Men are doing more around the house as women spend more time in paid work, a study has found.
An analysis of studies from 1986 to 2005 by University of Queensland researchers has found a narrowing of the gender gap when it comes to hours worked in the office and at home.
More than 2400 people were surveyed over that time and divided into those in "new traditional" partnerships where the man worked full-time and the woman worked part-time, and "dual-earner" couples where both worked full-time.
Couples who worked full-time were found to spend roughly the same amount of time in paid and unpaid work over the week, 66.88 hours for men and 67.47 hours for women in 2005.
Women were more likely to do housework than men but by 2005 the gap between them had started to close: men in 1986 were doing 12 hours less housework than women, compared to around 5.5 hours in 2005. However, paid working hours for men and women had not changed much over the time, suggesting there had been a "disinvestment" by women in the value of housework, researchers said.
Among "new traditional" families, men spent roughly 25 hours more a week in paid work but also did more domestic work as women did less housework.
Researcher Jenny Chesters said the findings showed there was a change among couples' approach to sharing work and home responsibilities. But the gender revolution may not have necessarily continued once couples have children. Women with dependent children were found to still spend similar time doing housework over the two decades, more than double the amount men spent and between 11% and 12% more than women without children.
"What's essentially happening is they are increasingly doing less paid work hours and more housework hours," Ms Chesters said. "Once they have children they are essentially choosing part-time (paid) work."
Child care-related tasks such as changing nappies and taking children to school were not included in the analysis as each study defined child care differently.
