The story of a man learning - for the first time, post-retirement - how frustrating it can be cooking for the kids night after night is hardly news. It should inspire nothing more than an eye-roll from most people, women especially.
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Actually, according to data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics released this week, we have another 30 years of this kind of thing ahead of us. That’s three decades of debate and soul-searching about housework yet to come, as we trudge our way towards domestic equality.
The study, run by the Melbourne Institute, is not all bad. As shown by the strangely depressing scenario used as a case study - a semi-retired man getting to grips with the kind of drudgery women have been conditioned to perform for centuries - at least men are visibly stepping up their game. In fact, between 2002 and 2016, men increased the amount of housework they do by about 55 minutes a week on average, while women have reduced the amount they do by about 2.5 hours.
There is definitely a trend towards men doing more, driven by shifts in attitudes towards parenting and work, which the survey indicates have become more progressive in the past 13 years or so.
But let’s be clear: women still do about seven hours more housework a week than men, and that figure presumably doesn’t include all those child-related logistics - medical appointments, birthday parties - that happen outside the house. One of the authors of the study, which has involved following to same group of about 17,000 Australians since 2001, expresses surprise at how persistent the gender division is, even once the kids get a little older.
The reason the shift looks set to take a whole generation or more is down to cultural and societal norms as much as anything else. It is still considered mildly remarkable when men opt to stay home and care for the children in their early childhood years. It’s still novel when a father works part-time. And as for those who pitch in regularly with housework and childcare duties - these men are a real catch, apparently.
More women are working full-time, even out-earning their partners, but this doesn’t seem to have had a corresponding effect on how much housework gets done by the other half. Perhaps to most telling aspect of the study, the one that really sheds light on our slow progress, is that most men believe that merely by upping the ante when compared with their own fathers, they’re doing more than their fair share.
Women, meanwhile, generally see quite clearly and reasonably that they are still doing more housework than is fair. Not because they want to, and not because they have an innate ability or predisposition towards housework, but because this is just how it has always been.
It won’t always be, though. The study, however desultory in its findings, should give us some hope that change is afoot, and could happen faster than predicted, especially if it comes from all sides, and not just from the proverbial kitchen sink.
