Perceptions of time spent on housework among men and women

Abstract

The paper explores an uneven transformation of social norms in the Russian society through the prism of female and male answers about their and their spouses’ time spent on housework. The paper is based on the results of the survey titled «Individual, Family, and Society» conducted by the Institute for Social Analysis and Predic- tion (RANEPA) in 2015. The study investigates respondents’ answers about their and their spouses’ housework burden as well as levels of their satisfaction with the housework distribution and emotional attitude towards it. The authors reveal that, unlike women, men tend to give higher estimates to the time spent by them and their spouses on household chores. The gap between average male and female estimates decreases with the length of relationship and increases with the birth of children. The data of the survey suggest that social norms and values have a considerable impact on respondents’ answers. In the last section of the paper, the authors provide an analysis of the interviews’ recordings (respondents’ intonations, comments, or laugh during their answers). The authors discover that, similar situations may result in different quantitative estimates depending on the respondents’ satisfaction level and attitudes. Extremely high or extremely low estimates of time spent on housework often result from dissatisfaction with the distribution of housework.