In the latest report from the National Centre for Social Research (NCSR) a detailed survey was conducted about gender roles in domestic work in the home, in terms of attitudes and behaviour, with some startling observations as to the current opinions from men and women.
The National Centre for Social Research by tracking public opinion over the last 50 years has become the preeminent source of social attitudes and trends in the UK. It is Britain’s largest independent not for profit social research organisation and diligently, through rigorous statistical research and analysis, generates evidence that reveals the reality of people’s lives in the UK.
The current study, carried out in 2022, measured attitudes to domestic labour by asking respondents whether six distinct household tasks should be undertaken by “mainly the man”, “mainly the woman” “shared equally”. In 1984, views on this divisions of labour largely aligned with traditional gender roles, however, these views have shifted considerably in the last 40 years and in 2022, irrespective of the household task in question, most people interviewed considered that the responsibility to carry it out should be shared between the man and the woman. This indicated that today, attitudes towards domestic work have become more egalitarian. However, similarly, when men and women living as heterosexual couples were asked what happens in relation to the six household tasks under review, a considerable disparity emerged between what people say should happen, and what happens in practice!
Over the years, views have become more progressive for all tasks, for instance: 75% of people in 1984 thought that the responsibility for washing and ironing should mainly lie with the woman; today, 76% think that this task should be shared. Though there is still a large gender disparity, those reporting washing and ironing is mainly done by the woman declined from 88% in 1984 to 65% now. However, there is evidence of some stereotypes enduring: while 55% believe that household repairs should be shared, 32% retain the view that these should mainly be performed by the man (a view expressed by 78% of respondents in 1984).
Even though there was a prevailing belief that household work should be split equally, in practice, women and, to a lesser extent, men, view the distribution of household labour to be unjust. The findings also suggested that, alongside significant departures in attitudes towards conventional gender roles, women are more likely to reject traditional gender role beliefs than men.
Whilst the degree of gendered division in household chores within heterosexual couples has diminished over the past four decades, when looking at who typically undertook each task in 2022, none of the tasks received a “shared equally” as the most common response. The implication here is that that women are still largely responsible for most of the unpaid domestic work. In more than half of households, women mainly handle cleaning, laundry and meal preparation, all stereotypically feminine tasks.
In conclusion, the study did find that views in relation to domestic labour are far more egalitarian in 2022 than they were 40 years ago, and most people believed that household tasks should be shared equally. Yet, as previously stated, when it came to what happens in practice, both men and women reported an imbalance in how much domestic labour they performed, with women tending to report more domestic work, both in general and in relation to more specific categories of tasks. Such a pattern indicates that a significant transformation in gender roles within the household has yet to reach its full potential in the UK.
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