L’écart de genre dans les travaux ménagers : causes et conséquences

Les gouvernements comme les entreprises ont un rôle à jouer aux côtés des individus pour réduire l’écart des genres dans le domaine des travaux ménagers. C’est ce qu’a écrit le Dr Claire Schaffnit-Chatterjee, dans une analyse de mars pour DB Research, le département de recherche de la Deutsche Bank. 

« While gender gaps in the workplace continue to receive attention, the situation in unpaid household work is rarely talked about, » argues Schaffnit-Chatterjee.

According to recent data, « women in full-time paid employment still spend nearly twice as much time on housework on an average work day as their male counterparts, » the paper reveals.

« The extent of the gender difference is particularly high in Germany, » states Schaffnit-Chatterjee. « German mothers in full-time employment spend [on average per weekday] 1.5 hours more on paid and unpaid work combined than fathers in full-time employment, » she says.

« As everybody’s day has 24 hours, there is an obvious relationship between women’s paid work and unpaid family work, » insists Schaffnit-Chatterjee.

According to her, the gender imbalance explains « women’s preference for part-time paid work, » « reduces their chances of professional success » and « limits [their] career opportunities ».

The concept of family-work systems was developed in the 1970s. It encompasses all activities performed for free for the family by a family member and which are necessary for the family to function adequately, the paper explains.

Schaffnit-Chatterjee cites data which show that « when both paid and unpaid work are taken into consideration, women in part-time employment work longer hours overall than do men who work full-time ».

The paper concludes by proposing a number of measures to reduce the gender gap:

• Increasing paid parental leave for fathers;
• More and better part-time career opportunities for both genders;
• Affordable childcare with flexible hours, and;
• Reducing the gender wage gap.