The typical dad is back on the couch watching football while mum does the housework, within three months of a child being born, research suggests.
Despite greater awareness of gender equality today, experts found that women still tend to bear the brunt of domestic duties and childcare on their days off.
Dads will spend twice as long relaxing while their partner does the chores, with women far more likely to use downtime to get things done than put their feet up.
Men who do try and pull their weight put in a much shorter shift than their female partner, the study indicates.
The typical dad is back on the couch watching football while mum does the housework. On days when neither were working, researchers found men would spend twice as long as their partners relaxing while the other worked (stock image)
ESTABLISHING RULES
The study monitored 52 couples during pregnancy and after the birth of their first time parents, as part of a wider project looking into their lifestyles.
Researchers found that there was more equality on days when both partners were working.
However, women still did slightly more work around the home and with childcare.
On non-workdays, when both partners were not at work, men spent twice as long relaxing.
On their days off, men were relaxing 46 per cent of the time while their partners looked after the children.
In contrast, women were engaged in leisure only 16 per cent of the time when their partners were taking care of their child.
One way of solving the problem would be to lay down the rules before the baby is born, said study lead Dr Claire Kamp Dush.
She added: ‘At the time we studied them, these couples were setting up routines that may last several years as the kids grow.
‘Couples need to be having these conversations from the first few months.’
Researchers from Ohio State University examined the division of duties among couples three months after the birth of a child, compared to during pregnancy.
On days when neither were working, they found men would spend twice as long as their partners watching TV, playing golf or undertaking other relaxing pursuits while the other worked.
Women would get 46 to 49 minutes on average where they could do nothing, while their partner tidied up or looked after the children.
In contrast, men would get around 100 minutes of downtime while their wives cleaned, cooked or carried out similar tasks.
The amount of time men spent relaxing while their other halves did all the work doubled from 47 minutes a day when their partner was pregnant to 101 minutes a day three months after the birth of a first child.
Most of the couples were white, middle class, well educated and – where both couples were earning – exactly the kind of people the team expected would be in favour of gender equality.
Yet despite this, they still ended up conforming to old stereotypes, according to detailed diaries both partners were asked to fill in daily as part of the project.
Ohio’s associate professor of human sciences, Claire Kamp Dush, who led the study, said: ‘It’s frustrating.
‘Household tasks and child care are still not being shared equally, even among couples who we expected would have more egalitarian views of how to share parenting duties.
‘It is a small sample. It is not the definitive answer, and is mostly relevant to similar couples.
‘But we need to look into this further and understand how dual-earner couples are sharing housework and child care.’
The study monitored 52 couples during pregnancy and after the birth of their first time parents, as part of a wider project looking into their lifestyles.
Despite greater awareness of gender equality today, experts found that women still tend to bear the brunt of domestic chores and childcare on their days off, three months after the birth of their first child (stock image)
The researchers found that there was more equality on days when both partners were working.
However, women still did slightly more work around the home and with childcare.
On non-workdays, when both partners were not at work, men spent twice as long relaxing.
On their days off, men were relaxing 46 per cent of the time while their partners looked after the children.
In contrast, women were engaged in leisure only 16 per cent of the time when their partners were taking care of their child.
While women looked after a child, their male partners relaxed, but when a man took over childcare, women were more likely to use it as a chance to do housework than to put their feet up.
One way of solving the problem would be to lay down the rules before the baby is born, said Dr Kamp Dush.
She added: ‘I was expecting to see a lot more minutes where the couple was doing some kind of housework or child care together.
‘I suspect the situation may be even less equitable for women who don’t have all the advantages of the couples in our sample.
‘At the time we studied them, these couples were setting up routines that may last several years as the kids grow.
‘Couples need to be having these conversations from the first few months.’
The full findings were published in the journal Sex Roles.
