Young girls do more domestic chores than boys, study finds 

The study found that inequalities in domestic chores occur at nine and are even greater at 13: girls do more housework and children tend to do 'gender-typical chores'.

Girls do more household chores than boys at both nine and 13 years of age – and new research also shows that any housework carried out by boys at those ages tends to be "gender-typical" chores.

It also found: "At an early age, girls/young women and boys/young men are developing housework patterns that mirror the problematic housework patterns seen in adulthood."

The findings are in a new study based on longitudinal data gathered for the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) project. Funded by the Department of Children, it is written by researchers led by Caoimhe O'Reilly of the Department of Psychology at the University of Limerick.

'Inequalities in domestic chores'

The findings come from the GUI data on 4,135 girls, 3,831 boys and their caregivers and according to the study: "The results highlight that inequalities in domestic chores occur at nine and are even greater at 13: girls do more housework and children tend to do “gender-typical” chores."

Those involved in the study kept a diary on their time usage and questionnaires in which certain tasks were defined based on previous research. "Typically, female tasks included cooking, washing dishes, hoovering, helping with relatives and helping with younger siblings. Typically, male tasks included cleaning the car, putting out the bins and gardening."

According to the study: "Those who did typically female tasks 'occasionally' or 'often' were significantly more likely to be girls and those who occasionally or often did typically male tasks were significantly more likely to be boys. For example, those who did the cooking often at age nine were almost twice as likely to be girls, whereas those who put out the bins often at age nine were half as likely to be girls.

It said that at age 13, "those who did female tasks occasionally or often were significantly more likely to be young women and those who occasionally or often did male tasks were significantly more likely to be young men. For example, those who did the cooking often at age 13 were almost seven times as likely to be young women, whereas those who put out the bins often at age 13 were .2 times as likely to be young women. The gap at age 13 was bigger than age nine."

'Gender gap increases with age'

It said: "These results show Irish children do not do much housework, but that girls/young women do more than boys/young men; children/young adults conduct gender-typical housework tasks and the gender gap in overall time spent doing housework increases with age. These findings can reasonably be generalised to the Irish population, given the high-quality representative weighted sample.

"Irish girls/young women spend more time doing typically feminine tasks, including cooking, hoovering, washing dishes and helping with younger siblings and older relatives. Boys/young men spent more time on typically masculine tasks including gardening, putting out bins and cleaning the car."

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It said typically feminine chores are more time-consuming and that there was "reasonable evidence that Irish children participate in chores gender-typically, and that this gender gap widens from childhood to adolescence".

The authors said the findings should influence policies as they showed that Irish children "are developing in a society perpetuating gendered housework traditions".

"Domestic labour inequality needs to be addressed if we value gender equality in the public sphere."

Read the full report here