As the figures on a woman's paycheck climb, the time she spends doing housework dwindles, according to a study conducted by University of
Massachusetts associate professor of sociology Sanjiv Gupta.
Gupta's study emphasizes that the amount of housework that women with full-time jobs do in a family where both husband and wife are working is unaffected by her spouse's income. He points out that focusing on the ratio of earnings between husbands and wives acts as a roadblock to understanding household dynamics.
"Up to this point, people have thought that the important thing was how
much money a woman makes compared to her husband. But the only thing that matters is how much money she earns," said Gupta in a Reuters interview.
Gupta's studies are based on information obtained from 918 women and data on double-income families in the United States in 1992 through 1994, and in 2000. His research reveals that for every $7,500 a woman earns annually, she performed one less hour of housework per week. Women making $10,000 or less per year spend nearly one hour more on housework each day than women making $40,000 or more, according to the National Survey of Families and Households.
His study also recognizes that the median annual labor market earnings of U.S. women rose from about $9,800 in 1965 to more than $16,000 in 1995, according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census. At the same time, the hours married women spent on weekly routine chores plummeted from 30.4 to 15.8.
Gupta's findings, recently published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, suggest that women can use their income to make the time they spend on household duties more balanced with their spouse.
However, the article also points out that equality still does not exist when dividing household duties between husbands and wives. Other researchers in the Journal support this claim, linking the reason for this gap in equality to slowly fading stereotypes and gender roles people learn at a young age.
For instance, in one study from 2005, it is pointed out that if a woman's mother took on the majority of domestic work, she will likely feel the need to take on a similar role in her marriage.
This study also suggests that men take on less domestic work to pick up the slack for their working wives than women do in a similar situation. Husbands increase their domestic work by around 2 hours per week when wives enter full-time jobs, while wives reduce their domestic work by four to eight hours per week. Husbands eventually do increase their domestic work over time, but this change is inconsistent. These gaps are believed to often lead to spousal conflict.
Gupta's article does not focus much on spousal differences in domestic work but instead concentrates on the differences between women and housework, particularly women with different incomes. He points out that the difference in time spent on domestic work between women making more money ($40,000 or greater) with women making the least amount of money ($10,000 or less) is just as great as the average difference in time spent doing housework between men and women.
"In general, especially among women who have more egalitarian-type ideas, the more equitable division of labor gives a better outcome of equality and satisfaction," said Gupta.
"It's not that straightforward and there is no bottom line. Someone who does more housework isn't necessarily less happy than someone who does less housework."
Stella Cernak can be reached at ccernak@student.umass.edu.
