There’s an epidemic taking place in the modern household. There’s a very large gap when it comes to who in a relationship takes care of the daily chores, with most of the burden of housework falling onto women.
There’s been a lot of pushback against this lately, with women taking a stand and declaring that men need to learn and understand just how much they do around the house lest they stop entirely.
There’s a major discrepancy when it comes to household labor.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women spend an average of 47 minutes more on housework than men do every day. That equals about 5 and a half hours every week.
That’s only counting standard cleaning chores.
This means that other household work that typically falls to women like childcare and running errands aren’t included in those numbers.
In order to level out housework between women and men, women would have to stop doing housework from August 29 until the end of the year.
Some people are saying they should do just that.
People are beginning to rally behind the idea of an Equal Housework Day. Similar to Equal Pay Day which happens every spring in the United States, Equal Housework Day would be used to raise awareness about in the inequalities women face in their own homes.
Quitting housework altogether would really show these men how much their wives do for them.
Especially since women doing more housework is such a universal constant. No matter if the woman earns more money than her male partner, if they’re both retired, or even if they’re both unemployed , women are always doing more housework.
This measures up against the extra 40 minutes of leisure time men have every day.
In March of this year, an advertising agency conducted a survey where they asked people what single thing their partner could do to lower their stress levels.
For women, the most common answer was “Help around the house more.” For men, the most common answer was “Nothing, I’m happy with the way things are.”
So, what’s to be done about it?
Well, to make it simple, men need to start doing more daily housework. They’re often expected to do the arguably larger, but less frequent chores. Home repairs, automotive tasks, yard work, etcetera.
Both types of tasks are important, and ought to be split equally among couples so one half doesn’t get burnt out doing all of the daily heavy lifting.
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Speaking up about this form of inequality will make more men aware that it exists.
This is the goal of Equal Housework Day. Not every husband is slacking maliciously, and all they’ll need to start closing this gap is the knowledge that their wife could use more help around the house.
For the husbands that are slacking maliciously? They can start doing all the household chores on their own when their wife leaves them for someone better.
h/t: Bloomberg
