Think about how your household or family shares household duties such as cooking, repairs, cleaning, childcare, grocery shopping, laundry, or taking children for extracurricular activities or appointments.
- Reflect on who does these duties and why. How was it decided?
- How are the different tasks valued, rewarded and acknowledged in your house?
- Watch this video about how Australian women and men divide household work and unpaid caring duties.
- Take a look at You Should’ve Asked. This comic by French artist Emma shows the pressure placed on women who often carry the ‘mental load’ of managing the household.
- Read this article by Rob Sturrock. He discusses how men and fathers can actively support equality in their home.
- Read this short piece by John Hoxie who explains why he doesn’t ‘help’ his wife with household duties.
How does it help?
Rigid gender roles and stereotypes label household and caring responsibilities as ‘women’s work’. This work is unpaid and undervalued. In Australia, women still do the majority of unpaid work. This affects their participation in the workforce, economic security, free time, and health and wellbeing.
Keep going!
You can continue to support gender equity in how your family or household divides tasks. Make sure that:
- you discuss with your household who does what unpaid work, why, and how it can be equitably shared
- women aren’t unfairly carrying the ‘mental load’ of managing the household
- all unpaid work is acknowledged, particularly caring and domestic work
- organising and performing your weekly routine, children’s extracurricular activities and special events such as birthdays, is shared equitably
- children’s tasks are distributed equitably
- caring responsibilities are distributed equitably, including weekends and school holidays.
Please note that these clips/articles contain information regarding the topics of sexism, gender inequality and violence against women. If you find the information distressing, please click through for information and support on self care. If you or someone you know is experiencing violence, please visit the our help section for further information and support.