by The average number of hours spent on domestic tasks by men in Switzerland rose by 10% between 2010 and 2016 according to a report by Switzerland’s federal statistical office. © Masta4650 | Dreamstime The 17.9 hours dedicated to domestic work by an average man every week was 36% less than that of an average woman. Men however were not sitting around twiddling their thumbs. The 27.3 hours spent by men on paid work was 64% higher than the 16.6 hours women invested in paid work. After adding in voluntary work – 2 hours for women and 1.6 hours for men – total weekly working hours were roughly equal, with men putting in 46.8 hours compared to 46.7 hours for women. Since 2010 both women and men have been working harder. Women have added an extra hour of paid work with only a modest 0.2 hour
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The average number of hours spent on domestic tasks by men in Switzerland rose by 10% between 2010 and 2016 according to a report by Switzerland’s federal statistical office.
© Masta4650 | Dreamstime
The 17.9 hours dedicated to domestic work by an average man every week was 36% less than that of an average woman. Men however were not sitting around twiddling their thumbs. The 27.3 hours spent by men on paid work was 64% higher than the 16.6 hours women invested in paid work. After adding in voluntary work – 2 hours for women and 1.6 hours for men – total weekly working hours were roughly equal, with men putting in 46.8 hours compared to 46.7 hours for women.
Since 2010 both women and men have been working harder. Women have added an extra hour of paid work with only a modest 0.2 hour decline in domestic toil. And while men now spend 0.8 hours less at work the extra 1.8 hours they do at home far outstrips the decline in time spent on paid work.
Cooking is still largely undertaken by women: 7.1 hours a week compared to 3.8 hours for men. Cleaning (4.5 hours for women vs 1.9 hours for men) along with washing and ironing (2.3 hours for women vs 0.6 hours for men) are dominated by women. In addition, women spend more time looking after pets and plants (2.3 hours for women vs 1.8 hours for men). On the other hand men invest extra time in admin (1.2 hours for women vs 1.5 hours for men) and manual work (0.9 hours for women vs 1.5 hours for men).
Couples with at least one child under 15 are working very hard. Women in this category spend a total of 69.6 hours working at work, home and on voluntary activities while the dads are hard at for 68.8 hours a week.
Some solo mothers appear to work like superwomen. One group with children under 7 manages to hold down a full time job (90 – 100%) and spend 55.1 hours a week on domestic work. This group of mums spends more time on domestic work than unemployed solo mums (53.1 hours) with children of the same age.
Unsurprisingly, retired people are the least busy. Women in this category spend a total of 31.5 hours a week on work while men clock up 27.2 hours. Most of this is domestic toil: 25.6 for women and 28.2 for men.
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