When a poll came out saying men in Beijing did almost as much housework as women – bucking global averages — we were as suspicious as you were – so we decided to ask our readers.
And lo! And behold – it turns out women do much more housework than men here in Beijing’s international community.
Our reader poll indicates the average woman in the beijingkids readership does almost twice the housework as men – an average of 1 hour and 41 minutes a day, versus 56 minutes for men.
That means on average women are spending 1.8x more time on household chores, which is not too far out of line from statistics for the US and the UK, which show women shouldering 1.6x the burden of men.
However, this result is in sharp contrast to the overall stats for Beijing, conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics, which indicated that women do 1 hour and 58 minutes of housework daily versus 1 hour and 50 minutes for men – rough parity in the “chore wars.”
This seems to indicate that the average Beijing man shoulders the household burden more evenly with women – or, perhaps they are just flat-out lying.
If true, Beijing would be a model city for household chore balance – as similar studies in countries such as the US, Japan, and the UK also conclude that females take on more housework than men.
Sources: Beijing Survey Office of the National Bureau of Statistics, Public Opinion Research Division of NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, UK Office for National Statistics, beijingkids’ reader poll (March 20-26, 2019)
Our poll shows that together the average beijingkids couple is doing a combined 2 hours and 37 minutes of housework, versus 3 hours and 48 minutes for couples citywide. One possible explanation for this is the preponderance of ayis in the beijingkids readership, which is unlikely the case for the city as a whole.
We also broke down the data between married and unmarried, which shows that marriage for women is usually accompanied by double the amount of housework – whereas for men, the burden remains roughly unchanged.
Single women in our poll spend about 60 minutes a day on housework, whereas for married women, chores take a full 2 hours.
Single men report spending 54 minutes a day on housework, which rises a measly 3 minutes to 57 minutes once married.
So ladies: whether you have an ayi or not, take this info back home and feel no guilt at all in telling the hubby that he’s on notice until this disparity is resolved, he’s on dish duty from here on out and he can damn well pick up his dirty socks on his own and deposit them in the hamper where they belong.
