Article: as women make more, husbands do less housework

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PS, neither is pet upkeep. LOL.

Not a chore? My wife won't clean up dog shit from the backyard. She won't take thie piece of shit for walks either. So tell me how that's not housework.

Because you chose to get a dog and you can get rid of the dog. People don't have a choice, at some point they either need to do dishes/laundry/clean things, or they won't have anything to eat off of, wear, or their house will become toxic. I didn't say that your pet wasn't a chore.......I said your pet wasn't housework. Meeting with our financial advisors is a chore. Doesn't make it housework.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bigger houses?

Yes, plus more stuff to manage, daily change of clothes (many Europeans don't).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I guess the wage gap myth can die. Women are graduating colleges and getting jobs at higher rates.

In any case - let's define housework as well. I don't vacuum, do laundry very much if at all. Know what I've done? Put in new floors, built a garden, all outdoor work, maintain vehicles to the best of my abilities (I'll take it in for complex stuff), replace lighting fixtures, outlets, plumbing (I outsource hard stuff, plumbing can ruin your house if you mess up..trust me), pet upkeep (feeding, walks, vet visits)...

So let's see them break up that. How many women now the lawn, out in floors, do demolition or repair things? Not many I reckon.

What EVER are lesbian couples to do without MEN to help take care of these things?

Get over yourself.

That's and exception, not the norm. And I'm still going to say not many. I'd also like to add, I have yet to see one female handyman or builder. They just don't get into that line of work because it's "men work". This is why they don't do it themselves either. I have yet to see a woman build a deck. I have.

I don't get your point. Your saying that the article should allow for people like you while simultaneously whining/bragging about how few people are like you?

That seems dumb. If you are such a rare deck buildin hoss of a unicorn why should the study include outliers like you with hobbies? That isn't housework.

Okay, complex issues like decks and installing floors not included, other maintenance tasks like auto repair, electrical work, plumbing, simple HVAC should be. As should outdoor work. Think it's easy building mumtiole garden boxes and putting a nice fence around it? Or cutting down tree branches or climbing on the roof cleaning out filth from the gutters? It needs to be defined, what is "housework"?

It's comparing apples to oranges. Some of these activities only take place a couple times a year like cleaning gutters or cutting down trees branches. Others are one time projects even if they take multiple weeks to complete like garden boxes. But indoor housework like cooking/cleaning/laundry/etc needs to happen on a daily or weekly basis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm willing to bet the more money a man makes, the less housework gets done by women as well. Your household income reaches a certain threshold and things get outsourced, even if the woman doesn't work.

I think that this is a great point.

Of course. My wife is a SAHM, and as our HHI has increased, so has the frequency of our cleaning service, and hence the housework we have to do. Let's face it, no one likes to scrub bathrooms, deep-clean kitchens, dust, etc. As the household income increases, it's natural to outsource the things you really hate to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So I guess the wage gap myth can die. Women are graduating colleges and getting jobs at higher rates.

In any case - let's define housework as well. I don't vacuum, do laundry very much if at all. Know what I've done? Put in new floors, built a garden, all outdoor work, maintain vehicles to the best of my abilities (I'll take it in for complex stuff), replace lighting fixtures, outlets, plumbing (I outsource hard stuff, plumbing can ruin your house if you mess up..trust me), pet upkeep (feeding, walks, vet visits)...

So let's see them break up that. How many women now the lawn, out in floors, do demolition or repair things? Not many I reckon.

My husband does this stuff. We make roughly the same amount of money. He was gone for a year, and it cost me about $2500 to outsource this stuff. I bet it would cost roughly ten times that to outsource all of the day to day cooking, cleaning, and childcare that I do in addition to my full time job. It isn't the complexity of it...it's the everyday ness of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PS, neither is pet upkeep. LOL.

Not a chore? My wife won't clean up dog shit from the backyard. She won't take thie piece of shit for walks either. So tell me how that's not housework.

Because you chose to get a dog and you can get rid of the dog. People don't have a choice, at some point they either need to do dishes/laundry/clean things, or they won't have anything to eat off of, wear, or their house will become toxic. I didn't say that your pet wasn't a chore.......I said your pet wasn't housework. Meeting with our financial advisors is a chore. Doesn't make it housework.

You're wrong, it's housework because it is required to keep the house clean. Finally, still doesn't address the issue that complex things like plumbing, electrical, mowing lawns, yard work, outside work like roof repair and cleaning gutters is still chores and house work. Let's define what housework is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I guess the wage gap myth can die. Women are graduating colleges and getting jobs at higher rates.

In any case - let's define housework as well. I don't vacuum, do laundry very much if at all. Know what I've done? Put in new floors, built a garden, all outdoor work, maintain vehicles to the best of my abilities (I'll take it in for complex stuff), replace lighting fixtures, outlets, plumbing (I outsource hard stuff, plumbing can ruin your house if you mess up..trust me), pet upkeep (feeding, walks, vet visits)...

So let's see them break up that. How many women now the lawn, out in floors, do demolition or repair things? Not many I reckon.

My husband does this stuff. We make roughly the same amount of money. He was gone for a year, and it cost me about $2500 to outsource this stuff. I bet it would cost roughly ten times that to outsource all of the day to day cooking, cleaning, and childcare that I do in addition to my full time job. It isn't the complexity of it...it's the everyday ness of it.

Childcare is only expensive because it's overpriced and people pay it. Maid service for a 4000 sq ft house like mine is about 175 a month. We do the real dirty stuff but the vacuuming, cleaning kitchen bathrooms? That's them. Sorry your numbers don't add up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I guess the wage gap myth can die. Women are graduating colleges and getting jobs at higher rates.

In any case - let's define housework as well. I don't vacuum, do laundry very much if at all. Know what I've done? Put in new floors, built a garden, all outdoor work, maintain vehicles to the best of my abilities (I'll take it in for complex stuff), replace lighting fixtures, outlets, plumbing (I outsource hard stuff, plumbing can ruin your house if you mess up..trust me), pet upkeep (feeding, walks, vet visits)...

So let's see them break up that. How many women now the lawn, out in floors, do demolition or repair things? Not many I reckon.

My husband does this stuff. We make roughly the same amount of money. He was gone for a year, and it cost me about $2500 to outsource this stuff. I bet it would cost roughly ten times that to outsource all of the day to day cooking, cleaning, and childcare that I do in addition to my full time job. It isn't the complexity of it...it's the everyday ness of it.

Childcare is only expensive because it's overpriced and people pay it. Maid service for a 4000 sq ft house like mine is about 175 a month. We do the real dirty stuff but the vacuuming, cleaning kitchen bathrooms? That's them. Sorry your numbers don't add up

WOW, how does that work? 175 a month? Do you pay them $44 a week or do your kitchen and bathrooms only get cleaned once or twice a MONTH? I live with 4 other people (a husband and three kids). That would be so gross.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I guess the wage gap myth can die. Women are graduating colleges and getting jobs at higher rates.

In any case - let's define housework as well. I don't vacuum, do laundry very much if at all. Know what I've done? Put in new floors, built a garden, all outdoor work, maintain vehicles to the best of my abilities (I'll take it in for complex stuff), replace lighting fixtures, outlets, plumbing (I outsource hard stuff, plumbing can ruin your house if you mess up..trust me), pet upkeep (feeding, walks, vet visits)...

So let's see them break up that. How many women now the lawn, out in floors, do demolition or repair things? Not many I reckon.

My husband does this stuff. We make roughly the same amount of money. He was gone for a year, and it cost me about $2500 to outsource this stuff. I bet it would cost roughly ten times that to outsource all of the day to day cooking, cleaning, and childcare that I do in addition to my full time job. It isn't the complexity of it...it's the everyday ness of it.

Childcare is only expensive because it's overpriced and people pay it. Maid service for a 4000 sq ft house like mine is about 175 a month. We do the real dirty stuff but the vacuuming, cleaning kitchen bathrooms? That's them. Sorry your numbers don't add up

Plus, my wife meal preps on Sunday and does almost all our lunches and dinners for the week minus a couple of days of going out and it doesn't take her that long. A few hours. I pick up what she wants from the store and she makes some good stuff with it. That's not worth 10 times the amount of money you're claiming

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I guess the wage gap myth can die. Women are graduating colleges and getting jobs at higher rates.

In any case - let's define housework as well. I don't vacuum, do laundry very much if at all. Know what I've done? Put in new floors, built a garden, all outdoor work, maintain vehicles to the best of my abilities (I'll take it in for complex stuff), replace lighting fixtures, outlets, plumbing (I outsource hard stuff, plumbing can ruin your house if you mess up..trust me), pet upkeep (feeding, walks, vet visits)...

So let's see them break up that. How many women now the lawn, out in floors, do demolition or repair things? Not many I reckon.

My husband does this stuff. We make roughly the same amount of money. He was gone for a year, and it cost me about $2500 to outsource this stuff. I bet it would cost roughly ten times that to outsource all of the day to day cooking, cleaning, and childcare that I do in addition to my full time job. It isn't the complexity of it...it's the everyday ness of it.

Childcare is only expensive because it's overpriced and people pay it. Maid service for a 4000 sq ft house like mine is about 175 a month. We do the real dirty stuff but the vacuuming, cleaning kitchen bathrooms? That's them. Sorry your numbers don't add up

WOW, how does that work? 175 a month? Do you pay them $44 a week or do your kitchen and bathrooms only get cleaned once or twice a MONTH? I live with 4 other people (a husband and three kids). That would be so gross.

They don't do the basement or laundry. Basically clean floors, vacuum, counters, sinks..that crap

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I saw that. I was curious about some of the phrasing in this paragraph:

"American women tend to do more housework than women in other countries—about four and a half hours each week, on average. “Meanwhile, Spanish women only spend about an hour and a half a week on housework, Brazilian women spend only 1.6 hours a week,” they write. But “French women spend almost no time on housework at all. French men, on the other hand, spend 1.2 hours a week on housework, well more than the .8 hours a week spent by American men.” (Ladies, your secret, s'il vous plaît!) Also, “Japanese and Slovenian men do the most housework, at 1.3 and 1.4 hours a week.”"

From that, it's not clear to me whether Spanish and Brazilian men are spending more time on housework than American men. It seems to glory in French men doing 1.2 hours per week of housework but, if you do the math on the 15 minutes per day it says American men do on housework, that works out to 1.05 hours per week -- or a difference of about 9 minutes per week. (Though there is some conflicting information in the article, in one place, it says 15 minutes per day while in another, it says 0.8 per week -- which would be 6.9 minutes per day.)

But, why the hell are American women spending 3.15 hours per week on housework when nobody else comes close?

I haven't read theough the responses, but I'm from Peru and women there might not be able to afford a washer and dryer, but we sure as hell manage to afford a housekeeper. American women are CRAAAAZY with their near religious obsession with doing it all. My frienfs and meighbors look at me like I'm nuts that i have someone come in 3 days a week to do housekeeping here. I dont ever do laundry, change sheets, sweep floors or vaccuum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm willing to bet the more money a man makes, the less housework gets done by women as well. Your household income reaches a certain threshold and things get outsourced, even if the woman doesn't work.

I think that this is a great point.

Of course. My wife is a SAHM, and as our HHI has increased, so has the frequency of our cleaning service, and hence the housework we have to do. Let's face it, no one likes to scrub bathrooms, deep-clean kitchens, dust, etc. As the household income increases, it's natural to outsource the things you really hate to do.

Not true. I actually like to do these things. I find them to be peaceful and immediately gratifying tasks. And since I'm the owner and I want to keep my nice things looking nice and clean, I take more care when cleaning them. I can't tell you how many times my cleaning service did a shoddy job or broke something. "If you want something done right..."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I guess the wage gap myth can die. Women are graduating colleges and getting jobs at higher rates.

In any case - let's define housework as well. I don't vacuum, do laundry very much if at all. Know what I've done? Put in new floors, built a garden, all outdoor work, maintain vehicles to the best of my abilities (I'll take it in for complex stuff), replace lighting fixtures, outlets, plumbing (I outsource hard stuff, plumbing can ruin your house if you mess up..trust me), pet upkeep (feeding, walks, vet visits)...

So let's see them break up that. How many women now the lawn, out in floors, do demolition or repair things? Not many I reckon.

What EVER are lesbian couples to do without MEN to help take care of these things?

Get over yourself.

That's and exception, not the norm. And I'm still going to say not many. I'd also like to add, I have yet to see one female handyman or builder. They just don't get into that line of work because it's "men work". This is why they don't do it themselves either. I have yet to see a woman build a deck. I have.

I don't get your point. Your saying that the article should allow for people like you while simultaneously whining/bragging about how few people are like you?

That seems dumb. If you are such a rare deck buildin hoss of a unicorn why should the study include outliers like you with hobbies? That isn't housework.

Okay, complex issues like decks and installing floors not included, other maintenance tasks like auto repair, electrical work, plumbing, simple HVAC should be. As should outdoor work. Think it's easy building mumtiole garden boxes and putting a nice fence around it? Or cutting down tree branches or climbing on the roof cleaning out filth from the gutters? It needs to be defined, what is "housework"?

It's comparing apples to oranges. Some of these activities only take place a couple times a year like cleaning gutters or cutting down trees branches. Others are one time projects even if they take multiple weeks to complete like garden boxes. But indoor housework like cooking/cleaning/laundry/etc needs to happen on a daily or weekly basis.

This is BS. There isn't a week that goes by where there isn't a list of things to do that takes hours.

Wanna switch? Fine. You can fix the garage door you broke on Tuesday. Or replant the garden the kids tore up while playing. Or replace a bunch of wall sockets because you want ones that have integrated USB charging capacity. Or fix the dishwasher because it got jammed with the glass you broke but failed to clean up thinking it would magically wash away. Or rake leaves, its fall now. Plus the fall plantings, etc.

Get the point?

[Anonymous]

The Atlantic should be ashamed for letting such a poorly researched and written article go to print.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I guess the wage gap myth can die. Women are graduating colleges and getting jobs at higher rates.

In any case - let's define housework as well. I don't vacuum, do laundry very much if at all. Know what I've done? Put in new floors, built a garden, all outdoor work, maintain vehicles to the best of my abilities (I'll take it in for complex stuff), replace lighting fixtures, outlets, plumbing (I outsource hard stuff, plumbing can ruin your house if you mess up..trust me), pet upkeep (feeding, walks, vet visits)...

So let's see them break up that. How many women now the lawn, out in floors, do demolition or repair things? Not many I reckon.

My husband does this stuff. We make roughly the same amount of money. He was gone for a year, and it cost me about $2500 to outsource this stuff. I bet it would cost roughly ten times that to outsource all of the day to day cooking, cleaning, and childcare that I do in addition to my full time job. It isn't the complexity of it...it's the everyday ness of it.

Childcare is only expensive because it's overpriced and people pay it. Maid service for a 4000 sq ft house like mine is about 175 a month. We do the real dirty stuff but the vacuuming, cleaning kitchen bathrooms? That's them. Sorry your numbers don't add up

Plus, my wife meal preps on Sunday and does almost all our lunches and dinners for the week minus a couple of days of going out and it doesn't take her that long. A few hours. I pick up what she wants from the store and she makes some good stuff with it. That's not worth 10 times the amount of money you're claiming

I am going to guess that to have someone come in once a week and do alll of the laundry, grocery shopping, meal prep for a family of five, plus cleaning the kitchen and generally tidying up is going to cost about $200 ($20/hr x 10 hours). Then the $175/mo for deep cleaning. Then a sitter five days a week to get kids to school at $15/hr x 10 hrs a week plus someone to watch them on Saturdays so he can go to visit a friend $15 x 4 hours/wk. So, $800/mo + $175/mo + $840/mo= $1815/mo x 12 months= about $22000.