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Much has been made of the new caring, nurturing father, but research reveals little evidence in changes in family life. In the New York Times Magazine (June 11, 2008), Lisa Belkin observes...
"Social scientists know in remarkable detail what goes on in the average American home. And they have calculated with great precision how little has changed in the roles of men and women. Any way you measure it, they say women do twice as much around the house as men.
"The most recent figures from the University of Wisconsin's National Survey of Families and Households show the average wife does 31 hours of housework a week, while the average husband does 14.... If you break out couples in which wives stay home and husbands are the sole earners, the number of hours goes up for women, to 38 hours of housework a week, and down a bit for men to 12, a ratio of three to one. That makes sense, because the couples have defined the home as one partner's work.
"But then break out couples in which both husband and wife have full-time paying jobs. There, the wife does 28 hours of housework and the husband, 16. Just shy of two to one, which makes no sense at all....
"Where the housework ratio is two to one, the wife-to-husband ratio for child care in the United States is close to five to one. As with housework, that ratio does not change as much as you would expect when you account for who brings home the paycheck. In a family where Mom stays home and Dad goes to work, she spends 15 hours a week caring for children and he spends 2. In families in which both parents are wage earners, Mom's average drops to 11 and Dad's goes up to 3."
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