Women are literally expected to do all the chores, depressing study finds
Brace yourself, because what I am about to say is #depressing.
According to a new study presented at the American Sociological Association’s annual meeting, most Americans still believe that women should be responsible for the majority of the cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping, and child-rearing—even if the woman has a full-time job or makes more money than her partner.
Yes, for real.
Researchers from Indiana University and The University of Maryland looked into the effects of income and gender on the division of labor between married couples. They wanted to see which partner was expected to do more in the chore department, and what role gender stereotypes played in that decision.
To get to the bottom of these important queries, researchers surveyed 1,025 participants using GfK, a research company that maintains a nationally representative panel of respondents. The participants were each asked to read different vignettes describing a married household. Several characteristics about each partner were listed—income, occupation, and hobbies. Here’s an example:
Brian and Jennifer met five years ago and have been married for just over a year. Brian is a physical therapist at a hospital, bringing home about $57,500 a year, and Jennifer is a reporter for a local newspaper, bringing home about $25,250 a year. They are both very busy, each working 40 hours per week. Despite their busy schedules, they try to do things together regularly. In fact, one of the only reoccurring arguments they have is what to do on the weekend together. Brian usually wants to play basketball if they are going out, or watch an action movie if they are staying in. Instead, Jennifer would rather go shopping or watch a romantic comedy
In this case, the husband makes more money than the wife. In other vignettes, these traits were manipulated so that the wife made more than the husband. Since the researchers also included gay and lesbian couples, the listed characteristics were manipulated so that one partner was seen as more “masculine” and one was seen as “more feminine” in order to judge how gender stereotypes affected same-sex couples.
After participants read the vignettes, they were asked about who should be responsible for eight different household chores: cooking, washing dishes, cleaning, grocery shopping, doing laundry, outdoor chores, making auto repairs, and managing household finances. They were also asked who should be responsible for different child-rearing responsibilities, including emotional needs, physical needs, discipline, and stay-at-home parenting.
Now, one might assume that whoever makes less money or spends less time at work would be tasked with taking on more household and child-rearing responsibilities. But what the researchers found was that gender was a bigger predictor of household expectations than income. In fact, income made basically no difference.
Nearly 75% of respondents thought that the female partners in heterosexual couples should be responsible for cooking, doing laundry, cleaning the house, and buying groceries. Women were also expected to be responsible for household finances. On the other side, 90% of respondents felt men should be responsible for outdoor work and car maintenance.