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Men not doing their homework

Written by Lautaro Vargas

Wednesday, 12 December 2007

The inability of men to shoulder their fair share of work at home is denying women equality at work according to University of Cambridge research. It says that efforts to reduce the workplace gender gap in Britain and the EU have made little progress since the early 1990s. Researchers found a high level of gender segregation in people’s working lifestyles, with women generally earning less and struggling to break into senior management roles as household tasks such as cleaning and childcare give them longer working days. That lifestyle divide, researchers urge, must change if women are to have equal opportunities in the world of work. “Gender segregation in employment is pronounced and this widens the gender pay gap. That then becomes a vicious circle,” said Dr Brendan Burchell, from the Department of Sociology who led the research. “Because women are rarely the highest earners in the household, there seems to be an economic rationale for making them responsible for domestic duties. “The best way to break that would be to reduce gender inequality in employment and the household together – for instance, by encouraging men to take their parental leave entitlements.”

 

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