Two-thirds of women say men don’t help with household chores: Study

MUMBAI: Even after decades of economic growth and development of India, which has seen a greater participation of women in the workforce, old stereotypes attached to women when it comes to household chores, sadly, remain unchanged.
A one-time Nielsen India study on Indian households supported by Ariel, has found that while over two-thirds of Indian women feel, there exists inequality at home, between men and women, Indian men believe laundry is a woman's job.Two-thirds of women feel men do not help with household chores, a sentiment also echoed by men as per the 5-city (1000 person) survey conducted in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore in November 2014.
The survey says 70% of married Indian women feel they spend more time on household work than with their husbands. What displays a clear case of women undergoing greater stress as compared to men is the statistic that 85% of working Indian women feel they have two jobs, one at work and another at home.
Even as India Inc goes the extra mile to bridge the gender gap in its workforce, the imbalance that exists in the division of household chores is stark. Under the Nielsen-Ariel study, 87% of working Indian women said while they are equal bread winners, they contribute more towards household chores than their husbands.
Industry experts believe companies can bring about the transition in society and break stereotypes through clutter-breaking advertisements. Harish Bijoor of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc, who blames Indian women for bringing up their children in gender stereotype manner, says marketers are missing out on the psychographic positioning opportunity for their brands with respect to bringing out a change in society.
Raymond has had a proposition of `A complete man' for long and some brands like Tanishq (advertisement on second marriages) too have made a beginning. But by and large advertisements depict the stereotypes that exist in the society today. ``I do believe marketers will make advertisements that stick out like sore thumbs to bring about a change in society,'' said Bijoor.
More than two-thirds of married Indian women feel men not sharing household chores is one of the primary sources of dissatisfaction in a married life, the survey says. Women, both married and working, want men to help out with the household chores including laundry. Sentiments echoed by men in the survey confirm the existence of such stereotypes. While 76% of Indian men feel, laundry is a woman’s job, 68% of Indian men prefer to watch TV than to do the laundry.
Rituparna Chakraborty, co-founder & senior VP of TeamLease Sevices, is optimistic that a change will come about in the next generation. ``We are currently in a cusp going through a phase of transition. Our children are growing up looking at both their parents go to work, so they would behave very differently as adults.''
She believes co-education can break the barriers, but while urban India would see the change much quicker, middle India may take a while.
The study shows how the trend differs between urban cities as well. So more number of men prioritize relaxing over helping in household chores in Hyderabad and Chennai as compared to other cities. Among the women who believe men who do the laundry will make great husbands, Chennai ranks the highest at 89%, while Hyderabad is the lowest in percentage terms at 55%.
Of the single women who want to marry men who help with household chores, the largest percentage came from Chennai (81%), a city which also drew the largest percentage (96%) of men who believe laundry is a woman's job.
But in what could perhaps crush such stereotypes in the years to come, 83% of married Indian women want their sons to help with household chores at home when they grow up.