Work Overload

Brief Historical Overview

Women working for wages is nothing new. However, the onset of World War II resulted in men being drawn into military service, leading to a smaller labor pool from which to draw. Women were thus encouraged to go out and work. This was the beginning of the rise of women's participation in the workforce. Although there was an initial dip in women's participation in the labor force after World War II, the increase in literacy rates and changing social norms regarding the acceptance of women in the workplace, along with the rising cost of living making it more difficult for a family to survive on a single income, led to increasing numbers of women joining the workforce over the last few decades.

Gender Roles

Although women have actively participated in paid employment over the last few decades, gender role expectations have not kept pace with the shifts in the labor force. Women are still seen as the primary caregivers in the family, and they are still expected to be responsible for the home, even though they now face the additional role of being paid employees. On the other hand, men are not expected to take on or share housework and childcare responsibilities equally, even though the traditional role of men as primary breadwinner, for the family is no longer firmly entrenched. This results in what Arlie Hochschild terms a “double shift” for working women. In her book The Second Shift, Hochschild reported that women on average spend 15 hours more per week working compared to men because of the added responsibilities of home and child care after they finish their paid work. Women thus have less leisure time because they take on a “second shift” of work when they come home by taking care of the children, cleaning the house, and preparing the meals. Women's leisure time is also more “contaminated” compared to that of men in that their leisure time tends to be interrupted by intermittent child care or household issues.

Differences in Household Tasks by Gender

Men do spend some time on housework and child care; however, their time spent is very different from that of women. Men tend to spend time on the more “enjoyable” tasks of parenting, such as playing with and reading to their children, wherease women spend more of their childcare time doing more onerous tasks, such as changing diapers. In terms of housework, men also do housework that is more infrequent in nature, that is, tasks such as mowing the lawn, making household repairs, and taking out the trash. In comparison, women's household tasks like cleaning, cooking, and ironing occur on a far more regular [Page 992]basis. This skews the time spent: not only do women spend time doing housework that must be done on a more regular basis, but women also take on the tasks that are considered less pleasant.

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