Despite Equal Income, Married Working Women Still Do More Housework: Survey

Working women have always been expected to manage work and home responsibilities efficiently while their husbands or working men, in general, are exempted from doing household chores. This idea has been prevalent in society for a long time now and recently, a survey backed up this notion.

A survey was conducted by Pew Research Centre on working heterosexual married couples in the US that showed that despite earning equal incomes, husbands tend to have fewer household responsibilities than wives. The survey found that 29% of married heterosexual couples were the ones where the man and woman earned the same.

However, the survey also found that men spend more time in leisure activities than women, almost 3 and a half hours more per week, while women spend almost 2 and a half hours more per week than men doing household chores. This division of labour in married couples with equal income shows how women are expected to take up house responsibilities while men don't.

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Married Working Women Do More Housework

The survey highlighted among heterosexual marriages, in about 55%, the man was the primary or sole breadwinner while only 16% of marriages were the ones with a woman being the primary or sole breadwinner. However, the unequal division of household duties was not seen in the cases where women were primary breadwinners.

This might be because of the conventional expectations from women to be the caregiver in marriages. In marriages where the man or the woman are the sole breadwinners, it is likely that the division of household responsibilities is uneven. That division works as long as none of them have to sacrifice their personal life and leisure time and can even switch roles if possible at times. However, in cases where the husband and wife both work and earn, the division of household responsibilities should be equal because they have equal work commitments irrespective of their pay.

The survey also found that Black women are more likely to earn more than their husbands, making 29% of total women who were sole or primary breadwinners in the survey, as compared to the 17% White and 13% Hispanic women. About 48% of Americans think that husbands should earn more than their wives while another 13% said husband and wife should earn the same. But when men earn more than their wives, they tend to take up fewer household responsibilities.

This result contradicts the fact that about 77% of Americans think that children are raised well when both their parents have equal work and household responsibilities. While the notion is popular in belief, it is not so prevalent in practice as shown in the survey. Such ideas are being preached by people but are not being adapted by them.

People talk about equal pay and equal division of labour but when they get married, they somehow feel that just because they earn more means they have more responsibilities at work. This is impractical as there are several jobs that put a lot of pressure on employees while paying them a meager income. If both, the husband and wife, are working it is better to divide household responsibilities equally rather than based on who earns more.

As the survey mentions, women who earn more than their husbands take equal household responsibilities which is not the same as men who earn more in marriage. That's because women are considered to be the caregivers in the marriage and assume the nurturing roles while men are excused from them. As long as this notion prevails, we cannot expect an equal society as it only discourages women to work after marriage as then they have to manage work and the house together.