Women do a month more work than men

WOMEN are doing a month’s more work than men each year — essentially taking on a ‘second shift’ in unpaid domestic jobs at home in addition to their paid employment, a new report reveals today.

Domestic jobs like cleaning, cooking and caring for children mean that women are working 39 minutes longer per day than men.

An Equality Authority report released today, the first of its kind, calls for paid paternity leave and new laws to guarantee flexible working arrangements for men, which could help increase equality for female partners or spouses.

Speaking ahead of the report launch, the authority’s chief executive, Niall Crowley, said: “This report identifies gender inequalities in the domestic sphere that significantly disadvantage women and that pose a challenge to men.”

The research was taken from the Irish National Time-Use Survey, from ‘time diaries’ of 1,089 individual men and women on their paid and unpaid work.

On average men spend four hours and 40 minutes on paid work per day, but just two hours on unpaid work. Women on the other hand spend two hours on paid work but five hours a day on unpaid jobs like housework and caring.

Women’s workloads average out at 39 minutes longer per day.

New legislation and workplace policies were needed to counter the inequality, warned Mr Crowley.

“Statutory leave entitlements, for example, should be reviewed to ensure they are supportive of gender equality in the domestic sphere. Paternity leave and paid parental leave are required to enhance the role of men in caring and household work.”

The report found that couples with children distributed workloads more evenly. Dr Frances McGinnity explained: “Parenthood brings a re-allocation of time for both men and women. Having children leads to an increase in committed time and a decrease in leisure time for both men and women.”

Workload Breakdown

* Women work 39 minutes longer a day — amounting to an extra month of working hours a year

* Women spend two-and-a-half hours per day on housework — twice as long as men

* Men tend to do house repairs and gardening while women spend more time on core domestic jobs like cleaning and cooking

* Men spend only 39 minutes per day on caring while women spend two-and-a-half hours per day on caring

* Women spend more time on the physical care and supervision of children while men spend a much greater proportion of their time on social childcare such as playing

* In couples with children, there is a more even division of labour.