Big paycheck means less housework for married women
Big paychecks means less housework for married women The more money amarried woman earns, the less housework she will do regardless of howmuch her spouse earns, according to a new study.
A researcher at theUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst found that big paychecks equal lesscooking and cleaning in a study of 918 women in double-income families.
Married women who made$40,000 or more a year spent nearly one hour less on housework per daythan women who earned $10,000 or less, according to the findings basedon data from the National Survey of Families and Households.
"Up to this point,people have thought that the important thing was how much money a womanmakes compared to her husband. But the only thing that matters is howmuch money she earns," Sanjiv Gupta, the study's author, said in aninterview.
The study, which ispublished in the Journal of Marriage and Family, showed that for every$7,500 in annual income a married woman earned, she performed one hourless of housework each week.
Gupta confirmed thelink between money, domestic work and spousal relationships in aseparate study using data on nearly 2,000 couples in the United Statesand Europe.
The average earnings ofAmerican women increased by $6,200 between 1965 and 1995, according tothe U.S. Census Bureau. During that time, the amount of time marriedwomen spent on weekly chores fell by 14.6 hours.
Since the husband'searnings had no effect on the amount of housework a woman does, thefinding suggest women are using their own money to reduce theirdomestic workloads such as ordering take-out food instead of cookingand hiring cleaners instead of doing it themselves, Gupta said. |
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