—
Men are taking more overall responsibility for the care of their children in 2008 than in 1992, according to themselves and their wives/partners.
The amount of time fathers in USA spend with their children under 13 on workdays has increased by one hour, from two hours to three hours. Similar trends can be seen in research from other developed countries. This is shown by the green line in this graph – a highly significant increase.
Statistically significant differences between fathers and mothers: 1977 n=455, p<.001; 2008 n=512, p<.001
U.S. Department of Labor, Quality of Employment Survey, 1977
Families and Work Institute, National Study of the Changing Workforce, 2008
At the same time, the amount of time mothers spend with their children under 13 on workdays has remained constant at an average of 3.8 hours. This is shown by the blue line in the graph above – the slight increase shown is not statistically significant.
So mothers still do more, but fathers are catching up.
These figures are for parents of all ages. Younger fathers and mothers under the age of 29 actually spend more time with their children than this overall average: 4.1 hours per working day for fathers and 5.4 hours for mothers.
TAKING RESPONSIBILITY
Men are taking more overall responsibility for the care of their children in 2008 than in 1992, according to themselves and their wives/partners.
“Taking responsibility for the care of children” means not only providing one-on-one care, but also managing child care arrangements.
The percentage of mothers who say their spouse takes more responsibility or shares the responsibility for caring equally has increased from 21% in 1992 to 30% in 2008.
The share of housework is changing also. In 2008, 26% of women said men do an equal or greater share of the cooking, compared to 15% in 1992. The change in cleaning is not statistically significant: in 2008, 21% of women said men do an equal or greater share of cleaning, compared to 18% in 1992.
MOTHERS AND FATHERS HAVE DIFFERENT OPINIONS ABOUT WHO DOES WHAT
In all these surveys, the fathers report they do more childcare, cooking and cleaning than the mothers report that the fathers do and the differences in opinion are big.
Fathers do a greater or equal share of:
• childcare – say 30% of mothers and 49% of fathers
• cooking – say 26% of mothers and 55% of fathers
• cleaning – say 21% of mothers and 53% of fathers
This phenomenon has been studied. A popular view is that fathers are making it up. But the research shows that probably both mothers and fathers may be exaggerating, or seeing the task differently. Our previous studies have revealed that the person who has traditionally been assumed by society to have primary responsibility for particular aspects of family work tends to see him/herself as doing more in those areas.
We focus more on the larger trends – both mothers and fathers agree that fathers are doing more over time!
—
I am the Co-Founder of Families and Work Institute, and the Chief Science Officer at the Bezos Family Foundation and Senior Research Advisor, Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). The Families and Work Institute was one of the founders of the field of work and family life My many books and reports include the Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs, Ask The Children, and the The Six Stages of Parenthood.
At the Bezos Family Foundation, I also serve as Executive Director of Mind in the Making. At SHRM, I serve as research advisor on the National Study of the Changing Workforce, the most comprehensive nationally representative study of the U.S. workforce—updated every five to six years, the National Study of Employers, updated every two years, and When Work Works, a project on workplace flexibility and effectiveness.
This post was originally published by Fatherhood Global and is republished via the Creative Commons license.
—
What’s your take on what you just read? Comment below or write a response and submit to us your own point of view or reaction here at the red box, below, which links to our submissions portal.
Got Writer’s Block?
Sign up for our Writing Prompts email to receive writing inspiration in your inbox twice per week.
If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project, please join us as a Premium Member, today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—
Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash