wash off Rinse. Repeat.
We can talk about laundry the same way we can describe decades of research on the domestic division of labor. Like a load of laundry that never goes out, Research on the gender gap We are shown the same pattern again and again: women still take on more housework than men.
now, New research led by researchers at the University of Alberta It helps shed some light on why closing that gap is such a challenge. after Following 520 Edmontonians over 25 yearsThe researchers found what they called a gender pattern of housework begins in their twenties and persists well into midlife — with parenthood only widening the gap.
Once patterns are present in a relationship, they tend to stay that way, noted Studywhich was recently published in the Journal of Family Psychology.
“We have this perception that relationships are dynamic and constantly evolve as circumstances change, but this study highlights how that's not really the case,” lead researcher Matthew Johnson, a professor of family science at the University of Alberta, told CBC News.
“The big realization scientifically over the last 15 years is that relationships are actually remarkably stable over very long periods of time,” Johnson said. “And this is the first study to actually show that this holds for household tasks as well.”
The study examined survey data From the Edmonton Transition Study For the same 520 people, half of them women, who were all born in 1967. They were surveyed between 1992 and 2017 — when they were 25, 32, 43 and 50 — about who did certain chores in their households. .
In this study, women were consistently involved in cooking, cleaning the kitchen, buying groceries, cleaning the house, washing clothes and overall housework. But it's important to keep in mind that the results are based on responses from people who are currently 57 years old.
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Still, it's interesting that this study suggests that decisions made early in relationships about the division of labor persist throughout the life of those relationships, said Marina Edschade, a teaching assistant professor at the University of British Columbia who specializes in economics and gender. who were not involved in the study.
“What this data tells us is that (women) can expect to continue a larger share of work later, perhaps when they plan to build their own careers and certainly when they start having children,” Edschade said. the author of Dollars and Sex: How Economics Influence Sex and Love.
“Moral of the story, essentially, don't iron his shirt at the beginning of a relationship if you don't want to iron his shirt for the rest of your life,” Adshade said.
'The pace of change is slow'
The findings mirror data in a recent Ottawa-based report Vanier Institute of the Family. Statistics Canada data analyzed by an independent national think-tank show that while men have gained more domestic labor, women still continue to do more unpaid work than men.
In 2020, for example, women over 20 living with a partner were more likely than men to do laundry, dishes, housework, meal preparation and grocery shopping. You can do statistics. The only work taken on by men was household finance, with dishes and housework likely to be equally distributed.
“Time use statistics reveal that the pace of change is slow and that women continue to do more unpaid work than men. The division of labor remains gendered,” he noted. Report of the Vanier InstituteReleased in November.
This was true regardless of their labor force participation and changes in recent years. The Vanier Institute conducted the analysis. Time-use data from Statistics Canada From 2022, and found that, among people who work from home, women spent about 40 minutes more per day on unpaid housework than men.
Similar trends were found for childcare duties among parents. When parents worked from home, mothers spent about 52 minutes more per day with children than fathers. And if both parents worked outside the home, they spent less time with their children than those who teleworked.
But among those parents, mothers still spent more time with their children than fathers, again about 52 minutes per day.
Why does the gap persist?
It's “not surprising,” then, that among couples in 2016, women were less likely to report being satisfied with the division of housework, and more likely to say they were dissatisfied, the Vanier Institute said, citing data. General Social Survey Results.
“The 'double burden' of paid and unpaid work can affect the well-being of women, who are given an overall workload and less time to rest,” it explained.
Much progress has been made toward gender equality in public areas such as employment and education, said Yu Qian, an associate professor of sociology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, who specializes in family studies and was not involved in either study. .
“But on the other hand, we've seen men make much less progress in the individual sphere,” Qian said.
“Despite the fact that more and more women are working outside the home and receiving more education, at home they still take a disproportionate share of housework and child care.”
Historically, there were good reasons for the unequal distribution of housework — men contributed more to household income and women contributed more to household production, Edscheid explained.
But that's less true today than ever, he added. For example, the Vanier Institute also points out that the number of female family breadwinners has increased in Canada, where women earn more than 50 percent of family income. A third of gender-different couples in 2022.
“I truly believe that this gap exists because men are raised to believe that women will take care of them, and women are raised to believe that they will take care of men. It's a cultural cycle that's extremely persistent,” Edshade said.
Will it ever change?
That said, there are signs that these roles may be changing.
For example, Vanier Institute Parental benefits are reported to be used by an increasing proportion of fathers. Citing statistics from Statistics Canada, in 2022, 31 per cent of fathers outside of Quebec claimed insurable employment or intended to claim parental benefits. That's nearly three times the percentage from 2017, the institute notes.
Other studies have found that Millennial dads spend more time with their kids Compared to previous generations, stay at home Dad is growing upAnd there are men Taking on more household responsibilities than they have in the past.
When you look back historically and compare to now, yes, there has been progress, Qian said. But men still have to step into the private sector until the playground, he added.
She adds that truly recognizing women's invisible labor—the planning, research, organizing, emailing, and coordinating that is also part of modern day life—is a major step toward greater gender equality.
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Part of the change needs to come from the workplace as well, Adshade said, particularly the persistent cultural attitude that women need more flexibility than men. Workplace flexibility for single women, she explained, “creates expectations that mothers should shoulder more responsibilities for children.”
But it also needs to come from the men, added Adshade, who explained that those who want to marry must compromise.
“Cultural change is slow, as we all know, and things are unlikely to change in the near future. But hopefully as more children grow up with the distribution of housework, this gap will begin to close.”
