Domestic Labor

The Gendered Division of Domestic Labor

On average, married women today spend approximately 19 hours per week doing domestic labor, compared with 10 hours done on average by married men. This division is in some ways an improvement since 1965, when married women averaged 34 hours and men averaged 5 hours per week. In the intervening years, when record numbers of married women entered the paid labor force, the primary change was a reduction in women's time in domestic labor, accompanied by a somewhat less drastic increase in men's domestic labor. Men's reluctance to do more work inside the home, despite women's increasing hours in paid labor, has helped stall equality inside and outside the home for women because the demands of domestic labor can impede women's ability to participate and excel in the paid labor market.

The overall decrease in the number of hours spent on domestic labor certainly reflects some amount of work that is not getting done and is often considered a part of a crisis for family care that rises from increased paid work hours for both men and women. Some affluent families, however, have the resources to buy domestic labor on the market, in the forms of housecleaning services, prepared foods, and restaurant meals. Even when buying domestic labor, the gendered division remains, with women primarily responsible for the purchasing, supervision, and management of these services. Furthermore, those who do paid housework are predominantly women of color who receive low pay and meager benefits, leading scholars to note that the freedom from housework for affluent women is often gained on the backs of less privileged women.

[Page 211]Aside from differences in the hours of domestic labor, men and women also tend to do different types of tasks. Core domestic labor tasks, those that are the most time consuming and frequently done, such as cooking meals, meal cleanup, housecleaning, and laundry, make up about two-thirds of hours spent in domestic labor, and women do the overwhelming amount of this work. Men invest most of their housework hours doing tasks that are more discretionary and less time consuming, including outdoor chores, repairs, gardening, pet care, and bill paying.

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