DIY Network

Interview: Gender and Chores Interview: Gender and Chores From "Talking Dirty With the Queen of Clean" episode DQOC-113

Dr. Connie Gager, a family-development specialist at Arizona State University, has done extensive research on the family and gender-specific tasks in the home. Research on who does the housework shows that women still do the majority of household cleaning: they do more tasks and spend more time on those tasks. Although men do more outside work, it is more occasional and nonrepetitive than the tasks women do regularly. Girls are still being socialized to do more housework than boys.

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	Figure A
	Figure B
	Figure C

• If a woman is working outside the home full time, her husband is more likely to do some of the household work, but men still do only about a third of the household labor (figure A).

• If children live in a single-parent or blended-family home, girls are still relied on to do most of the chores. But both boys and girls in single-parent and blended homes do more work than those with both birth parents in the home.

• When moms report high family stress, kids usually pitch in more.

• Children can help by cleaning their rooms, helping with meals, setting the table, and taking care of pets and siblings (figure B).

• Girls are more likely to be inside helping Mom while boys are outside with their fathers (figure C).

One of the things studied is the fact that kids learn about their sense of fairness in their family. If moms are doing more housework and dads are doing less, kids learn that that's a fair division of labor, and they grow up thinking that's okay. If, on the other hand, everyone pitches in to clean and then the family goes outside for a group activity, kids can learn a more fair division of labor.