Study shows married men in the US are finally doing more of the housework
Bob Yirka
news contributor
A group of sociologists from the University of Toronto, the University of Maryland, Bowling Green State University, and Louisiana State University has found that married men in the US are doing much more of the housework than in years past. In their paper in the journal Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, the group analyzes the answers given by married men responding to the American Time Use Survey.
For most of modern history, married women in the U.S. have done the bulk of the housework, which includes cooking, cleaning, doing the laundry and taking care of the kids. For many years, such work was considered normal due to women staying home rather than getting a job. Men, for their part, got a job and paid the bills.
World War II brought about some change, as married women entered the workforce to pay the bills while their husbands were off fighting. Since that time, more and more women have entered the workforce, both married and single. Sadly, that did not lead to men doing more of the housework. This has largely been due to the prevailing view that this work is "women's work." But such views may finally be changing, thanks in some part to the pandemic.
To find out how much time married men and women are spending on housework in total and compared to one another, the researchers studied data from the American Time Use Survey, which covered the years 2003 to 2005 and then again from 2022 to 2023.
The research team found that married women spent approximately 4.2 hours each week doing housework during the years 2003 to 2005, for each hour of work done by their husbands. Twenty years later, the time spent by women was 2.5 hours per week, for each hour of work done by their husbands—a 40% change.
Their findings also suggest that married men are doing more of some chores than others—the survey showed, for example, that spouses are spending nearly equal amounts of time shopping. Unfortunately, that is not the case for cleaning and child care. Women are still doing more, but the gap is shrinking, the researchers suggest.
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More information: Melissa A. Milkie et al, Who's Doing the Housework and Childcare in America Now? Differential Convergence in Twenty-First-Century Gender Gaps in Home Tasks, Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World (2025).
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