The reason why women may do more housework than men

Women are still doing the majority of housework and part of the reason could be that men don’t see the “issue of equity”, one counsellor says.

Official data on who does the housework hasn’t been collated in New Zealand for over a decade, but historically, women here have been severely shortchanged.

But with the laundry, dishes, vacuuming, scrubbing toilets, and everything that needs doing around the home, what happens when one person in the house feels like they do all of it every time?

Dr John McEwan says many people report that divvying up the cleaning is a problem in their household.

“There’s resentment built because one person hasn’t picked up that the other feels they’re doing a lot more than they should be,” McEwan told The Project on Tuesday.

This other person is often the man.”

“Guys often, if they’re feeling happy or relaxed, they’re not seeing the issue of equity.”

Who completes what tasks around the home could be down to expectations on gender roles that are instilled in us as we’re brought up.

“It depends on what our expectation is as to what we might ordinarily do. That’s where the other person needs to say, ‘woah, hang on, this doesn’t feel fair’.”

“It’s getting the communication going so we’re hearing where resentment could be building.”

He says a case could be made to pay a professional to come and clean your house if that’s the solution that’s required.

“For some couples and some flats, the solution is [saying], ‘hey guys, we’re all too knackered to do this stuff, let us pay someone to do it’.”

“But that’s legitimate because no one did the work we’re all doing now 100 years ago without two or three servants in the home. We are trying to do way more than our ancestors ever attempted.”

Watch the video above.