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New Study Shows Teenage Gender Gap In Household Chores
Despite major changes in the roles of men and women, gender still determines who does the housework. New research by a Swarthmore College sociology professor finds that not only do married women continue to do the bulk of the chores, but that their daughters pick up more of the slack than their sons.
The new study shows that teenage girls devote more time to housework than boys do, and that this gender gap increases during high school. According to the research, the gender gap -- the difference between girls and boys in time spent on housework -- doubles from two hours a week to four between their freshman and senior years. The study also shows high school boys are able to spend more time on extracurricular and leisure activities than girls, who work longer hours in both unpaid and paid labor.
"So early on, girls are multi-tasking," says the study's lead author, Constance T. Gager, assistant professor of sociology at Swarthmore. "Girls spend more time on everything -- housework, homework, paid work."
According to Gager, teenage girls constitute a reserve army of household labor that can be recruited when needed, such as in single-parent families and in large families. Gager says this recalls previous times, such as during World War II, when married women also comprised a reserve labor force.
The study appears in the November,1999, issue of Journal of Marriage and the Family.
Located near Philadelphia, Swarthmore is a highly selective liberal arts college with an enrollment of 1,400. Swarthmore is ranked the number one liberal arts college in the country by U.S. News & World Report.
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