You might have thought that men and women more evenly split their time on parenting and housework in today’s world. But new research shows that’s not the case.
On their days off, men were more likely to be caught relaxing while women were taking care of the kids or performing housework. The finding comes from a new study, published earlier this month in Sex Roles, that analyzed the three months after parents had their first child.
When women had the day off, they only spent 46 to 49 minutes relaxing while their partner took care of the kids or did the housework. Men, by contrast, spent 101 minutes relaxing when the roles were reversed.
“It’s frustrating,” lead study author Claire Kamp Dush said in a statement. “Household tasks and child care are still not being shared equally, even among couples who we expected would have more egalitarian views of how to share parenting duties.” Kamp Dush is also an associate professor of human sciences at The Ohio State University.
The study featured 52 couples who were part of the New Parents Project, a program out of The Ohio State University that includes a majority of well-educated, white, dual-earner couples in the Columbus, Ohio area.
Though the sample size is small and is “mostly relevant to similar couples,” Kamp Dush says it warrants further investigation. For now, there are still things couples can do to ensure a more equitable division of labor.
“Couples need to be having conversations, ideally before their baby is born, about how they are going to divide household tasks to make sure they are equitable,” she said.
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Dads Do More Relaxing on Days Off, Moms Do More Housework, Childcare originally appeared on usnews.com
