"phooey" is far too polite for some of the ultra-feminist claims. Fortunately, most women are not 'ultras', and they work naturally with men as they were meant to.

My generation didn't have to put up with this modern men versus women crap. And most of us are still married to each other.

Cherry picked stats pertaining to COVID prove very little except the particular bias of this author. While new age males may do more of the shared household chores, it is a recent phenomenon.

I preferred a time when one breadwinner earned enough to support a family, buy a home, pay for a serviceable car and an annual family vacation. The bloke took care of the yard, household handyman repairs and renovations. Those that had traditional roles just got on with it and didn't bitch about who carried the greater load.

I've seen examples of men and women cut down in their prime by debilitating injury and their partner just took up the slack and carried on with their partner's former load or share of the shared duties. Without compliant. Why? because love sustained those relationships.

I couldn't stop myself from blubbing like a babe when I saw a drop-dead gorgeous blonde lift her crippling husband out and back into their car with a bad back, given the years she had carried on supporting him and their family.

She saw me looking and my moist eyes and simply said, But I love him! All I could say to him, was, You lucky bustard!

People like the shite stirring author should simply butt out and let the folk in the relationship decide how they share the common workload and based on their capacities and relevant skill sets.

Let the dishwasher wash the dishes and robovac does the floors, and the rest by themselves as they see fit.

My household help comes in weekly and does the laundry, changes the bed, cleans and mops out the entire house inside two hours and helps me shower, with time enough in those two hours to sit and have a five-minute cuppa and a chat.

Some of these wonderful ladies are in their sixties and receiving the minimum wage. I haven't heard one complain about the workload which may include as many as six houses in a day. Are grateful that they're still able-bodied and able to earn a quid!
Alan B.

Thanks Alan, for confirming how little time it actually takes to do the house work.

You're welcome, Has, pleasure.
Alan B.

The official Australian gender pay gap is currently 14.1% for FT workers. Let’s leave aside that people are in different industries and just take this headline figure. A few months back, the ABS published the results of their “How Australians Use their Time” survey.

A key statistic in this survey is that amongst those in FT paid employment males spent on average 8 hours 13 minutes compared to females 7 hours 12 minutes. This is 493 minutes compared to 432 minutes which is exactly 14.1% higher!

I effin' love stats!

Once again Arndt gives us a masterclass in misleading statistics, but at least she introduces an interesting data set – How Australians Use Their Time.

https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/how-australians-use-their-time/2006#data-downloads

Despite her “phooey” headline, the data show that women work harder – or at least longer – than men. Men do more paid work on average, women do more unpaid work (child and elder care, housework) than men, and on average the total combined hours of paid and unpaid work done by women are longer than men. Men work an average of 4:18 hours a day in paid and 2:44 in unpaid work for a total of 7:02. Women average 3:04 in paid and 4:13 in unpaid work for a total of 7:17.

Her other statistical abuses are more egregious. For example, “Fathers work 70% more hours than partnered males without children.” The key thing here is parenthood, not gender. Combining paid and unpaid work, fathers of children under 15 average 9:15 hours a day and mothers 9:27 hours. In couples with no children, males average 6:06 hours a day in paid+unpaid work, females 6:14.

“Male sole parents spent 170% more time educating themselves than females” – yep, that was 8 minutes a day for males, compared to 3 minutes a day for females (both using samples sizes so tiny the ABS advises not to use them). A “great example”?

“Partnered women without kids worked 27% less time than unpartnered women - 2:34 vs 3:32.” The disparity for men is almost exactly the same – 3:16 partnered vs 4:24 unpartnered, or 26%. This is partly because Arndt is not comparing like with like - the partnered data include people over 64, the unpartnered only ages 15-64.

“Men spent 38% more time helping out friends and neighbours”. Men who did this took a bit more time than women, but they were even less likely to help out. On average, men and women spent the same amount of time helping neighbours: one minute a day!! Is Arndt being ironic with ““Your community appreciates that support”? And women spend more time than men on other voluntary work.