Black men do fairer share of housework, says UK study
Black British men are better at sharing household chores with their partners than their white and Asian counterparts, according to a new study.
The study, from the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), used data from the Understanding Society panel survey on 30,000 married or cohabiting couples to analyze patterns of domestic labor across different ethnic groups.
The researchers found that black Caribbean men on average did over seven hours of housework a week, compared to 13.5 hours by their partners, meaning they take on 40% of the domestic workload.
Black African and Indian men did a similar number of hours, but less as a proportion, as their partners tend to spend more time on housework. Pakistani men did under five hours a week, less than a fifth compared to their partners.
Across all groups, women were responsible for 70% of chores, which is also the average for white couples.
Heather Laurie, who co-authored the report, commented that: “Work done in the US suggested that the historical roots of a lot of black Caribbeans mean they have a more egalitarian family structure, and we seem to see that here. And there has always been a strong tradition of black Caribbean women working in the labour market.”
The picture is complicated by socio-economic factors such as education: women with a degree tend to do less housework, while degree-educated men from Indian and Bangladeshi backgrounds tend to do more than those without.
Leslie Stratton has written for IZA World of Labor on the determinants of housework time. She writes that: “Efforts to reduce the gender wage gap and alter gendered norms of behavior should reduce the gender bias in household production time and reduce inefficiency in home production. Policymakers should also note the impact of tax policy on housework time and consider ways to reduce the distortions caused by sales and income taxes.”
The ISER report, Gender, Ethnicity and Household Labour in Married and Cohabiting Couples in the UK, can be downloaded here.
Related article:
The determinants of housework time by Leslie S. Stratton
Find more IZA World of Labor articles about family