The second millennium has heralded a new equality amongst the sexes: women are making strides in the professional world and men are able to enjoy non-traditional pursuits without discrimination. Couples are more likely to share the responsibilities of raising children as well as paying for the mortgage. In this new age of equality there remains one divisive subject: who does the housework?

In every home there are some basics that need doing: laundry, cooking and an occasional cleaning. Take-out meals and maid services are helpful but most of us can't afford to outsource all the time. Housework is a thankless task but somebody's got to do it. So who is?

If you're an average Canadian male you spend 9.5 hours a week on housework. American men spend 16 hours a week cleaning according to a study released earlier this year by the Institute for Social Research at Ann Arbor, Michigan. Six thousand people around the world took part in the study, which also found that Japanese men did four hours per week while Swedish men did an impressive 24 hours a week.

That being said, women in Canada still did 62% of the total housework. This is about a third less than in the 1960's when clean was queen. This is due in part to the fact that more women today are working outside the home and more are working longer hours.

Researchers have been very interested in the affects of the shifting role of women in the home. A study conducted in 1983 by eminent sociologists Blumstein and Schwartz found marital satisfaction is highest for couples who have worked out an agreeable division of household labor and methods to resolve financial issues. This doesn't necessarily mean couples split the work 50-50. It was more important that couples mutually agreed on the arrangement and took into account the time spent in the workplace and their different levels of satisfaction with domestic labor.

What these researchers didn't ask were a few other thorny questions: What counts as housework? If someone likes a chore does it still count as work? And if someone is bad at a chore does it still count?! In the end, making the other person feel valued for their time can be more important than a job well done.

For many couples, differences persist in the types of chores they do: women still do more cooking, cleaning and laundry although men are helping out more. Men still do most of the yard work and repairs. One area men are becoming more involved in is childcare. A University of Michigan study released last year found that men are spending more quality time with kids. That extra time may only be a half hour per workday but that adds up to 2-1/2 hours a week or 10 hours a month, an added week or more each year. Family life thrives on well-spent half-hours.

Housework also has a few other benefits, which are nothing to sneeze at. Regular vacuuming with a micro-filter bag can remove dust, moulds, allergens and the microscopic debris of dust mites. A hot wash and dry of bed sheets can also remove up to 80% of these irritating particles.

Stress reduction is another benefit. Women who are able to split the load of housework amicably with their husbands feel less stress and depression according to Dr. Chloe E. Bird a profession of sociology at Brown University. "The optimal share of housework for each spouse is slightly less than half." That means to keep everyone happy, you may need your kids to pitch in!< br>
With more women working outside of the home and parents wanting to spend quality time with their kids it's no wonder housework is neglected. One solution that works for some families is to pick one day a week and put aside a few hours for the whole family to do the cleaning, laundry and yard work together. In the end, however, it can seem like a never-ending job. That's where the following calculation can come in handy:

(Number of rooms x 1 hour / 2) multiplied by the Ratio of Acceptable Untidiness where 0.5 is most tolerant of dust bunnies and 4 is company is coming.

Sounds like an equation for domestic bliss.

Return to: Maintaining Your Home

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