Married men’s housework engagement and outlooks – how do young and retired men differ in their perceptions of household chores?
A revised childcare and family care leave act went into effect in April 2022, with paternity leave set to increasingly also be introduced by firms in Japan in future. Telework has also been embraced by firms since the advent of the covid crisis, with an increasing number of people now working from home. Amidst this backdrop, there are likely to be changes in how housework in done by families and the division of labor among married couples. INTAGE conducted a survey on married men’s engagement in, and their outlooks on housework.
Do generational differences exist in the amount of time men spend on housework, and their view it is something they should do?
Fig.1 depicts results comparing the average time married men and women spend on housework on weekdays. While the majority of married women spend 2 ~ under 4 hours, just under 70% of married men spend less than an hour on housework. On observation by average time spent on housework, the reality is that married men spend around 1/3 of the time on housework that married women do.
Fig.1
Fig.2 depicts results for married men by age group, with clear generational differences in the division of housework apparent between husband and wife. Many in the younger 39 years old and under age group tend to spend a lot of time on housework, while the older the age group, the less time they spend on housework, although after they reach their 50s, more retirees in their 60s and over spend a lot of time on housework.
Fig.2
To what extent do men inherently view housework as something they should do? At 51.4%, fewer married men view housework as a “must-do task for them” than married women (66.5%) (Fig.3).
Fig.3
In addition, on observation of married men by age group, the younger they are the more of them deem housework a necessary task (Fig.4).
Fig.4
To rephrase, married men are less involved than married women in terms of both the amount of time they spend on housework (their behavior) and viewing housework as something they should do (their outlooks). However, many young men are of the view “housework is a necessary task for them to do”, and spend a relatively lot of time on housework, so understand and participate in taking care of housework. Retirees in their 60s and over conversely tend to spend more time on housework, but tend less to view it as something they should do, so are likely to wait to be told to do so. We previously compared married men in their 30s and 40s in an article entitled “The New Daily Lives of Millennial Couples”, Millennials in their 30s were characterized as “placing importance on time with family and time to do the housework”. These young people’s outlooks on housework as something they should do may be driven by changes in outlooks on the family unit, where both husband and wife working is now the norm.
Housework that is/isn’t progressively being divided up
Let’s take a closer look at the division of housework. When married men and women were asked about the “housework they would like to leave to their spouse”, it was apparent that some tasks are easy for husbands and wives to share, while others are likely to be pushed onto the other person (Fig.5).
Fig.5
For example, while “daily toilet cleaning” is the top household task married women want their husbands to do, a large proportion of married men also want to leave this to their wives, so they are at odds with each other. Suggesting talking about the division of roles while using housework sharing apps, or rolling out housework goods with genderless users in mind may be effective ways firms could support the division of this sort of housework.
In addition, on observation of married men’s “housework they want to leave up to their wives” by age group, the younger the age group the fewer people wanted to leave the respective housework tasks up to their wives, and not too many wanted to leave the “daily toilet cleaning” previously mentioned up to them either (Fig.6). Just under 40% of married men aged 39 years old or younger responded they actually did the “daily toilet cleaning”.
Fig.6
So, what sorts of hurdles are there to married men getting engaged in housework? Fig.7 depicts the results of asking what their main barriers to doing housework are.
Fig.７
The most common barrier to cooking was “I’m not good at it”, and for cleaning/laundry was “It’s troublesome” and “I’m busy with work”, with just under half giving “No barriers in particular.” Married men are likely to become more involved with cleaning/laundry if they can tell it can be done “in a short amount of time, without fuss.
How can married men be prompted to engage in housework?
Let’s consider the sorts of supports needed to encourage married men to engage in housework from the perspective of information sources on housework, housework service usage intention, and their state of time-saving home appliance purchase.
Upon asking where married men like to obtain information on housework from, the most common answers were “Spouse” and “Internet search sites” (Fig.8). Young men who spend a lot of time on housework are characterized by their focus on “social media” as an information source. Conversely, retirees in their 60s and over more commonly give “Ask my spouse”. Proactive communication of housework information by firms with married men in mind should enable the smooth division of housework tasks. In addition, this sort of information should trigger communication among retiree couples.
Fig.8
Again, on observation of the housework services married men want to utilize in future (Fig.9) and the state of their purchase of time-saving home appliances (Fig.10), the top housework services they intend to use are “online supermarkets” and “cleaning spot services”, with many married men also already using “dishwashers” and “drum-type washing machines (with dryer functions)” in terms of their state of time-saving home appliance purchase. They appear to be using services and home appliances out of the desire to get housework done “in a short amount of time” and “without fuss”.
Young men who spend a lot of time on housework in particular tend to have a strong desire to utilize “meal kits” and “shopping services” in terms of housework services, and “cleaning robots” and “camera-equipped refrigerators” in terms of time-saving home appliances. This generation, more progressive in their division of labor between husband and wife, appear to actively embrace the outsourcing and mechanization of housework. Conveying the benefits to utilizing these sorts of services and products to retiree age groups as well should reduce the burden of housework on both husband and wife.
Fig.9
Fig.10
Final thoughts
Lastly, we would like to introduce the responses we received from married men to the question “what is housework to you?” in our current survey.
While some find joy in housework and view it in a positive light, it is the “source of quarrels” for others due in part to them not being able to successfully divide it up, as well as being found by others so difficult and laborious they describe it as “their most difficult work” and “deep mind-body training”… Some also noted they realized how tough housework is after actually trying it.
In addition, while the younger age groups describe housework as “work” they perceive as a task they do, the older age groups demonstrate the stance housework is merely something they “help out with” in their responses.
Products and services that help shorten the time and effort taken up by housework do not only offer functional value, but also have the potential to make consumers’ lives more relaxed and enriched. Focus should be paid to how these increasingly diversifying products and services change the outlook that “housework is tough” and “housework is something one helps out with”, along with how housework is divided up in the household going forward.
In order to plan and develop new products and services, a grasp on the sort of information we have introduced in this article including generational differences in the state of how housework is managed and outlooks on it, and consideration of how to tailor this to consumer lifestyle issues are crucial. At INTAGE, we have a data research platform that describes and provides an understanding of consumers’ experiences, including product purchase, service usage, media exposure, behavior, and outlooks on life, enabling us to provide broad yet deep insights into consumers. Please feel free to contact us for more information.
Research outline Research area: Nationwide, Japan Respondent criteria: 20 ~ 79-year-old married men and women Sampling method: Sampled from INTAGE’s online survey questionnaire monitor panel, “Cue Monitor” Sample size: 1000n married men, 200n married women (men and women recruited in line with population ratios by area of residence and age groups) Fieldwork period: (Tue) 22 ~ (Fri) 25 November, 2022
The “Consumer Lifestyle Understanding Project Team” was launched in 2022 within the Customer Business Drive division of Intage, through the collaboration of researchers responsible for different industries. This time, researchers who usually handle the daily goods and miscellaneous goods industry and those who handle the electrical and home appliances industry collaborated on the theme of “housework”, jointly conducting survey planning and analysis.
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