Equally Shared Parenting - Half the Work ... All the Fun



 Subscribe in a reader

Here's where we keep you updated on news about parenting as it relates to division of responsibilities, career versus home decisions, work/life balance, and legislative and grass-roots movements toward equality or better choices for families. We'll also throw in our opinions of life as equal parents in a nonequal world, regardless of what's in the news.

Add to Technorati Favorites


Equality Blog

Friday, March 23, 2007

Two Halves Don't Always Make a Couple Whole
There has been a lot of discussion lately about a 3/19/07 article in the Washington Post describing data on the workload of mothers vs fathers from the University of Maryland. One of the more interesting statistics coming out of these data is the following:

"...the total workloads of married mothers and fathers -- when paid work is added to child care and housework -- is roughly equal, at 65 hours a week for mothers and 64 hours for fathers."

On the one hand, it is nice to know that men's and women's overall efforts add up to about the same number of hours weekly. Men aren't, one might presume, the slackers they are often portrayed to be on TV sitcoms - they may not be home with the kids much, but by God at least they are out earning the money.

On the other hand, this statistic says very little about equal sharing. Other statistics in the article point to the continued gap between men's and women's time in any one domain (breadwinning, childraising, housework - the recreation domain is not measured). I think this raises an important point about equal sharing. That is, equal sharing is not about adding up the hours and comparing the grand total. It is about comparing the total hours between parents for each domain. Very simplistically, a situation where the man spends 85 hours at work and on the golf course each week while the woman spends 85 hours with the kids and cleaning the house each week would be equal but untenable for most couples. The real picture of equality emerges only when you dissect the domains and then compare those hours.

1 Comments:

Blogger RafaelKlimek said...


Hey very nice website!! Man .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I'll bookmark your website and take the feeds also…I am happy to find numerous useful information here in the post, we need work out more strategies in this regard, thanks for sharing. how to find a good website designer

2:39 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

Powered by Blogger


  Home · What is Equally Shared Parenting? · How It Works · ESP The Book · Equality Blog · In the News · Toolbox · Real Life Stories · Contact Marc and Amy · Resources
All Contents ©2006-2010 Marc and Amy Vachon