The week has officially wiped it's ass with me, resulting in the roaring return of the Pinot Noir bandit (=me, only slightly more awesome). However, I am constantly researching, digging, reading and extrapolating to bring you the most interesting and thought provoking book possible. As such, the following is something I read in my research today that pissed me off:
"While women's labor force participation continues to rise, along the their relative economic equality in the household[1] the increase in men's share of domestic work and childcare has been modest[2]. In the US, men's participation in domestic tasks has increased approximately five hours per week since the mid-1960s, but remains just a third of the contribution of women.[3] At least part of the increase is the result of over-reporting in light of changing social perceptions of gender roles."[4]
This resulted in a giant pink-highlighter "WTF" next to this paragraph. So wait, not only are things not changing, but men are taking credit for more change than is actually happening? (W T everloving F. Cue the Pinot Noir bandit.)[5]
The above reading coalesced perfectly with the following:
(1) An email that my mom sent me. My mom sends me forwards. A lot. She's gotten better (I no longer receive forwards about the Red Hat society, or the most recent Snopes-debunked myth) but this one actually seemed to encapsulate a large portion of what we discuss here:
"Housework was a woman's job, but one evening, Janice arrived home from work to find the children bathed, one load of laundry in the washer and another in the dryer. Dinner was on the stove, and the table set. She was astonished! It turns out that Frank had read an article that said, 'Wives who work full-time and have to do their own housework were too tired to have sex'. The night went very well. The next day, Janice told her friends all about it. 'We had a great dinner. Frank even cleaned up the kitchen. He helped the kids do their homework, folded all the laundry and put it away. I really enjoyed the evening.' 'But what about afterward?' asked her friends. 'Oh, that.......... Frank was too tired.'"
Okay, it's dumb. But it's true. Just ask Dr. Gupta.
(2) The same information, in science-y language, was posted on CNN two days ago, see the article here.
So, yeah.
…..and exit bandit stage left.
[1] Sorensen & McLanahan, 1986
[2] Berk, 1985; Blossfield & Drobnic 2001; Coverman 1983, 1985; England &Farkas 1986; Gershuny 2000; Greenstein 1996; Hochschild 1989; Lennon & Rosenfield 1994; Presser 1994
[3] Bianchi, Milkie, Sayer & Robinson 2000
[4] The Gendered Division of Domestic Labor and Family Outcomes. Price Cooke, Lynn. Nutfield College-Oxford University.
[5] I take this opportunity to refer readers to this post, in which we unequivocally establish that this is neither a man-bashing site (men are, by and large, very nice people) nor do we believe that the weird social perversions of gender roles are the "fault" of the individual male. However, we do live within a weird social structure that creates occasionally both hilarious and grotesque (in the Baroque sense of the word) outcomes.
I think things have changed somewhat since these studies were conducted on the 80s. This generation is substantially different from the Boomers. Also, how do you quantitatively measure something like contribution to household chores? And do you think it possible that the reverse has happened as well? Stay-at-home moms, enticed by the allure of Sex in the City type shows, may demand more work from the breadwinner, even though the initial unspoken agreement about labor division may have been otherwise Does it balance out in the long run?
ReplyDeleteTwo problems with this:
ReplyDelete1. Chicken or the egg. Maybe men are more likely to do household chores after their women...
2. I don't buy the "Frank was too tired" part. There are a few reasons why a man might turn down sex, but being too tired isn't one of them.