Cleaning up equality

A new report by the Equality Authority and the ESRI shows that women still do the bulk of the housework and work 39 minutes per day more than men

GREATER EQUALITY at work has, according to a new report, come at a price for some women. Though women are participating in the paid labour force in ever-increasing numbers they are still doing the bulk of the "women's work", which as the old adage says is never done, never paid for, never noticed.

The research, jointly-published this week by the Equality Authority and the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), Gender Inequalities in Time Use, finds women spend 39 minutes per day more than men doing work, when paid and unpaid work are taken into account. "This has a negative impact on women's quality of life," says Dr Frances McGinnity of the ESRI and co-author of the report.

It is the first systematic examination of how the genders spend their day and is based on examination of detailed time diaries kept by over 1,000 adults aged 18 to 97 in almost 600 households between April and July 2005.

Among the findings are that employed women spend an average of two hours and 47 minutes on minding children each day, compared with just 40 minutes daily by employed men; that on average, men spend four hours 40 minutes on paid work and just under two hours on unpaid work per day, while women spend on average just over five hours on housework and caring and just over two hours per day on paid work.

It means, says Dr McGinnity, that women are less free to pursue careers, particularly as they are seen as the ones to naturally take on care responsibilities when children arrive, or elderly relatives become ill. In turn this has "huge implications for women's pensions, power within the home and status at work".

This is against a background where women have been joining the paid labour force in increasing numbers. While just under 40 per cent of women were in paid employment in 1993, over 60 per cent now are. And yet, says the report, Ireland still has a relatively traditional gender division of labour, with "a very high proportion of male-breadwinner couples" compared to other EU countries.

Speaking to people in Dublin's city centre on Thursday evening it is clear most people agreed women still do the bulk of the unpaid work despite also doing an increasing share of society's paid labour.

John Malone, a man in his mid-40s from Dundrum, Dublin, says: "I probably do fall into that category of not being sufficient in the housework department."

Married with three children, he says his wife does more than him at home.

"It's probably because she's at home more. She works part-time. I do a bit - cooking and tidying. I do feel I should do more, but she has more time."

Anne, a doctor in her 30s, lives with her partner in Dublin. "Yes I do a lot more than him, but he's a lot busier with work. He's a doctor too but it's a bit crazier for him lately. I do most of the shopping, cooking, cleaning. No, I don't mind to be honest."

Fiona Greagsbey says she believes the report to be "very true".

"I do most of the housework in my house. You just end up doing it, don't you? I think we just accept it and get on with it. To be honest I think as soon as you're born a girl there's a tag and it's expected you'll fall into that role as you grow older."

The only dissenting voices are those of a young couple, Zoe Munro (26) and her boyfriend, Simon Chambers (32). They don't think most women bear an unfair load.

"I live at home with my parents and, yes, my mother does a lot more than my dad, but that's an older generation," says Munro. Chambers says most households have paid cleaners now, though his girlfriend points out most of these are "women, from Eastern Europe".

It is a key point Frances McGinnity, co-author of the report makes about unpaid work - its low status.

"Even when it is paid for, in the case of nannies and cleaners, it is usually women who do it. It has a very low status and is badly paid, with few rights."

There are positive signs, however, that among younger men and women there is a less gendered approach to unpaid work, though women are still doing more.

"Yes, many women do say they have more choice now and part of that is being able to take part-time paid work so they can look after children too," says Dr McGinnity. "It is difficult to distil choice in a study like this; how free those choices really are, how much is that it is just the only choice, given the lack of affordable childcare?

"Housework is something very few people are jumping to do but yes, one has to acknowledge people do choose to cut down on paid work to care. We contend getting the balance right between work and home shouldn't be just a woman's issue."

Joanna McMinn, Director of the National Women's Council, says she discerns a disinclination in current discourse to admit that dependency on each other.

"There is an interdependency all the time and the work done behind closed doors, mainly by women, is crucial to all of us, and to society. It's as if the only work that matters today is the public, money-making work. I think this attitude contributes to care work being undervalued."

Niall Crowley, Chief Executive of the Equality Authority agrees, saying the research "poses a significant challenge to men and to the choices made by men".

Men, he added, had a lot to gain from engaging, or being able to engage, more fully in the private world of their families.