‘You start off sinking into his arms, then you end up with your arms in his sink,’ went the joke. Not any more – new research from Oxford shows Irish husbands are the sixth best at doing the housework and rearing the children
YOU ARRIVE HOME, weary after a hard day at the coalface, and your wife is waiting in the hallway, all dolled up in anticipation of your arrival. She takes your coat and briefcase, kisses you and leads you to the sittingroom, where your favourite armchair awaits. The house is spotless, and the kids have been banished to the playroom. She brings you a cold beer, switches on the sports channel and tells you dinner will be ready soon.
If that scenario is your idea of the perfect marriage, you are living either in the 1950s or in cloud cuckoo land, where men are men and women do all the cooking, cleaning, childrearing and grocery shopping while still finding time to give you a foot rub. Alas, in the real world, that kind of attitude can actually damage your chances. You may consider yourself a pretty good catch, but in these enlightened times women want a man who does his fair share. And that doesn’t mean holding the door open while she takes out the bins.
But there’s still hope for the unreconstructed male of the species. If you’re in the market for a little woman to serve your every need, you might consider moving to Australia. Or Germany. You should certainly avoid Sweden and Norway. A study by economists at Oxford University found that Swedish men make ideal husbands – not because of their Viking good looks, but because they are most likely to help with the housework. Australian men were the least desirable husbands, because their passion for beer and sport took precedence over doing the washing-up. The study, led by economist Dr Almudena Sevilla Sanz, set out to find the countries with the highest proportion of egalitarian men – those who have no problem strapping on an apron and doing their fair share of the housework.
Dr Sevilla Sanz wanted to see if there was a correlation between marriage and cohabitation rates in different countries and attitudes toward gender roles in the home. So she collated interviews with 13,500 men and women aged between 20 and 45 from 12 countries, and ranked each country according to an “egalitarian index”. She found that women living in countries with more egalitarian men were more likely to take the plunge and get hitched. Women living in countries with a higher proportion of beer-swilling, channel-hopping couch potatoes were a bit slower to jump the broomstick.
Sweden and Norway ranked highest on the index because, says Dr Sevilla Sanz, “in egalitarian countries there is less social stigma attached to doing what was traditionally women’s work”. They were followed by the UK and the US. Australia ranked lowest, because Aussie men are still perceived as being Steve Irwin and Crocodile Dundee types for whom a kitchen is largely unexplored and dangerous terrain. Austria ranked second-last. Astonishingly, Ireland ranked sixth on the egalitarian scale, just behind The Netherlands – perhaps we’re not such a nation of indolent mammy’s boys after all.
Dr Helen Russell, senior researcher at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), is not surprised that Scandinavian countries hit the top spot in the housework hit parade. “I think the Scandinavian countries have more social policies that encourage men to be more active in the home,” she observes. The Swedish government gives men paid paternity leave, known as “daddy days”, and, says Dr Russell, Sweden has the highest take-up of paternity leave. “It’s easier for fathers to get involved with their children in the home, because they’re supported in that role.” Irish couples, says Dr Russell, “are more traditional in their views about roles in the home. In Scandinavia, 80 per cent of women would be in the workforce, while in Ireland it’s only about 60 per cent. But we have come a long way in the last 20 years as a society.”
Last year, the ESRI and the Equality Authority conducted a time-use survey into how Irish men and women divide up paid work, ie their jobs, and unpaid work, such as household chores and childcare. They found Irish men spent more time on paid work (four hours and 40 minutes on average) than on unpaid work (just under two hours). Irish women spent more than five hours a day on unpaid work such as cleaning and caring for children, and just over two hours a day on paid work. Although the report showed a definite imbalance in gender equality in the home and workplace, it was a long way from our parents’ day, when Irish men could spend zero time on housework and max time in the pub, while their wives worked a 15-hour unpaid shift at home. God be with the days.
As recession bites, and more men find themselves mooching around the house looking for something to keep them occupied, perhaps we can expect a surge in home activity, as we finally embrace the joys of housework.
