Layout 1

Chapter 9

(Bianchi,Milkie,Sayer,&Robinson,2000).
Astudyofover13,000familiesfoundthat
wivesspendalmosttwiceasmuchtimeon
householdchoresastheirhusbands(Lee,
2005;Axinn&Thornton,2000).Figure9.1
calculatestheaveragetimeAmericansspend
onvarioushouseholdactivitieseachweek.
Thesefiguresareverygeneralandare
affectedbythenumberofchildren,family
income,genderroleideologies,andthe
careerofeachpartner.Furtheranalysisby
Parkman(2004)indicatesthetimeawoman
spendsontheseactivitiessignificantly
decreasesasherincomeincreases.However,
thehusband’sparticipationintheseactivities
increasesonlyslightlyashiswife’sincome
increases.Inotherwords,womenwhoearn
closetowhattheirhusbandsearn,ormore,
aremorelikelytorelyonoutsideservicesfor

cooking,cleaning,andchildcare.Ahusband’s

participationinhouseholdchores,whileit

hasincreasedinrecentyears,doesnotequal

thetimehiswifespendsontheseactivities.

Asaresult,womenoftenhavelessfreetime

thantheirmalecounterparts(Mattingly&

Bianchi,2003).

Asthenumberofchildrenincreases,the

householdworkloadincreases.Thegap

betweenmenandwomenalsoincreases.For

example,Amato,Booth,JohnsonandRogers

(2007)foundmendidaboutonefourthto

onethirdofthehouseworkwhetherthere

werechildreninthehomeornot.Fathers

alsodidaboutthesameamountofchildcare.

Interestingly,somemothersfelttheir

husbandswerenotdoingtheirshareofthe

housework but weresatisfiedwith the

amount of childcarefathersweredoing.

Figure 9.1

Hours Spent Per Week on Household Chores

Source:Parkman 2004.

Hours in Different Tasks

Task Husband Wife Children Others

Preparing Meals 2.8 10.1 1.2 2.4

Washing Dishes 2.2 6.7 2.4 2.1

Cleaning House 2.2 6.7 2.4 2.1

Outdoor Tasks 5.3 2.4 1.5 1.5

Shopping 1.7 3.3 0.3 1.0

Washing,Ironing 0.8 4.6 0.8 1.5

Paying Bills 1.6 2.0 0.1 0.8

Auto Maintenance 1.9 0.3 0.2 0.9

Driving 1.4 1.7 0.3 0.8

Total 19.9 40 9.1 13.6