Nita is neat!

But those mothers who lack the commitment to do it all over again, cannot go unquestioned ;-)

We should do a nationwide survey … yes, that’s it! Ask all grandmothers, whether they have had a fulfilling life. Ask them why they had children, how much did hubby help, did hubby always connect, did he really share the workload, was raising a girl easy? Did he make enough money? What other regrets were there? Were other sexual liaisons impractical simply because he was always around? How would not having children, have made it all better?

Difficult questions – granted. But being knowledge Seeker is no plain sailing either.

Again 'the usual suspect' arguments are trotted out in response to women's frustrations at the gross gender inequities within our society, particularly in the private and public sphere's of life!!!! As Leslie Cannold argues in her article, its time to stop blaming women for our decreasing fertility rates as some sort of rebelious 'choice' against humanity. The thrust of Cannold's arguement as I understood it was the underpinning causes for our declining fertility rate was multifactorial ("antiquated or biased tax regimes, unachievable definitions of what it takes to be a "good" mother, family-unfriendly workplaces and absent, reluctant or sexist men all constrain women's freedom to choose motherhood") and it no longer cuts it to dismiss our fertility woes as a woman's 'choice' not to have children. Signed 'Birthworks' - Mother of 4 children

It seems that even with the 1.7 fertility rate, we won’t have an actual decline in the national population until about 40yrs time. However in the mean time we will have a population that is generally older than what it has been in the past.

The article by Leslie Cannold is quite unique because it actually mentions men, while every other article I have seen on Australia’s fertility rate has not. All other articles seem to consider men and fathers as being an irrelevance.

The often stated accusations that men don’t do enough housework etc seem to be based on anecdotal evidence, or evidence from highly suspect or biased research.

The wish by so many non-custodial fathers to spend more time with their children (IE. 75% according to the largest survey undertaken on the mater to date) indicates that fathers are more than willing to care for their children, and I am of the belief that many women are simply blaming men (as an easy excuse as not too many people would have questioned it in the past) for not wishing to be inconvenienced in any way by having children.

However what is life for an unmarried adult without children?

A job, with Friday afternoon drinks?

Hardly.

Could you give me references for this 'highly suspect or biased research' please Timithy? Your logic seems a bit off too - if women were 'not wishing to be inconvenienced in any way by having children' you would think they'd leap at the chance to off load them to their father. Regardless of individual battles between parents over child custody and access it has been taken for granted in popular commentary, by the exclusion of comments on men's role, that the decision to limit the number of children is solely the choice of the woman for 'selfish' reasons like wishing to have a career. Its very refreshing to read articles like this which question that assumption and take a broader view.

And in answer to your question, life for an unmarried adult without children is just lovely thanks, and we can have a drink on Friday afternoon or any other if we so wish!

Studies on housework!

Invariably these studies do not take into account how essential the housework tasks are and all the hours spent on each and every housework task are included in the study. So if someone spends 1 hour baking a cake, this 1 hour goes into the study as being essential housework. Someone else eats no cake but eats fruit instead, (which is probably more healthy), but so far as the housework study goes they are doing no housework when compared to the person who bakes cakes.

Similarly someone could spend hours ironing everything that comes off the clothesline including socks, jocks, tea-towles, sheets etc, and all those hours spent ironing will go into the study as being essential housework, although most of these items need not be ironed. This is why studies on hours spent on housework or unpaid work become very suspect or un-reliable.

Studies on hours spent on paid work are more reliable as industry is normally trying to reduce tasks down to essential only, or trying to automate tasks etc. I have seen US studies on paid and unpaid work where only essential unpaid tasks were recorded in the study. On average, men were working 20 hrs more per week than women when paid and unpaid work hours were combined, and unessential unpaid work was disregarded from the study.

I look after a child for weeks at a time and on average I would be spending 1 hr per day on housework and 1 hr per day on cooking. The child does a certain amount of housework, but we do mainly essential housework. In total 14 hrs per week to have a clean tidy house and eat healthy food. The child is rarely ill and I can't remember the last time when either of us went to the doctor.

I also know of many men who go home from work and take over looking after the kids until they go to sleep, but these men are overlooked because they do not meet the stereotypic image of a male who is only interested in beer, motorcars, football and sex. That stereotypic image is very handy to have to be able to “blame” men for anything and everything.

Enough of gender politics, but Australian industry will have to look more carefully at work hours. We are working the longest hours of any western country, and also the most hours of unpaid overtime (even more than Japan). I know in many companies it is an unwritten policy that employees work these hours or they don’t retain their job. This is interfering with family life, and I do know of some people who now regard their co-workers as being their family.

Perhaps putting a cap on work hours (eg 50hrs max / week) is becoming necessary in this country. In other places it has been shown that capping work hours does not reduce national productivity, and may actually increase it.

To make any difinitive statement on the the domestic division of labour its true you have to be comparing like with like, e.g. taking into account the respective hours worked outside the home and the choices of the individual families as to what is 'essential'. In an ideal study you would select families with both parents working equal hours, travel time equal, same size house, same number/age of children and same standards for housework and child care, and strict definitions of these. Of course this is impossible in real life but in a good study these things will be taken into account.

I must admit my 'research' into these matters is probably out of date so I had a little look around and came up with the following.
http://www.rouncefield.homestead.com/files/as_soc_family_9.htm This reference mentions many of the studies I was brought up on but doesn't really indicate any major changes.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/06/18/1023864427509.html?oneclick=true This one shows nothing has changed but is very small and anecdotal
http://www.newsroom.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/display.cgi?id=611 This one shows at least things are going in the right direction
http://www.aifs.gov.au/institute/afrcpapers/baxter.html If you look at none of the others have a squizz at this one as its very informative and gives an idea of what was included as housework and childcare. The essential/non essential point I feel is interesting but rather a 'red herring' as if housework was shared equally then the essential and non essential tasks would also be shared equally.

The vast majority of the data I browsed showed that although things are improving as women's and men's roles are changing there remains the feeling that work within the home is still regarded as 'women's work' and, although men perceive they do their share, what they do is very selective and no where near half of the total work.

I know we have strayed off topic but as the comments seem to have dried up I hope no one minds.

PS My ironing board has been in the back shed for over a year!