Traditionally, married women in the United States have borne the brunt of household responsibilities, including washing, cooking, and cleaning. However, this long-standing gender norm is shifting, with a recent study published in the journal Socius revealing a 40 percent reduction in the gap between the time men and women spend on domestic tasks over the past two decades.
According to data from the American Time Use Survey, from 2003 to 2005, married women averaged 4.2 hours per week on traditionally feminine chores, such as meal preparation, for every 1 hour that married men dedicated to the same activities. By the time of the 2022-2023 survey, this gap had significantly narrowed, with women spending 2.5 hours on these tasks for every hour that their husbands spent.
In the 1960s, married women performed seven times as much housework as their husbands. By the mid-1990s, this disparity had decreased, with women doing about twice the amount of housework as men. Progress has since slowed, with women devoting 18.5 hours per week to all household chores—including cleaning, cooking, laundry, childcare, shopping, and outdoor work—compared to 10.1 hours for men in 2003. Fast forward twenty years, and women are spending an average of 17.7 hours on these tasks, while men are contributing 11.2 hours a week. Even in today’s households, married women still perform about 1.6 times more housework than their male counterparts.
However, Melissa Milkey, a sociologist at the University of Toronto, argues that simply counting hours spent on housework does not fully capture the progress being made. While the gap in time spent on traditional feminine chores is closing, the time both married men and women spend shopping for groceries and household necessities is also nearing equality. Despite this advancement, a significant gap remains in childcare, with married women dedicating nearly twice as many hours to caring for children as their husbands. This persistence can be partially attributed to both men and women increasing their time spent with children since 2003.
One limitation of the study is that it does not factor in the contributions of single parents or care responsibilities for older family members, which often fall disproportionately to women.
Demographic changes over the past twenty years may also account for the reduction in housework time for women. Younger, more educated married women tend to engage in less household labor compared to their older, less educated peers. Conversely, the increased engagement of men in household tasks cannot solely be explained by demographic shifts. Researchers suggest that evolving beliefs about the division of domestic labor may be influencing men’s behavior.
Milkey highlights trends observed during the Covid-19 pandemic to illustrate these changes. In 2020, everyone significantly increased their involvement in chores and childcare; however, by 2023, the time women spent on these responsibilities largely reverted to pre-pandemic levels. In contrast, men continued to contribute equally. “Men have developed new household habits, and, to some extent, these habits are here to stay,” she states.
Milkey concludes, “These changes can be viewed through a pessimistic lens as a ‘glass half empty’ or through an optimistic perspective as a ‘glass half full.’ This paper illustrates the progress being made.”
