Monday, April 23, 2007

OK men, this is an official challenge

For all my peeps and any glurkers (guy+lurker) of this blog, this one's for you.

~According to the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs: 'While women represent 40 percent of the world population, they perform nearly two-thirds of all working hours, receive only one-tenth of the world income and own less than 1 percent of world property.' The 'Report of the World Conference for the United Nations Decade for Women' agrees: When housework is accounted for, 'women around the world end up working twice as many hours as men.'
  • A recent study shows that if housework done by married women were paid, family income would rise by 60 percent.

  • Husbands of full-time homemakers help out for an hour and fifteen minutes a day while husbands of women with full-time jobs help less than half as long--thirty-six minutes.

  • Ninety percent of wives and 85 percent of husbands in the US say the woman does "all or most" of the household chores.

  • Married American men do only 10 percent more domestic work than they did twenty years ago.

  • The work week of American women is twenty-one hours longer than that of men; economist Heidi Hartmann demonstrates that "men actually demand eight hours more service per week than they contribute.
After feeling thoroughly sickened, I was totally thankful that my own situation does not at all reflect these numbers. Dan does way more than the average American man's share of household chores--not as many as I'd like him to, but I never even complete my own gargantuan lists.

So any dudes or glurkers out there reading this--I challenge you to be atypical. Prove the numbers wrong. Please.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

My Mr. Man does a pretty high percentage.

While we both agree that I should cover the majority due to my working less out of the house than he does as well as me being the financial whatever, He sweeps a mean floor, vacuums better than most and is always ready to clean out that litter box. Ok, not always, but he does get it done!

Oh, and I have a fabulous gnome who does the dishes every night! Gotta love that!

Pam Elmore said...

These numbers are always discouraging. Part of the problem is betrayed in the language -- even in those quotes from the survey, husbands are said to "help out" around the house! To me, that betrays an attitude that the work actually belongs to the wife. (Would we ever say that wives "help out" around the house?)

Our arrangement isn't perfect, but my husband takes care of all dishes and laundry. Sometimes I "help out!"

heather said...

oooh - i know what you're reading! this is going to make for some good discussion...

Cheeky said...

hey blue stocking, shush!