MEHE KODU ON MAAILM, NAISE MAAILM ON KODU? - Tartu Ülikool

SOOLISED ERINEVUSED AJAKASUTUSES GENDER DIFFERENCES IN TIME USE
According to Gender Equality Monitor (Vainu et al. 2010), division of household tasks is the most
common source of disagreements in families. Over half of women and men admit that this causes
frequent or occasional differences of opinion. A survey conducted in the United Kingdom and
France (Stancanelli and Stratton 2010) indicated that quite few people prefer routine household
tasks, such as cleaning, laundering or ironing, to non-recurrent or rare tasks, such as cooking for
special occasions, gardening or repairs. Consequently, the majority of people would like to
outsource certain chores, but they cannot afford to do so, primarily because of financial
constraints. At the same time, certain tasks associated with home and family (e.g., childcare) can
be quite agreeable to people; they increase welfare and cannot be completely replaced by
outside services (ibid.).
Women spend more time than men on household and family but, in addition to the amount of
time, there are also major differences in the nature of household tasks performed by women and
men. It is possible to differentiate between female and male tasks, based on the person who
usually performs this type of task and the nature of the task. Male tasks involve chores, which
have traditionally been the responsibility of men. This includes, for instance, various
non-recurrent household tasks. Female tasks are those that have traditionally been the
responsibility of women, such as cooking, washing dishes, cleaning, laundering and ironing.
Other tasks, such as paying bills and managing other affairs, have been equally divided between
women and men and are, therefore, considered as neutral tasks. In addition to gender, female
and male tasks are characterised by three more dimensions. Firstly, female tasks often involve
routine and inflexible activities that have to be performed at a specific time on each day and
cannot be postponed. Male tasks, conversely, can be planned in advance and performed at a
suitable time. Secondly, female tasks are often less creative than male tasks. Male tasks can
sometimes even have certain entertainment value. Thirdly, female tasks are usually performed
indoors and male tasks outdoors. The grouping of tasks by gender does not mean that women
cannot perform male tasks or vice versa. However, such labelling of tasks is one of the reasons
why men are reluctant to perform ‘female tasks’. The other problem is the fact that female tasks
are often perceived as more burdensome than male tasks. Unlike typical male tasks, female
tasks are rarely performed for their enjoyment value. (Glorieux and Koelet 2001)
In 2010, women spent an average four hours a day on household and family care. The average
contribution of men to household work was by one and a half hours shorter. Food management
constituted the largest part of women’s household tasks, taking up more than one hour each day,
which is almost one third of the total time (see Figure 7). The time spent by women on household
upkeep and childcare was shorter by half, being nearly half an hour a day. For men, household
upkeep was the longest daily household task, at half an hour a day, which is almost the same as
the time spent on this by women. Food management also constituted a fairly large part of men’s
household work, with slightly less than half an hour a day. However, women still spent more than
thrice as much time per day in the kitchen as men. In addition to household upkeep, the division
of time between women and men was also quite equal in gardening, shopping and various
fee-charging and adminsitrative services (e.g. bank, laundry, hairdressing, car services, etc.) and
household-related travel. The only actual ‘male task’ was construction and repairs, on which men
spent an average of 19 minutes a day and women only 2 minutes. In addition to food
management, ‘female tasks’ also included care for textiles and childcare. (Figure 7)
The average time spent by men on certain household tasks was much shorter not because men
are quicker in performing these tasks but because the share of men engaged in household care
is considerably smaller than the corresponding share of women. In 2010, 93% of women and
80% of men had performed at least one type of household tasks. While almost all women had
been managing food (84%), only half of men had cooked meals (46%). The gender gap was quite
large with regard to household upkeep as well – 60% of women and 36% of men had performed
tasks of this nature. Twice as many women as men were engaged in various care tasks such as
childcare or helping adult family members and more than six times as many women had cared for
textiles. The number of men engaged in construction and repair tasks was almost six times
bigger than the corresponding number of women. Engagement in other household tasks was
fairly equal between women and men.
MEHE KODU ON MAAILM, NAISE MAAILM ON KODU? MAN’S HOME IS THE WORLD, WOMAN’S WORLD IS HER HOME? 33