Women do three times the amount of household chores men do 婦女做家務　是男性的三倍

Sat, Nov 03, 2012 - Page 11

The Lu Chuan Women’s Welfare Service Center in Greater Taichung released its housekeeping statistics for the Taichung area on Oct. 29, which showed that women do three times as many household chores as men do. The top five chores were washing the dishes, doing laundry, folding clothes, sweeping and cooking meals respectively. The statistics show how women are still in charge of most domestic tasks.

According to statistics compiled by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics last year, unemployed married women between the ages of 15 and 64 spent an average of 4.3 hours every day doing household chores, while employed women did household chores for an average of 3.5 hours every day, meaning they are not given time to relax after they get home, and instead are busy cleaning up after their husbands and children.

The center’s survey found that although modern women have their careers to think about, they are still left in charge of most household chores, and that even though women may feel displeased and tired over the domestic division of labor, they have no other option but to complete the tasks. When women are more satisfied with the way household duties are shared, they are also typically more satisfied with their marriages. Children develop a greater sense of responsibility and become more empathetic and considerate when they also help out with household chores.

Wang Hsiu-yen, director of Taichung’s Department of Social Welfare, urges families to share their household chores. She says that she usually gets home late at night because of her job, so her husband always cooks dinner. Her son is in charge of electrical repairs because he is big and tall. He also carries the shopping bags when mother and daughter go shopping, while Wang and her daughter usually fold the laundry. Splitting household chores is the only way to lighten everyone’s load around the house, she says.

(Liberty Times, Translated by Kyle Jeffcoat)