To mark the launch of UN Women’s biannual report Progress of the World’s Women, today UN Women’s Executive Director Julie McKay writes for Mamamia about women, men and unpaid work.
Today, UN Women has launched its biannual report Progress of the World’s Women which calls for widespread action to improve women’s economic security. Among the report’s recommendations is another call for responsibility for men and women to share the burden of unpaid care work, which remains a barrier for many women from workforce participation and educational opportunities.
The report details a range of strategies for how to re-balance equality and economic access including making recommendations for macro-economic policy.
While all of the recommendations in the report are valid, I can’t help but be frustrated by the question it doesn’t address –who cleans the toilet?
Just for fun, ask it in any boardroom in this country and watch people start to squirm. Ultimately, every day most men make a choice not to do their share of the unpaid work. Every excuse under the sun has been used to justify this choice. Some of my favourites include:
“I have a demanding job with long hours.”
“My partner prefers to do the cleaning as she has very high standards and I don’t meet them when I try to clean the bathroom.”
“I do more cleaning than most of my mates.”
Perhaps the choice is not ever made consciously; it might be that men simply role model their fathers and women learn from the societal norms that are presented to them and take up these responsibilities without question. But whatever the reason, perhaps we need to have a conversation about reversing this trend.
Progress of the World’s Women finds, unsurprisingly, that women perform more unpaid care work than men. In the United States, the total value of unpaid childcare services was estimated to be $3.2 trillion, or approximately 20% of the total value of GDP. In Australia, it is reported that women do 66% of the unpaid care work, which makes it the most significant contributing factor to the gender gap in retirement savings and retirement income.
Related: 15 things that’ll happen before the gender pay gap closes.
Interestingly, while men report doing more housework than ever before, women report that little has changed in the burden of unpaid work. ABS data shows that men spend on average 1 hour 36 minutes per day on domestic activities, compared to 2 hours 52 for women per day.
Some families are lucky enough to have a cleaner, and so when asked ‘who cleans the toilet in your house’, men proudly respond ‘the cleaner!’. But even in households where there is a paid cleaner, there is still unpaid work – planning of family events, paying bills, cleaning and cooking between weekly cleans, packing school lunches, doing the food shopping. The gender of the customers at your local supermarket continue to be an indicator of the gendered nature of unpaid work.
Related: This dad has done the numbers: here’s exactly what a stay at home parent is worth.
There is also the issue of who does the thinking and the planning in households. Who in your family thinks about what groceries are needed, what the weekend looks like around all the various commitments, what cleaning needs to be done around agreed social engagements? Taking responsibility for 50 percent of unpaid work, isn’t just doing the vacuuming when you are told to. It is recognising that the cleaning needs to be done, and doing it, before having to be asked.
If each male in Australia made a commitment to doing half the unpaid household work – the cooking, cleaning and caring – it would go a long way towards supporting the recommendations being made by UN Women’s Progress of the World’s Women Report. I suspect we would see higher workforce participation, a closing of the gender pay gap and more women entering non-traditional roles, which are often in higher paying industries.
Related: 4 lies people tell about the gender pay gap (and how you should respond).
So, while today’s report launch is absolutely a call to action to the Australian Government, for me – it is a call to individual men. Make a difference choice. You may not be able to control whether we can deliver systemic childcare reforms in the next 5 years. You may not be able to influence government spending on critical services for women. You may not have the power to change macroeconomic policy outcomes to prevent them being gender blind. But you do have the power to choose to change your behaviour at home. Talk to your family about what a 50/50 split in unpaid work might look like – and do your share.
Of course I recognise that there are some amazing men out there who are doing exactly this already and we should recognise their early adoption of this challenge. I stop short of saying that we should celebrate and recognise their contribution – because after all, they are just doing their share.
If you are willing to take this challenge – sign up to be a UN Women #HeforShe today – and challenge your mates to join you in what will be one of the most significant steps towards gender equality in our lifetime. And remember, if you don’t clean the toilet (no matter what your excuse)– you’re probably not doing your share!
Who does the lion’s share of the housework in your home?
Top Comments
This article states "
"The report details a range of strategies for how to re-balance equality and economic access including making recommendations for macro-economic policy."
But does not tell us what they are. It tells us the author's suggested solutions. Her solution seems to be to get the men in any household to do more housework and clean the toilet. I feel none the wiser.
I understand and agree with the sentiment here, but that question of the toilet cleaning would not reflect the portioning of unpaid work. My partner has never cleaned the toilet.
He doesn't do 50% of the unpaid work but he does more than your 1 question poll would reflect.
Try asking these questions, for a more balanced view.
Who mows the lawns at your house? Who feeds the dog at your house? Who washes the dog at your house? Who cleans the fish tank or rabbits cage at your house? Who takes the bins out at your house? Who puts the fuel in the car when you are both at the petrol station together? Who washes the car at your house?
I agree...I clean the toilet and bathrooms, wash the sheets and towels, pay all the bills and look after the dog, all the time. But my partner does 90% of the cooking and kitchen-related chores, and I'm not even sure when bin night is!
Not sure, I understand your point here. Most of the chores you are mentioning are done weekly or bi-weekly at best. The most time-consuming chores in the household are not trash collection or lawn mowing these are done weekly. The most time consuming are laundry, dishes and cooking. Grocery shopping is done weekly, but what happens when you forget and have to run back for that one ingredient you forgot for dinner, I think this is more the author's point, who is actually responsible for remembering these things. Feeding the dog is not as tedious or time-consuming as shopping, preparing lunches and feeding children three times a day. Walking the dog three times a day, could fall in the tedious category.
Her other point about coordinating social activities such as vacations and family outings is also a valid one. These things take plenty of time and advanced thinking and planning. How much extra rest, extra money or extra free time would women have if we were truly sharing these activities? I think the other point is that many of these chores are multiplied with more children, for example grocery shopping and cooking for two is not so hard, but what happens when the family grows to 3, 4 or 6 people... takes on a whole different look. The lawn mowing and dog washing are not multiplied with increasing family size though. It's funny I have been thinking this would be a great survey to record and see how many men and women do clean the toilets in their house. I know very few men who regularly clean the toilet although I know men of all ages and sizes who regularly miss the toilet and land on the floor.