SUNDAY, April 6, (News Locale) - Marriage it seems extracts a heavier toll on women rather than men  - at least in terms of housework, a new study has indicated. The research by University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research suggests that on an average women do seven hours more housework after marriage. 

That marriage means less housework for men was a universally known truth. However this study has borne it out by revealing that men tend to have one hour less work every week around the house after marriage.

"It's a well-known pattern. There's still a significant reallocation of labor that occurs at marriage -- men tend to work more outside the home, while women take on more of the household labor," said a statement issued by lead researcher Frank Stafford.

The study is a long-term one that has been going on at the ISR since 1968. However the current data on marriage and housework for men and women is based on time-diary data compiled in 2005.

The diaries were analyzed to understand how much time was spent by men and women doing basic housing chores including cooking and cleaning after marriage.

An interesting aside from the study is that single women spend the least amount of time doing housework. Marriage obviously changes that.  And when the kids come along, work increases many fold with the study finding a threefold increase for women with three kids.

After marriage and three kids, women spend 28 hours per week doing household chores, while their husbands get away with 10 hours. The federally-funded study also found that men did a lot more work after marriage and this work seemed to increase as they got older.

While it is universally accepted that marriage means more work for women, this is the first study to quantify exactly how much extra load marriage means in terms of basic housework.

Be first to comment this article

Write Comment

Please keep the topic of messages relevant to the subject of the article. Personal verbal attacks will be deleted. Please don't use comments to plug your web site. Such material will be removed. Just ensure to *Refresh* your browser for a new security code to be displayed prior to clicking on the 'Send' button. Keep in mind that the above process only applies if you simply entered the wrong security code.
Name:
E-mail
BBCode:
Comment:
Code:*
	I wish to be contacted by email regarding additional comments

Powered by AkoComment Tweaked Special Edition v.1.4.4