Gender Inequality in Division of Housework Greatest in Greece

A study by the Centre for Demographic Studies of Spain on gender inequality among parents related to housework time and task segregation shows that Greek mothers, on average, bare the greatest burden among mothers and fathers across 15 European countries.

The recently released study looks at “different-sex couples living with children under the age of 18 across 15 European countries [and it measures] housework across six primary tasks: cooking, cleaning, laundry, maintenance, gardening and pet care, and household administration,” said the study.

And the countries included in the study were: Austria (AT), Belgium (BE), Estonia (EE), Finland (FI), France, (FR), Germany (DE), Greece (GR), Hungary (HU), Italy (IT), Norway (NO), Poland (PL), Romania (RO), Serbia (RS) Spain (ES), United Kingdom (UK).

Overall, the study found that in all of the abovementioned countries, women do more housework than men.

Tasks traditionally considered ‘men’s tasks’ are becoming more gender-neutral, meaning that more women are undertaking them.

However, tasks that are traditionally considered to be ‘women’s’ tasks continue to be the responsibility of the women.

Where couples, overall, spend much more time on housework, “the additional need or expectation to invest more in all tasks falls disproportionally on [women],” explains the study.

Greek mothers spend the greatest number of minutes per day on household work, at an average of 282 minutes per day, with Romanian mothers coming in at a close second at 281 minutes per day.

However, Greek mothers are responsible for, on average, a whopping 82% of the household tasks listed above. The division of household labor is better in Romania but still very imbalanced, as Romanian women do 72% of the work.

Considering which countries spend the greatest amount of time on household chores, regardless of whether the mother or father undertakes them, the top countries are: Romania (382 minutes per day), Italy (364 minutes per day), Hungary (363 minutes per day), Serbia (349 minutes per day) and Greece (340 minutes per day).