The latest ‘Taking the Pulse of the Nation’ (TTPN) survey, conducted by the Melbourne Institute and Roy Morgan shows women spend just over 22 hours a week carrying out unpaid domestic duties, which is seven hours more than men.
The survey results highlight the unequal division of unpaid domestic work among couples as a key factor affecting respondents' satisfaction levels with the division.
The survey found that in a typical week, women working part-time do an extra 12 hours of domestic work compared to men in equivalent part-time roles. Women who are not employed complete an additional eight hours of domestic unpaid labour, in comparison to non-employed men. However, when comparing men and women with full-time jobs, women only do 1.5 hours more domestic work per week.
Melbourne Institute Research Fellow Dr Sarah Dahmann said, “when striving for equal labour market opportunities for women, we need to do it in conjunction with supporting men—and in particular fathers—to take on more housework and caring duties.”
The findings also reveal that unpaid domestic work disproportionately falls on mothers with children under the age of 18 in the household, with domestic labour taking up more than 30 hours of their time each week. In comparison, fathers with underage children in the house spend only 16 hours on domestic tasks per week. Even when children are not in the equation, women without dependents in the household still do five hours more domestic work every week than their male counterparts.
Melbourne Institute Senior Foundation Fellow Tanya Gupta said, “recognition of the social barriers that prevent men from becoming more involved in their children’s care in the 2024-25 Women’s Budget is a positive step towards a change. Across sectors we need to adopt strategies that support fathers to take on more caring duties, which benefits working women as well as fathers and children.”
This trend is also observed in households where couples live together, with 30 percent of male respondents reporting their partners do 'far more' unpaid domestic work than themselves. Only eight percent of female respondents reported their male partners do the majority of domestic tasks.
“It’s perhaps unsurprising that 27 percent of female respondents reported dissatisfaction with the division of domestic work in their relationship, with their satisfaction increasing as their partners contributed more. In comparison, male respondents reported they were most satisfied when their partner’s contribution to the domestic workload was about the same,” Dr Dahmann said.