Gender attitudes and housework: Trends over time in Australia

Abstract

Although researchers generally agree that attitudes to gender roles have become more egalitarian over time, evidence that this trend towards egalitarianism has impacted upon the allocation of housework tasks between men and women is less consistent. Australian researchers have found that although the time women spend doing housework has declined dramatically over time, the housework hours of men have not increased. Although researchers in the US and many European nations have found that as women's housework hours have declined, men's housework hours have increased, they invariably find that women continue to spend more time doing housework than men do. Many researchers argue that the divisio..