"While gender gaps in the workplace continue to receive attention, the situation in unpaid household work is rarely talked about," argues Schaffnit-Chatterjee.
According to recent data, "women in full-time paid employment still spend nearly twice as much time on housework on an average work day as their male counterparts," the paper reveals.
"The extent of the gender difference is particularly high in Germany," states Schaffnit-Chatterjee. "German mothers in full-time employment spend [on average per weekday] 1.5 hours more on paid and unpaid work combined than fathers in full-time employment," she says.
"As everybody's day has 24 hours, there is an obvious relationship between women's paid work and unpaid family work," insists Schaffnit-Chatterjee.
According to her, the gender imbalance explains "women's preference for part-time paid work," "reduces their chances of professional success" and "limits [their] career opportunities".
The concept of family-work systems was developed in the 1970s. It encompasses all activities performed for free for the family by a family member and which are necessary for the family to function adequately, the paper explains.
Schaffnit-Chatterjee cites data which show that "when both paid and unpaid work are taken into consideration, women in part-time employment work longer hours overall than do men who work full-time".
The paper concludes by proposing a number of measures to reduce the gender gap:
- Increasing paid parental leave for fathers;
- More and better part-time career opportunities for both genders;
- Affordable childcare with flexible hours, and;
- Reducing the gender wage gap.
