Six Factors That Influence Whether Dad Pulls His Weight At Home

There are many factors that may make a difference in how much work a man in a heterosexual partnership does at home. Studies say that women still do most of the housework and child-rearing, and "this is true when men and women are both employed full time and when researchers account for all types of housework, including home repairs and lawn care". But there are factors that may indicate how much a male partner might contribute to domestic work. 

The first factor is higher education. The trend tends towards men with higher education sharing more work in child care. "This pattern is partly due to the fact that higher-educated men tend to have more flexible jobs where they can, for example, leave early to pick up a sick child."

Another factor is men's beliefs about gender roles. If a man holds progressive values on gender, they are much more likely to intend on acting out those values, albeit with limited success. Interestingly, a woman's beliefs about gender roles make little difference in gender gaps. If the woman is the breadwinner of the family, this also points to men taking on more in the home, or if the woman's job is less flexible. Or, if there are scheduling mismatches between partners. Men who work in female-dominated industries also help more at home. In fact, "men employed in female-dominated fields such as nursing or human resources perform the highest levels of housework, compared to men employed in mixed-gender or male-dominated fields".

Despite all these factors, it is still the case that "regardless of the economic arrangements of heterosexual couples, men rarely perform more housework or child care than their spouses, nor do men typically drop out of the labor market when their wives work long hours, like women often do for their spouses". There's still a long way to go to equity, but we can recognize that progress has been made in closing the gender gap in recent decades.