Amen to “we need to remember they exist so we can remember that being a good father is to be expected.”
In 1982 Economist Nancy Barrett stated
“there is no evidence of sweeping changes in the division of labour within households coincident with women’s increasing labour force participation.”
and today’s stats still reflect this. Pre-Covid, in 2018, the numbers were:
Having children that are younger than 6 years old reduces mothers’ work hours but does not have a statistically significant impact on fathers’ working time. One exception are black women, who maintain high work hours regardless of the presence or age of their children.
While mothers of young children spend less time on paid work, they are significantly more likely to engage in household labor and chores on days when they also work for pay. They spend significantly more time on these activities compared with fathers.
When time spent on paid employment and time spent on unpaid household labor and child care are combined for all workers, there is no significant difference in the total time spent between all women and all men. So, while women may spend slightly less time working for pay, they make up for this time in unpaid labor within the home.
When total time use is compared between mothers and fathers of young children, mothers spend more combined time working, doing household labor, and caring for children than fathers.
Although mothers of young children spend more time on work, household labor, and child care than fathers, they are not more likely to have access to workplace policies such as paid family and medical leave, paid sick days, workplace flexibility, and affordable child care.
(stats from this article, sources linked there)
Whilst the “all men = bad” position is unhelpful, reductive and (quite frankly) gross, we cannot deny (or imply to deny) that unequal division of domestic labour between working husbands and wives IS a reality for many women and their families.
But it shouldn’t be, and it doesn’t have to be.
It comes down to unfair socialisation that tells these men that parenting is solely “woman’s work”, and that is where the real evil lies.
Confronting this socialisation through education is where we need to start in combating this. Threads like this are important to start conversations, but it needs to go beyond that. It needs to go beyond “ugh men amirite?” to “this is not okay” and “it doesn’t have to be that way”.
gracieabrams
snowghoul
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
tangentwithtanner
amandla
gamechangershow
blakekathryn
titsay
2087
germansingergirl
