He may leave his socks lying around and avoid emptying the dishwasher, but a new study shows husbands do as much work as their wives. |
He may leave his socks lying around and avoid emptying the dishwasher, but a new study shows husbands do as much work as their wives. London School of Economics sociologist Catherine Hakim's research shows that when both paid work and unpaid duties such as housework, care and voluntary work are taken into account, men do pull their own weight. "It's true that women do more work in the home, but overall men and women are doing the same, which is roughly eight hours per day," Hakim told Reuters. In fact, the study of how people use their time found that men in Britain spend slightly longer on "productive" work each day than women. "Feminists are wrong to claim that men should do a larger share of the housework and childcare because on average, men and women already do the same number of hours of productive work," Hakim said. She said the data overturns the long-standing theory that women work a "double shift," juggling a job with household chores, and working longer hours than their husbands. The study, "(How) can social policy and fiscal policy recognize unpaid family work?," used data from Europe-wide Time Use Surveys. "Results were similar across Europe, except in the ex-socialist European countries, where there is less of a tradition of men chipping in," Hakim said. In Scandinavian countries, men were found to work more hours than women. Hakim hopes to draw attention to the bias of government policy across Europe, which tends only to see paid jobs as real work and said there is evidence that men are beginning to demand the same options and choices as women, with more claims of sex discrimination from men. "One-sided policies that support employment and careers but ignore the productive work done in the family are, in effect, endorsing market place values over family values," she said. "Policy-makers need to be aiming for gender-neutral policies." (Agencies) |
男人可能會把襪子扔得到處都是,不愿意擺弄洗碗機,然而一項新研究顯示,丈夫干的活兒可不比妻子少。 倫敦經(jīng)濟學(xué)院的社會學(xué)家凱瑟琳?哈金姆的調(diào)查顯示,如果把有償工作和做家務(wù)、照看小孩和志愿工作這些無償工作都計算在內(nèi)的話,男性也盡到了自己的本分。 哈金姆告訴路透社說:“女性確實在家中干的活兒更多,但總體上來看男性和女性的工作量相等,每天差不多八個小時。” 事實上,這項關(guān)于人們?nèi)绾问褂脮r間的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)英國男性每天在“生產(chǎn)性的”工作上所花的時間比女性要稍長一些。 哈金姆說:“女權(quán)主義者稱男性應(yīng)該承擔(dān)更多的家務(wù)和照料小孩的工作,這種觀點是錯誤的,因為平均而言,男性和女性的生產(chǎn)性工作時間是不相上下的。” 她說這些數(shù)據(jù)推翻了長期存在的女性“兩班倒”工作的理論——即女性在工作的同時,還要照看家務(wù),比她們的丈夫工作時間更長。 這項研究的題目是《無償家務(wù)要如何得到社會和財政政策的承認?》,該研究的數(shù)據(jù)來自歐洲范圍內(nèi)關(guān)于使用時間的調(diào)查。 哈金姆說:“全歐洲的調(diào)查結(jié)果基本相似,除了前社會主義國家,那里沒有男性幫助分擔(dān)家務(wù)的傳統(tǒng)?!?/p> 調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn),在斯堪的納維亞半島上的國家,男性工作的時間比女性還長。 哈金姆希望引起人們對整個歐洲國家政策偏見的關(guān)注,現(xiàn)今的政策傾向于認為只有有償工作才是真正的工作。她還說有證據(jù)表明男性開始要求和女性擁有一樣的選擇權(quán),更多的男性稱自己遭到性別歧視。 她說:“這些政策全都一邊倒,支持就業(yè)和事業(yè)發(fā)展,忽視家庭中所做的有效工作,這事實上把市場價值凌駕于家庭價值之上了?!?/p> “決策者需要致力于制定性別平等的政策?!?/p> 相關(guān)閱讀 (中國日報網(wǎng)英語點津 陳丹妮) |
Vocabulary: pull one's weight: 盡自己的本分 juggle: to try to deal with two or more important jobs or activities at the same time so that you can fit all of them into your life 盡力同時應(yīng)付(兩個或兩個以上的重要工作或活動) chip in: to make a contribution; help in a small way 做貢獻,出一份力 endorse: to say publicly that you support a person, statement or course of action (公開)贊同,支持,認可 |