For the first time, scientists have provided evidence of dads’ activities while moms are busy in caring of housework or of the child.
As statistics suggest, Women rest for 46 to 49 minutes, whereas men do childcare or some household work on their day off. As it may, men spent about twice the time in recreation, around 101 minutes, while their partner did some sort of work.
The partners were found doing the same.
Claire Kamp Dush, lead author of the study, said, “It’s frustrating. 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.”
Scientists conducted the study on 52 couples who were part of the New Parents Project.
“It is a small sample. It is not the definitive answer and is most relevant to similar couples. We need deep insights to understand how dual-earner couples are sharing housework and child care,” Kamp Dush said.
During the study, scientists asked the couples to complete their own time diaries for a workday and a non-workday during the third trimester of the lady’s pregnancy and around three months after the child’s introduction to the world.
After the arrival of their child, scientists found both men and women spending time in housework and childcare was similar to non-workdays. Still, in comparison, women were found as doing more work.
Jill Yavorsky, Ph.D. at Ohio State, said, “On non-workdays, parents are more evenly splitting housework and childcare. It’s very much ‘all hands on deck,’ but when there is more time available on the weekend, and parents are not so pressed to get everything done, then we see the emergence of gendered patterns and inequality where women do a lot more housework and childcare while he leisures.”
During the holiday, men tend to relax 46 percent of the time. And if talking about leisure activities, women were found to spend only 16% of the time.
Results were comparable for housework. Fathers took 35 percent of the time off while their accomplices did undertakings like cleaning. Ladies took 19 percent of the time off when men did housework.
Kamp Dush said, “I was expecting to see a lot more minutes where the couple was doing housework or childcare together. I suspect the situation may be even less equitable for women who don’t have all the advantages of the couples in our sample.”
“Although, there are steps that both men and women can take to help even out the inequities found in this study. Men need to get in there and take care of their children and house, particularly on the weekends. In some cases, moms may need to step back and let fathers do housework and childcare tasks without hovering to make sure they meet her standards.”
“Couples need to talk on this, how they are going to share household works to ensure they are equitable.”