Jezebel: Housework

Men Learn To Prepare Food, Still Won't Do Laundry

Margaret Hartmann — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 23:18:00 EDT

Here's something to get excited about: Working men are doing far more chores around the house. Well actually, there's still a huge gap between the amount of time working women spend on housework compared to their male partners. We're supposed to be impressed by their effort, but when dudes start from Don Draper there's a lot of room for improvement. More »

What The Division Of Housework Does To Your Stress Levels

Irin Carmon — Fri, 20 May 2011 13:20:26 EDT

According to researchers who observed 30 dual-earner couples in Los Angeles with at least one child aged 8-10, women are screwed. More »

How To Manufacture The "Career Women Love Housework" Story

Irin Carmon — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 11:03:09 EDT

Breaking news from this morning's online news churn: "Career women" love housework, and will resist all attempts to share it. Sorry, women's libbers! That none of this holds up to any rigorous scrutiny will shock you. More »

Wisconsin Christmas Present Contains Methy Surprise

Erin Gloria Ryan — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 10:55:00 EST

A midwestern mother received a vacuum cleaner for Christmas, along with a surprise gift of $280K worth of drugs someone had stashed inside. First Clay Matthews's confusing roided-up-Fabio-joins-a-crappy-metal-band hairdo, and now this? Strange things are afoot in Green Bay. More »

Cooking & Cleaning Makes Dads Healthier & Happier

Lauri Apple — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 15:40:00 EDT

After talking to 1,100 working dads, researchers at Lancaster University learned that men feel less stressed-out when they equally share housework and childcare duties. Which means they're happiest when they do all the housework, right? Say yes. [Image stacymbass/Flickr.] More »

Busy Bachelor Seeks Part-Time Wife

Anna North — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:48:00 EDT

Sometimes a crap Craigslist ad drips with douchery aforethought — and sometimes the dude responsible just seems authentically, painfully clueless. The following missive from a currently wife-less "professional" falls into the latter camp. More »

Shut Up Feminists: Men Do Housework, Too!

Katy Kelleher — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:05:00 EDT

And now for the Worst Headline Of The Day: "The lazy husband myth: forget feminist moans, men do more than their fair share around the house," brought to you from - where else? - the Daily Fail.

The Recession Is Making Men Into Desperate Housewives

Anna North — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:42:00 EDT

According to the Observer, unemployed men have been reduced to poaching eggs, weighing edamame and — shocker — playing with children. But silly as their concerns may seem, they may be part of a larger recessionary turn toward housewifery. More »

The Stigma Of Being A Housewife

Elissa Strauss — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:14:00 EDT

Housework has always been a sticky spot for feminists. To some, it's a prison from which women have to free themselves. For others, including countless stay-at-home moms and professional domestic workers, it is work that has never earned adequate respect. More »

The Average Housewife's Workweek: Staggering Since 1947

Sadie Stein — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:40:00 EDT

"35 beds to be made, 750 items of glass/china and 400 pieces of silverware to wash, 174 lbs. of food to prepare, some 250 pieces of laundry" — it added up to some 100 hours of joy per week. [PtakScienceBooks] More »

Housework Might Induce Early Labor

Katy Kelleher — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 13:20:00 EDT

According to a new study, moms-to-be should get a break from housework. Women who performed "mentally unstimulating" work were 25% more likely to give birth prematurely. Good deal, but doesn't quite make up for the no alcohol thing. [Daily Mail] More »

Former Playboy Model Found Dead • Lost Fans Mad At Obama

Katy Kelleher — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:20:00 EST

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• Paula Sladewski, a 26-year-old former model, was found "burned beyond recognition" in a dumpster in Miami. Police are searching for the murderer. North Miami police spokesman Neal Cuevas told CNN: More »

Study Claims That Women Yell At Men Over Housework In Order To "Feel More Feminine"

Hortense Smith — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:20:00 EST

According to a study conducted at the University of Missouri, female breadwinners often go a bit overboard when it comes to nagging males about housework in order to stay connected with traditional female roles in the household. More »

Do Men Just Suck At Folding Laundry?

Sadie Stein — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:20:00 EDT

We couldn't help but wonder: More »

Is That A Mop In Your Pocket...

Sadie Stein — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:20:00 EDT

Weirdly, some research suggests that there's a correlation between the frequency of sex and...housework. Also work-work. Basically, says the WSJ, "working hard in one domain produces more energy for others." [WSJ] More »

"Housework Makes British Men More Attractive"

Anna Holmes — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:30:00 EDT

"Swedes and Norwegians topped the table while Australian men – stereotyped for their love of beer, sport, and the great outdoors – came in last... in terms of pulling their weight around the house." Hey, I beg to differ! [Telegraph] More »

What, Never?

Sadie Stein — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:20:00 EDT

What? Wendy Shalit: "The feminists never talk about this, but making dinner for a man you truly admire is not the same as sweeping around a man who is marooned on the couch, drunk and watching episodes of 24." [WSJ] More »

Retirement Bliss

Maria — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:40:00 EST

A recent survey of retired Americans by AARP revealed that although retirement means less sex, a majority of retired people say they are happier having retired. However, life is not all rose gardens and happy strolls to the local Sizzler for retired couples: 21% of those surveyed said they had more tension in their marriage after retiring and while 80% of men said they increased their housework load once they retired, only 47% of women agreed. [Reuters. Image via Flickr] More »

Domestic Disturbances

Jessica G. — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 10:45:00 EDT

A new study shows that chore-disparity between men and women still remains. Married ladies do, on average, seven more hours of cleaning than their hubbies. University of Michigan researchers found that being married saves men an hour of housework a week, while married women with children do even more than their fair share of cleaning than the female half of a childless couple. According to Reuters, scientists "found that young single women did the least amount of housework, at about 12 hours a week. Married women in their 60 and 70s did nearly twice that amount, while women with more than three children spent 28 hours a week cleaning, cooking and washing." [Reuters] More »

Do Men Who Do Housework Get Laid More?

Dodai Stewart — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:00:00 EST

"Men Who Do Housework May Get More Sex," the headline of this AP story reads. Well, duh. Anyway, a report released today by the Council on Contemporary Families states that men's contribution to housework has doubled over the past four decades. Let's hope so! Because a modern wives, as the Daily Mail so helpfully points out, are "a long way from the regimented unselfishness of the idealized wife" of the 1950s. Plus, the Telegraph reports, 59% of modern men think it's important that their woman stand up to them. Retro-submission be gone! The AP story quotes Joshua Coleman, a San Francisco-area psychologist and author of a book called The Lazy Husband: How to Get Men to Do More Parenting and Housework. He says: "If a guy does housework, it looks to the woman like he really cares about her - he's not treating her like a servant. And if a woman feels stressed out because the house is a mess and the guy's sitting on the couch while she's vacuuming, that's not going to put her in the mood." Also, guys look hot when they're doing dishes, laundry or vacuuming. That's been established. More »

Dudes Don't Mind If A Lady Brings Home The Bacon

Jessica G. — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:30:00 EST

A new survey from Elle and MSNBC about the monetary state of your unions shows that the vast majority of men don't care if their wives make more money than they do. Only 12% of men say that they would be resentful of a wife who out-earned them, and, according to Stephanie Coontz, director of research for the Council on Contemporary Families, this represents "a real sea change that's going on in gender roles." But the picture is not necessarily as rosy as Coontz paints it. 30% of women who do make more than their husbands claim traditional gender role reversal isn't always easy. MSNBC quotes a 31 year-old woman who makes twice what her husband makes, and she says, "It is hard on my husband and on me that I'm the primary breadwinner in our home... I think it's hard for both of us to accept that we're in non-traditional roles." More »

Love To Cook? You're Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't

Moe — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 16:30:29 EDT

Today we commemorated the passing of the author of the trailblazing I Hate To Cook Book — Sample passage: "Add the flour, salt, paprika and mushrooms, stir, and let it cook five minutes while you light a cigarette and stare sullenly at the sink." — by reading the rants of a bunch of women who love to cook about why, despite centuries of seemingly contrary societal conditioning, all the people who are famous for cooking always seem to be men:

I think women cook different food, and I think women cook better food. It's more from the heart and more from the soul. I look at this whole molecular-gastronomy thing, and I'm like, "Boys with toys." They're just fascinated with technology and chemistry sets. I think we make better-tasting food. I'm sorry, I know that's politically incorrect.

And although we always strive for political correctness here at Jez we're gonna excerpt some other scandalous bits from the article because we should really get to the bottom of this. More »

Housework: Are You More Like A Fifties Wife Or A Fifties Husband About It?

Moe — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:00:53 EDT

It's apparently unofficial International Housework Week, because like literally every media outlet has run stories on housework — it's liberating! it leads to respiratory diseases! It's a college major! it's a dying art! — so Anna's making me do a post on it. Which, well... to quote my roommate: "You? Housework? What do you know about housework??" And you know, I like to to think of myself as a cluttered-but-clean person, so I ran into my room (the only place in the apartment untouched by her tendencies to "VirGo Crazy" as they put it) and wiped as much crap off the floors — including under the bed! — and other dust-inclined surfaces and yielded, I'm slightly ashamed to say, a clump of nastiness Anna made me put after the jump. More »