Better communication might help prevent conflict caused by an uneven distribution of household chores between men and women, the John Tung Foundation said yesterday.
Last year, women took on most of the household responsibilities amid the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, the foundation said, citing an article titled “A multicountry perspective on gender differences in time use during COVID-19” in the March edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
The study, which surveyed more than 31,000 people in the US, Brazil, Canada, Denmark and Spain, found that women spent more time than men on housework and childcare, and that the more time women spent on household chores, the less happy they reported being, the foundation said.
Societal expectations about gender roles — specifically the idea that women should perform household tasks — might be a major factor leading to an uneven distribution of household duties and negative effects that such patterns have on women’s happiness, said Yeh Ya-hsing (葉雅馨), director of the foundation’s Mental Health Center.
Women should clearly communicate their expectation that chores be divided, Yeh said, adding that keeping negative feelings inside might make the situation worse.
People can adjust the housework routine by taking breaks, taking a 15-minute walk, having a cup of tea or playing music while cleaning, she said.
Not all of the housework needs to be done right away, she said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, women might ask why they are the only ones doing housework when both partners are working at home, Taiwan Counseling Psychologist Union member Hu Yen-wei (胡延薇) said.
However, men who do housework might receive criticism for not doing tasks well or fast enough as a result of a lack of familiarity with the chores, Hu said.
Chores can be made more interesting by having mothers imagine themselves as senior employees of a company who have been tasked with training other workers, in this case their husbands or children, she said.
Although the pandemic has changed people’s lives and the way they work, it has also increased the amount of time family members spend together, and tested relationships between married couples and family members, she said.
People could try to take advantage of the global situation to work on improving bonds and feelings of happiness in their families, she said.
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