinners for their family, while another 25 percent brought home between one-quarter and half of all household earnings, according to the Center for American Progress.

And with 73 million women in the workforce, the United States has seen a huge normative change from the early days of Rosie the Riveter.

But despite the normalization of women at work, domestic responsibilities between men and women have remained stubbornly in the past.

According to a 2016 survey conducted by Whitman Insight Strategies, women are 25 percent more likely to buy groceries and almost twice as likely to prepare meals and complete household cleaning tasks, as well as being 50 percent more likely to plan social activities.

Fifty-five percent of women claimed they were responsible for being the primary caregiver, compared to only 39 percent of men.

Furthermore, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in 2013 that full-time working women spent almost two hours on household work daily, compared to only an hour and eighteen minutes for men.

Equal footing in the workforce has far from led to shared responsibilities at home.

In light of the meaningful gains women have made in employment, it may be easy to dismiss tangential problems like these as unimportant, but an unequal share of domestic chores between men and women is unsustainable and should no longer be tolerated.

Cohabiting couples should be upfront about their expectations for one another’s household duties and communicate them consistently.

According to the American Time Use Survey from 2015, during the hours women spend on chores and caring for others, men are more likely to be watching television or enjoying other leisure activities.

Given this inequity, women should be steadfast in their demand for an equal share of responsibilities between partners.

Lastly, couples with children need to realize that their behaviors will be passed down to future generations, so they need to change quickly if their household isn’t an egalitarian one.

Sons and daughters will infer what their responsibilities should be from watching their parents.

A strong gender divide in household chores will show girls the kind of work they should be doing and suggest to boys that they shouldn’t have to help.

Additionally, egalitarian chore practices between mothers and fathers will more likely lead to daughters with intensified professional ambitions, according to a 2014 study published by the Association for Psychological Science.

Moreover, an unequal share of work between men and women can create a distance between fathers and their children, as a woman’s constant involvement in housework and parenting responsibilities leads to more time spent with their children from an early age.

If both parents work the same number of hours, there’s no reason to expect a couple’s home-life to include any disparity in shared responsibilities.

Our society should relieve women of the double-shift of work and home. Instead, we should have equal and fair expectations for both sexes.

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