There was not a single childcare task that men liked more than women did; findings imply that aims of gender equity across the board may be difficult to achieve & may also work against partners’ individual preferences

Bleske-Rechek, A., & Gunseor, M. M. (2021). Gendered perspectives on sharing the load: Men’s and women’s attitudes toward family roles and household and childcare tasks. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, Feb 2021. https://doi.org/10.1037/ebs0000257

Abstract: In the United States, women continue to spend more time than men do on household labor and childcare (Parker & Wang, 2013). Although these gender disparities in time use are lamented in the media as inequitable (Miller, 2020; Rao, 2019), differences in men’s and women’s preferences may help explain the disparities. In the current study, emerging adults (N = 323) and middle-aged adults (N = 113) reported (a) the degree to which they like or dislike 58 different household tasks and 40 different childcare tasks; (b) how they would prefer to split up each task with a partner; and (c) their ideal prioritization of work and family. In both samples, male–female differences in enjoyment of household and childcare tasks paralleled male–female differences in task-split preferences. For example, men liked home maintenance and yard care more than women did, and, in turn, leaned more toward wanting primary responsibility for those tasks than women did. Although there were some household tasks that men liked much more than women did and there were some household tasks and childcare tasks that women liked much more than men did (e.g., decorating the home, shopping for the children), there was not a single childcare task that men liked more than women did. Our findings imply that aims of gender equity across the board may be difficult to achieve and may also work against partners’ individual preferences.