A new, major study claims that because of housework and childcare, career women are working much longer hours than men.
All in a day's work for a woman
A study by researchers at Cambridge University in England has found that women who work outside the home still do the bulk of the domestic chores, including picking the kids up from school, helping with homework, cleaning and cooking. So even though men tend to spend more hours at the office, often because they are in management positions and earn higher salaries, it is the women who are actually on the go for longer.
The study claims the average woman who is employed full-time in the EU works a total of 68 hours per week. But it's not just the full-timers who are working overtime; even women who work part-time still put in longer hours overall than men in fulltime work because they do so many household chores. In fact, women who work part-time still clock up a staggering 57 hours per week. That total is made up of 21.3 hours in paid work, 2.4 hours commuting and 32.7 hours spent doing unpaid jobs around the house.
The average man…
In contrast, the report showed that the average man only works about 55 hours per week. That figure is made up of 43.4 hours in paid work, 3.6 hours commuting and eight hours spent helping with domestic chores such as cleaning, cooking and looking after children.
It's still a man's world
The study suggests this heavy domestic workload prevents women from working long office hours because they have to collect the kids from school, cook dinner and help them with their homework. As a result, the top management jobs with the high salaries are often out of their reach.
Dr Brendan Burchell, a senior lecturer in sociology, says, "A lot of women feel they don't have choices. They have children with a partner and reduce their hours in the early stages of a child's life and when they want to re-establish themselves in their careers and in terms of their earning power; they are so far behind their husbands.
"There should be more equal career breaks between men and women when children are born, for instance, by encouraging men to take parental leave entitlements."
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