Forty percent of all households with children include a breadwinner mom, according to recent Pew Center research, but that doesn’t mean that the so-called second shift is a thing of the past. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that women still do the lion’s share of household labor. Yes, in fact, it appears that women now officially both bring home the bacon … and fry it up in a pan.
A few highlights (lowlights?) from the BLS report, via Think Progress:
– On an average day, 83 percent of women and 65 percent of men spent some time doing household activities such as housework, cooking, lawn care, or financial and other household management.
– On the days that they did household activities, women spent an average of 2.6 hours on such activities, while men spent 2.1 hours.
– On an average day, 19 percent of men did housework — such as cleaning or doing laundry — compared with 48 percent of women. Forty percent of men did food preparation or cleanup, compared with 66 percent of women.
Men were also more likely to engage in sports, exercise, and recreation (22 percent vs. 17 percent for women) and to spend slightly more time engaged in leisure activities, including watching TV.
Colette McIntyre of The Jane Dough notes that these numbers are the same as last year. What does this mean?
“Evidently, society can tolerate — but just barely — a glass ceiling-busting woman as long as she performs her other ‘roles’ of caregiver/domestic goddess and shows proper deference and submission in the household,” McIntyre writes.
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