The pressures on men to be breadwinners and women to be housewives have been on their way out over the years, but a government study shows they’re still far from gone.
Employed men work an average of 42 minutes per day more than their female counterparts, according to the 2015 American Time Use Study by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And while that’s partially due to more women working part-time jobs than men, even among full-time employees men worked 8.2 hours per day compared to women’s 7.8 hours.
Additionally, 50 percent of women said they did some housework, such as cleaning or laundry, every day, while only 22 percent of men said the same. And 70 percent of women said they prepped or cleaned up food in an average day, while 43 percent of men said the same.
Men were slightly more likely than women to participate in yard work — 12 percent to 8 percent.
Women with children under 6 years old spend about an hour a day providing physical care to children, such as bathing or feeding them. Men in the same category spent 25 minutes per day on physical care.
However, that gap between genders is narrowing. Men who prep food every day has increased from 35 to 43 percent since 2003. Over the same period, women who do housework every day has decreased from 54 to 50 percent.
The study interviewed about 10,900 people in 2015 by telephone to obtain their results. The American Time Use Study has been conducted annually since 2003.