DEMOS, all the "major questions" have been answered and laws and practices in place. That a few feminist question why women don't rule the world, and suggest by inference that if they do not it is a conspiracy by men to subjugate women is tired feminist propaganda. That this type of behavior is rejected by most women should be conformation that thinking women are not going to vote for a woman just because she is a woman. I posted France's Segolene Royal as example whom women rejected as their leader and elected a man, Nicolas Sarkozy, by a noticeable margin of the female vote.

As for this nonsense that women will by their participation soften the world. Ha! There is already studies that show that as women achieve wealth and career position they are less inclined to be soft on any subject. Women are becoming a large part of the politically conservative strata.

Countrygal, I am not suggesting it ISN'T a personal matter, or that women can't make choices - I'm saying it isn't ONLY a personal matter.

And Robert, that 85% figure is for unpaid work in totality, not just indoor housework, and it's from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, not just some study. I agree with you about the parental leave though - good point.

And of course it's not true of EVERY household, to those who commented that they do less or more than this - it's an AVERAGE. It's certainly not true in my own household - I do way less than 50% - just as it's not true that all women earn less than all men. The point is, when you're looking at something that's a social phenomenon, you need to look at the whole of society, not just at your own set of circumstances.

The fight for women's rights may largely be won, but the fight for women's equality has a long way to go.

The fight for women's rights was largely in the public sphere. The struggle for equality goes on in the private sphere as well. We still do 85% of the housework - no matter what hours we work outside the home.

Posted by Rebekka, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 1:19:19 PM

Megan Daum (SMH) wrote; "If you're one of those women for whom the only hobby more satisfying than aromatherapy wreath-making is complaining about how men don't work hard enough, I'm afraid your lament licence has just been revoked."

"A new study by researchers in Germany, Belgium and the US asked participants in 25 countries to keep track of how they spent their days. Time was divided into four categories: market work (work that earns money), home work (housework and child care), tertiary time (eating, sleeping and other biological necessities) and leisure.

In affluent countries, men averaged 5.2 hours of market work and 2.7 hours of home work a day. Women averaged 3.4 hours of market work and 4.5 hours of home work. That means that the average total working hours for men each day was 7.9. As for women, it was, uh, 7.9 hours."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/why-a-womans-work-is-never-done/2007/05/09/1178390393820.html

Warren Farrell pointed out in one of his books how the data in research can be and is skewed to support a particular view point. He pointed out, that time spent travelling was often ignored in 'f.......' research.

But then who cares about intellectual honesty and facts when it comes to dissing on men and trying to make them feel guilty.

JamesH, Australian research clearly shows that how much work outside the home women do makes no difference to how much housework they do, or how much housework their partners do.

I don't say this to "make men feel guilty". I say it because it's true and because it partly explains why women are dropping out of the workforce in increasing numbers when they have kids. Of course it's not all men's fault - women contribute to this issue as well.

Why would you want to work when you're going to be responsible for the child care and the housework on top of that? Why wouldn't you choose to stay home, if you have the option?

But given that we spend money on educating women, and that we are facing skills shortages, and the problems of an aging population and not enough taxpayers, it's a no-brainer to say we need to encourage women back into the workforce. And this involves, among other things, having women in policy-setting positions. It also involved developing social policies to address the issues that are stopping women from getting back into the workforce.

I was working on commentary on the Federal Budget on Tuesday night (actually Wednesday morning, technically), when one of the men I was working with questioned why we were including any commentary on the child care measures in the Budget. Who cares? was his opinion. I asked him whether he didn't think any of our readers might have kids, and be paying for child care for them. He seemed to think it was completely insignificant - and he HAS kids. But like many men, his wife is obviously responsible for organising that side of things.

And like many people who aren't directly responsible for something, he didn't see it as important. Perhaps with more women in Parliament, the issues that are largely affecting women might be seen as more vital.

Rebekka, which ABS study are you refering to? The ones I've seen suggest a close correlation of overall work time (but generally indicating women doing slightly more)

http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/ProductsbyCatalogue/DE84427EFEB3834BCA2568A9001393BD?OpenDocument

"The time spent by men and women was similar for necessary time activities and free time activities. Men spent almost twice as much time, on average, as women on contracted time activities (19% compared with 11%), while women spent nearly twice as much time as men on committed time activities (21% compared with 12%) (table 1). "

Also the Hilda survey http://www.melbourneinstitute.com/hilda/statreport/statreport2005.pdf
"The HILDA Survey data confirms previous findings that women still do the majority of housework. However, looking at the total of time spent at work, commuting to and from work, doing household chores and doing outdoor tasks, the total number of hours men and women spend in work related activities (paid and unpaid work) is very similar around 60 hours per week. Table 2 focuses on couples where both partners were working full-time at the time of their 2003 interview."

And
"Regardless of labour force status, more than half the men said they do their fair share of domestic jobs. Only 3.9% of men who were working full time said they did much less than their fair share of housework, compared to around 6% of men who were unemployed, not in the labour force, or working part-time.

It was much more common for women to say that they did more than their fair share of domestic chores, with 51.9% of women saying they did a bit more or much more than their fair share, and 33.3% of women who worked full-time saying that they did much more than their fair share."

Good point about our own experiences not necessarily being the norm by the way.
R0bert

l wounder how many men respond to these surveys.

Most of the proceeds of paid work goes into supporting a household (of other people), possibly making it effectively unpaid. Thats a deliberate twist of apparent, tho weak, logic to illustrate the manner in which things can be spun to validate an agenda. Set up and define the terms in ways useful to agenda. For example, the thing is defined in monetary terms (paid) as opposed to compensation (goods and services received). Compensation received (by those in unpaid work) is being paid for (by those in paid employ).

Work in the household might be 'unpaid' but its not uncompensated. Bills gotta be paid, else there will be no household in which to do unpaid work.

The whole thing is skewed by a scorecard mentaility. A bit like politics.

Another interesting aspect is who defines work and how do they set the standard/paramaters. The usual bone of contention l hear in these complaints amongst my cohorts is that the men dont do enuff of it to acceptable standards and that women do too much of it to an unneccary standard. Usually the man thinks the woman (unecessarily) does too much of it therefore doesnt value the extra bit. Sort of like someone coming to my house and mowing my lawn every 2 weeks instead of me doing it once a month, then complaining l dont pull my weight and handing me the bill. A man could busy himself doing stuff he deems necessary but that his partner doesnt, like spending the whole weekend preening his orchid collection (garden must be maintained) or tweaking and detailing a car. Thats an easy game to play. Essentially futile tho.

Its a personal control issue as much as anything else.

Women still do most of the housework (including working mums) and men still do most of the bread winning (including domesticated ones). Not much has changed there after 40 yrs of womens lib. Both sexes are equally complicit. Maybe most people actually prefer it that way. l dont, l do it all on my own.