Wednesday 5 August 2009

Quick hit: Division of housework measured by The Egalitarian Index

From the Herald today:
Kiwi men are not doing enough around the house to win over their wives and partners, new research suggests, but we are still doing better than our transtasman cousins.

New Zealand ranked ninth-equal out of 13 countries in an Oxford University study that examined how people become more attractive to the opposite sex by helping out with the household chores and looking after the children.

...The website quoted experts who said that women were more attracted to men if they believed they would help around the house and share the childcare.

Relationship expert Janice Davies said ... "There is some of that old school thinking still around, that even though the man is working and the woman is working, that she should be doing all the housework, which is obviously showing up in this survey..."

...Researchers in the study questioned 13,500 men and women aged between 20 and 45 from each country about gender, housework and childcare responsibilities.

Based on their responses, each country was given a rating on an "Egalitarian Index". Women in countries with less equality in the home were found to be between 20 and 50 per cent less likely to settle down with a man.
Click through for the whole article.

Someone in my office has helpfully blown it up and put it on our staff room noticeboard!

And here's the accompanying cartoon the Herald has chosen:

3 comments:

DPF:TLDR said...

Kind of sad that they've chosen to frame the issue as one of 'winning over' wives and girlfriends, as opposed to behaving in an equitable way for its own sake.

The idea that a man who does his share of the housework is somehow entitled to acclaim for it is a pretty dodgy one, IMO.

M-H said...

Whut Hugh said. Looking after yourself and taking care of shared surroundings is pretty basic behaviour for any adult, regardless of gender. What a load of tripe to frame it like this: "Kiwi men are not doing enough around the house to win over their wives and partners, new research suggests..."

A Nonny Moose said...

Ay yup, beaten to it. Standard stereotypes ensue - a wife can only be appeased by husband bending to their cleaning will, and a husband would be a complete and utter slob if the wife wasn't around to pick up their dirty gruts.

Puhlease.