Women could not fulfil their career goals because of children and because of the lack of partnership when it comes to household labor and childcare.
Men do not feel the need to participate in household chores in some cases. Jobs such as grocery shopping, cooking meals, picking children up from school, etc., are considered to be female roles in the home, therefore become undesirable to men. Household duties such as home improvements, car issues, and paying the bills, are considered to be jobs wanted to be done by the man in the home because socially, those are considered to be tasks done by males only or females (Cifre and Cerrato, 2018).
In some cases, women enjoy doing a majority of the household work. By being able to do all the work around a home, it gave women a sense of power and lets them be confident and show their gender identity (Martinez and Paterna, 2009). With the women in the house taking care of all the household tasks, the men are more likely to spend more time at work to provide for his family. This situation can backfire quickly when the woman realizes she is not able to take on all of the household responsibilities and if they have children, caring for them (Cifre and Cerrato, 2018).
Studies show, when a man is stressed at work his wife increases the amount of household work done compared to a normal day. If a woman comes home after a stressful day, the amount of household work a male does not change (Pittman, 1996). When couples have high levels of stress, studies show that it will make the few interactions they have not pleasant and end with an argument (Cifre and Cerrato, 2018). This will happen when stress from work or an outside force is applied, the stress and frustration is taken out on your partner. In order this issue to be resolved, communication is key.
Even though gender inequality has decreased from thirty years ago, it is still a problem. It is shown that men and women wish that the household work was divided up more evenly. In 1965, woman spent almost 32 hours a week just on household chores while Men, only 4 hours a week (Giddens, 251). Since 2011, the number of hours a week woman spent on household work has dropped 18 hours, while males number of hours increases to 10 hours a week. This data shows that females still take on most of the responsibility in the home when it comes to house work. The data also shows that men are starting to help more around the home, putting less pressure on the wife.
