Performing household chores and taking care of children were traditionally the roles of women in the family because men were involved in jobs outside of the household so that they can earn money for the whole family. The distribution of roles between men and women was effective and reasonable in early America because women who became pregnant and gave birth to children were responsible for providing nurture and were unable to leave their children unattended to perform work outside of their homes. Although women are still more involved in performing family work such as household tasks or caretaking for children compared to men, the contribution of men to family work has been increasing since the 1970s after women started joining the workforce (Sullivan, 2015, p. 617).
With two people in the household who were working, it was no longer possible to divide family roles into household chores and breadwinning, which would explain why the contribution of men to housework is greatest in families where both the husband and wife work full-time jobs (Sullivan, 2015, p. 622). Therefore, the changes in the social environment coincided with the changes of roles of men in families, so men in contemporary families spend more time on various tasks that were traditionally performed by women, including routine household chores, shopping, and caretaking for children.
During the 1960s, women would spend approximately between 210 and 270 minutes on routine household chores, which include cleaning, laundry, and cooking, but the average time spent on those chores for women decreased to between 120 and 190 minutes per day during the 1980s (Sullivan, 2015, p. 623). Men would spend around 20 minutes per day doing the same chores during the 1960s, but by the end of the 1980s, men were spending approximately 40 minutes per day on those chores (Sullivan, 2015, p. 623). Child care is one area of family obligations in which men still spend a lot less time compared to women, but that is expected considering the fact that working women receive maternal leave to take care of children after pregnancy.
The increasing trend of men participating in family work and the decreasing trend of women spending time on household chores continues at a slower pace. Although men are taking on more roles in the household, women still hold the primary roles when it comes to domestic chores. Housework activities such as meal preparation or laundry “are more subject to the whims and demands of other family members,” and women are the ones who usually adjust their schedules to accommodate the needs of other family members (Bianchi, Milkie, Sayer, & Robinson, 2000, p. 195). As a general rule, “more egalitarian beliefs about men’s and women’s roles lead to a more egalitarian division of labor in the home” (Bianchi et al., 2000, p. 195). Therefore, the roles of men in the family are not associated with social attitudes and values as much as they are associated with the attitudes and individual values of each married couple, so the roles of men in families depend on the agreement they achieve with their spouses.
The equality of men and women in families has not been achieved yet, but complete equality cannot and should not exist because the division of labor could increase the efficiency or accuracy of task completion in the household. For example, Fonseca, Mullen, Zamarro, and Zissimopoulos (2012, p. 106) found that men have greater financial literacy than women, and one possible explanation of that the involvement of men in financial decision-making is one of the reasons why they become better at them than women. Therefore, if people become more proficient than their partners in some chores that they routinely perform, the division of labor needs to consider what each person in the family does best in order to ensure that the distribution of responsibilities at home is not only just, but also efficient. However, both partners should be at the very least competent to take on any chore from their partner whenever necessary if they want to maintain an egalitarian and flexible relationship.
References
Bianchi, S. M., Milkie, M. A., Sayer, L. C., & Robinson, J. P. (2000). Is anyone doing the housework? Trends in the gender division of household labor. Social Forces, 79(1), 191-228.
Fonseca, R., Mullen, K. J., Zamarro, G., & Zissimopoulos, J. (2012). What explains the gender gap in financial literacy? The role of household decision making. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 46(1), 90-106.
Sullivan, O. (2015). Men’s changing contribution to family work. In: B. J. Risman & V. Rutter (Eds.), Families as they really are (2nd ed.). New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.
