Article: as women make more, husbands do less housework

[Anonymous]

I have always made more than my husband and he does more including cooking. I married a great guy. A confident man will not be threatened by a bigger salary.

[Anonymous]

I live in Europe and we outsource all cleaning, cooking, laundry etc. It's pretty common here from middle class and up. Helps so much in being able to spend more time with kids and friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Your dw finds a lot of extra busy work for you to do? Neither dh nor I have ever broken a garage door. We don't have a garden but dh does mow the lawn 2x a month. Wall sockets with integrated USB charging are nice but not really necessary or life changing enough that I would want dh or myself to expend the effort. But if I really wanted them, I would do it myself. If I break glass in the dishwasher, I clean it up immediately. Ditto for dh. (Though dh has done something to what you described when he was a kid.) We don't have trees in our yard so no leaves to rake. Also no fall plantings. Our yard is basically a 20x30 patch of grass for the kids and dogs to play in.

Life's busy enough without creating extra work for ourselves. It sounds like you don't enjoy the yard work. Maybe it's time to outsource or simplify. If your dw is the one who wants the gardens, then she should be the one to do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a French woman, I speculate these reasons may be why the French percentage is so low for women (at least in larger cities):

1) France has amazing, subsidized and in many cases free creche (daycare), with fantastic teachers and communities, and fabulous food. Children can start going at just a few months old. Hours are good too, full day. This allows more women to go back to work. Less children and mess at home.

2) French schools go all day, the entire academic day is like extended day end time. Many get out anywhere between 5-6pm. This is on purpose, to support working parents. Also children do not bring lunch to school. Everyone eats school lunch. So no one is packing lunch for kids. And no one is running around to after school activities since school gets out late.

3). Frozen grocery stores (like Picard) are pretty popular. Think of it as an entire store of awesome Trader Joes frozen meals, apps, desserts, etc. So for the busy parent, since their kids usually got a 4 course healthy and home cooked meal at school for lunch, they don't stress about the dinner, at least during the week. Often times it is something from Picard, or a rotisserie chicken picked up from the butcher or a soup.

4). Breakfast isn't a big deal, people grab nutelle tartin or fruit or whatever. So basically mom and dad don't have to do much cooking.

5). Housekeepers/cleaning ladies are very common and very affordable and often very good. For a pretty decent and fair price, you can get your entire flat deep cleaned twice a week and that includes washing, drying and ironing your clothes and sheets. No shit. Twice a week.


So as for cooking, cleaning, laundry and childcare, women have it pretty well in France.

Thanks for sharing! This makes a lot of sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a French woman, I speculate these reasons may be why the French percentage is so low for women (at least in larger cities):

1) France has amazing, subsidized and in many cases free creche (daycare), with fantastic teachers and communities, and fabulous food. Children can start going at just a few months old. Hours are good too, full day. This allows more women to go back to work. Less children and mess at home.

2) French schools go all day, the entire academic day is like extended day end time. Many get out anywhere between 5-6pm. This is on purpose, to support working parents. Also children do not bring lunch to school. Everyone eats school lunch. So no one is packing lunch for kids. And no one is running around to after school activities since school gets out late.

3). Frozen grocery stores (like Picard) are pretty popular. Think of it as an entire store of awesome Trader Joes frozen meals, apps, desserts, etc. So for the busy parent, since their kids usually got a 4 course healthy and home cooked meal at school for lunch, they don't stress about the dinner, at least during the week. Often times it is something from Picard, or a rotisserie chicken picked up from the butcher or a soup.

4). Breakfast isn't a big deal, people grab nutelle tartin or fruit or whatever. So basically mom and dad don't have to do much cooking.

5). Housekeepers/cleaning ladies are very common and very affordable and often very good. For a pretty decent and fair price, you can get your entire flat deep cleaned twice a week and that includes washing, drying and ironing your clothes and sheets. No shit. Twice a week.


So as for cooking, cleaning, laundry and childcare, women have it pretty well in France.

Thanks for sharing! This makes a lot of sense.

Sounds like possibly the trickle-down effect of the better safety net in Europe? Better social welfare benefits means that families have more discretionary income to outsource housework, and possibly also means that houseworkers' wages can be lower.

[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.

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.

Funny how you want to attach a precessional price to everything you for your family to justify your worth. Why stop there? You should include escort fees for when you provide sex - $400 x 52 times a year = $20800.

[Anonymous]

Studies are all flawed. In my life, all the guys I know save a couple, do housework. Both my dad and my husband do way more housework than their wives. But also, I guess it depends on what they are determining is housework.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think all these time use studies must be seriously flawed. How could anyone literally do no housework? No laundry, no dishes, no nothing?

I will ask my dad.

[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.

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.

Funny how you want to attach a precessional price to everything you for your family to justify your worth. Why stop there? You should include escort fees for when you provide sex - $400 x 52 times a year = $20800.

Because DH wouldn't hire an escort if something happened to me. This isn't everything I do for my family. For example, I see my children more than four hours on the weekends. This is just what he would have to hire out if I died. Don't other people think about this when considering life insurance policies and the like?