Saturday, April 05, 2008

Dateline 15,000 BC?

Newsflash! Women do more housework once they get married. And when they have kids, they do even more! It must be true if a study says so.

Having a husband creates an extra seven hours of housework each week for women, according to a new study. For men, tying the knot saves an hour of weekly chores.

"It's a well-known pattern," said lead researcher Frank Stafford, an economist at University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. "Men tend to work more outside the home, while women take on more of the household labor."

He points out individual differences among households exist. But in general, marriage means more housework for women and less for men. "And the situation gets worse for women when they have children," Stafford said.

I'm speechless. Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster that a brave scientist took on the task of finding this out for us and a brave news organization put its corporate neck on the line to report it!

Seriously, I know there are plenty of men who do their fair share of work around the house, whether that's painting and mowing or baking and cleaning. And some men are the primary house-tender. But for the majority of women, it didn't take a study to prove what most of us have experienced since the beginning of marriage. And it's even odder that this is being reported as breathlessly as if it's the newest idea since, oh, I don't know -- kids like candy?

2 comments:

Brave Sir Robin said...

This post made me smile.

I needed to smile.

Bitty said...

Glad I could help. I'll come over to your blog and post a joke, the only one I can ever remember.

Seriously, I read this article and couldn't believe that (a) someone did a study (again?) and (b) someone reported on it.